Service Innovation Gets the Attention it Deserves
The critical role of services has been recognized by many corporations for a number of years but is still not quite understood. In response to that gap, IBM and Oracle launched the Service Research & Innovation Initiative last week, a consortium that will aim to bring the concept of service innovation top of mind with executives and evolve it into a common business practice.
This is especially important when a large percentage of the U.S. GNP comes from services. If most of our wealth is created by services, why do we know so little about managing service innovation? Too often companies focus on innovating customer transactions rather than the entire customer lifecycle.
Hopefully this focus on service innovation will create a new ideology in business and as a result, a growing number of companies will begin to respond to consumers' growing demand of services as a value ad to products.
