| SERVICE STRATEGY |
| Title |
Author(s) |
Key Concepts |
Comments |
|
Consumption Economics
|
J.B. Wood
Todd Hewlin
Thomas E. Lah
|
Margin wall, risk shift, micro-transactions, consumption services, consumerization of IT
|
The true impact of the cloud and the consumerization of enterprise IT won’t be about products. It’s their disruptive effect on existing business models that will cause the real upheaval to the industry status quo.
|
|
Complexity Avalanche
|
J.B. Wood |
Consumption gap, results-based differentiation, driving customer success, technology adoption, value added service |
An innovative new approach for companies in IT, consumer electronics, office products, medical technology, and other complex technology markets to better map their services portfolio to their customers’ true need: getting value from the product. |
|
Bridging the Services Chasm
|
Thomas E. Lah |
Product-service revenue mix, services-strategies profiles, the services chasm, service strategy alignment |
A comprehensive framework companies can use to make critical service strategy decisions. Leverages a combination of public record, unique survey data, and direct interaction to clearly define the critical role services will now play in the success of product companies. |
|
Dealing with Darwin
|
Geoffrey Moore |
Concepts: Foundational Models, Managing Innovation, Managing Inertia |
An in-depth analysis of strategies for competitive advantage and case study on Cisco Systems’ approach to innovation. |
|
Blue Ocean Strategy
|
W. Chan Kim
Renee Mauborgne |
Blue ocean opportunities, red oceans, strategy canvas, tipping point leaders, new value curve, adoption hurdles, price corridor, visualizing strategy, strategic price, uncontested market space |
Kim and Mauborgne's blue ocean metaphor elegantly summarizes their vision of the kind of expanding, competitor-free markets that innovative companies can navigate. Unlike "red oceans," which are well explored and crowded with competitors, "blue oceans" represent "untapped market space" and the "opportunity for highly profitable growth." |
| SERVICE CULTURE |
| Title |
Author(s) |
Key Concepts |
Comments |
|
The Innovator's Dilemma
|
Clayton M. Christensen |
The impact company structure and culture has on incubating new strategies |
Findings are directly applicable to what happens when product-centric companies attempt to incubate a professional services business. |
|
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?
|
Louis Gerstner, Jr. |
Discusses the three key challenges of strategy, structure, and culture. |
Gerstner’s perspective of IBM’s transition from a product-centric company to solution-centric. Wonderful read. |
|
The Power of Alignment
|
George Labovitz
Victor Rosansky |
Vertical and Horizontal Alignment |
Discusses how to align company efforts, from top down. |
| SERVICE MANAGEMENT |
| Title |
Author(s) |
Key Concepts |
Comments |
|
Mastering Professional Services
|
Thomas E. Lah |
Services Strategy Design, Practical tools and techniques to a manage technical professional services organization |
The first book to guide a company through the process of designing a viable services strategy that complements a broader company portfolio. |
|
Building Professional Services
|
Thomas E. Lah
Mitch Peterson
Steve O'Connor
Harris Kern |
Creating professional services organizations, Managing them to maturity, Delivering both quality services and superior margins |
Introduces a complete, practical framework for delivering the full spectrum of professional services--from support and education services to managed, consulting, and productized services. |
|
Product Plus
|
Christopher Lovelock |
Solid overview of helpful frameworks for managing a services business. Great insights on: -Service Quality -Service Delivery Systems -Creating customer value |
Book is heavily weighted on the “marketing” and “customer experience” side of the equation. Very little information on how to structure and scale delivery capabilities. |
|
Managing the Professional Service Firm
|
David Maister |
Stakeholder needs
Leverage & Profitability
Profitability Tactics
|
A wonderful introduction to the challenges of managing a service firm. |
|
The Rise of the Project Workforce
|
Rudolf Melik |
Project Management, Project Governance, Workforce Planning |
Disciplines, technology, and tools required to execute projects and initiatives in today’s business climate. |
|
Reaching the Goal
|
John Arthur Ricketts |
Throughput accounting, strategic resource buffers,
service mix decisions, resource constraints, unbalanced capacity, net consumption,
elastic capacity
|
Ricketts draws on Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC), adapting it to the needs of today’s professional, scientific, and technical services businesses. Reveals how to identify the surprising constraints that limit an organization’s performance, execute more effectively within those constraints, and then loosen or even eliminate them. |
| SERVICES MARKETING |
| Title |
Author(s) |
Key Concepts |
Comments |
|
United We Brand
|
Mike Moser |
Brand Attributes Brand Personality Brand Cohesion Brand Roadmap |
Provides a step-by-step process for defining your brand positioning. |
|
Marketing Professional Services
|
Philip Kotler |
Services
Marketing
Marketing Mix
Pricing
Strategies |
Introduction to the activities associated with marketing services. Geared toward traditional professional service firms such as Law, but still contains concepts applicable to marketing other types of professional services. |
| SELLING SERVICES |
| Title |
Author(s) |
Key Concepts |
Comments |
|
Getting into Your Customer's Head
|
Ken Davis |
The eight roles in the buy-learning wheel |
Provides a great model to understand the various roles a consultant plays for the customer. |
|
Selling the Invisible
|
Harry Beckwith |
Pointers on positioning and selling services |
|
|
How Customers Think
|
Gerald Zaltman |
Insights on how to ask the right questions when doing market research. |
|
| PARTNER AND CHANNEL |
| Title |
Author(s) |
Key Concepts |
Comments |
Getting Partnering Right
|
Neil Rackham
Lawrence Friedman
Richard Ruff |
Three ingredients to a successful partnership
Partner selection |
Discusses the three ingredients required for partnerships to be successful. Very relevant to professional services organizations that are partnering to deliver complete solutions to customers. |
The Channel Advantage
|
Lawrence Friedman
Timothy Furey |
Channel costs
Channel attributes
Channel capacity
Channel mix |
Practical framework for assessing what channel mix is appropriate for the services organization. |
| METRICS AND QUALITY |
| Title |
Author(s) |
Key Concepts |
Comments |
|
The Balanced Scorecard
|
Robert S. Kaplan
David P. Norton |
Four point balanced scorecard |
Introduces four categories that a business should create metrics around: Financial, Customer, Internal Processes, Learning |
|
Lean Six Sigma for Service
|
Michael L. George |
Time traps, creating pull, queuing theory, process cycle efficiency, time value map, value stream map, average completion rate, cost driver analysis, positive economic profit, stream mapping |
Fills the need for a service-based approach to Six Sigma and Lean, explaining how companies of all types can cost-effectively translate manufacturing-oriented Lean Six Sigma tools into the service delivery process. |
| SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND IP MANAGEMENT |
| Title |
Author(s) |
Key Concepts |
Comments |
Intellectual Capital
|
Leif Edvinsson |
Hidden sources of value Intellectual Capital financial equation |
Discusses the three ingredients required for partnerships to be successful. Very relevant to professional services organizations that are partnering to deliver complete solutions to customers. |
|
Revolutionizing Product Development
|
Steven C. Wheelwright
Kim B. Clark |
Definition of effective product development life cycle. |
Opportunity to apply best practice product development techniques to services development. |
|
The Success Case Method
|
Robert Brinkerhoff |
Methodology for identifying and documenting how your most successful employees are getting the job done. |
The SCM approach is practical and relevant to any service organization that is attempting to document and justify best practice methodologies. |
