Institute Faculty

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Technology Creates New Winners and Losers

R. Gary Bridge, Ph.D.
Formerly Senior Vice President and Global Lead, Internet Business Solutions Group
Cisco Systems
Snow Creek Advisors LLC

Everything in the global business environment is evolving: the macro economy (the lower expectations of the "new normal"), customers' decision making, employees' skills and expectations (which vary by generation), potential competitors (which may come from outside the category), and government regulation (which is transforming healthcare, financial services, and energy sectors). These changes are a direct result of digitization - the fifth wave of the Industrial Revolution that began around 1760.  While 

This session identifies important trends and describes the implications for business strategies, service design, organizational structure, and customer communications.  Rapid change presents rare opportunities for innovation that will determine new winners—and losers.  This session:

• Examines key market transition cases - examples of both success and failure - and offers lessons for coping effectively with technology-driven change
• Identifies the emerging technologies that promise the most productivity gains for Service companies
• Shows where new business models are most likely to appear and how these models challenge incumbents to innovate
• Describes the three phases of innovation, identifies the points where failures occur most often, and illustrates how successful innovators operate
• Provides a framework for you to assess your organization's readiness to deploy technology effectively
  

Building a Culture of Customer Service Excellence

Steve Church
Senior Vice President, Corporate Business Development and Planning
Avnet, Inc.

presenting with Terry Cain
Vice President, Global Customer Engagement
Avnet, Inc.

Many companies are coming to the realization that one of the few ways they can truly differentiate themselves today is through providing a better experience for their customers than their competitors. And our research indicates that most companies have a segment of their employees who understand this, and deliver great service every day. We call them "Heroes." However, we also know that it takes an entire organization to deliver a great customer experience on a consistent basis, and just one employee can derail that experience.

This session focuses on how Avnet is moving from Heroes to a Culture of Customer Service Excellence, where every employee understands their role in delivering a consistently great customer experience, whether they are a front-line employee interfacing with customers every day, or in the back office.

Frameworks and Tools

Service Blueprinting: Building Services from the Customer's Point of View

Amy Ostrom, Ph.D.
Professor of Marketing
W. P. Carey School of Business Arizona State University

Time and money are often spent revamping business processes, yet they still do not meet the needs of the firm or customers. Why? Because the customer's perspective is left out. Amy will describe the components of service blueprints, outline the design steps, and help you learn how to apply blueprinting to your company. Service blueprinting:

• Injects the customer's experience and point of view
• Helps address the challenges of delivering intangible services
• Brings cross-unit and cross-functional teams together
• Provides a common understanding of "what we offer"

Excelling at Service(s) by Closing the Gaps

Mary Jo Bitner, Ph.D.
PetSmart Chair in Services Leadership and Professor of Marketing
Executive Director, Center for Services Leadership
W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

All businesses are service businesses - whether they recognize it or not. And the most successful ones have figured out how to align their marketing, operations and people strategies around the customer. Yet, most firms are not quite there, or are just beginning their services transformation. You will learn a process for closing the gaps between where you are and where you want to be on your services journey through:

• Knowing what your customers expect
• Designing, delivering and measuring based on customer expectations
• Delivering quality service every time
• Matching what you promise withwhat you actually do

Service Expertise Topics

Growing Service Solutions

Stephen W. Brown, Ph.D.
Edward M. Carson Chair in Services Marketing, Emeritus  and Distinguished Faculty
Center for Services Leadership Arizona State University and
Strategic Partner, The INSIGHT Group

Most companies are seeking innovative ways to grow profitable revenue. Growing services revenue has much appeal, and yet, most companies struggle in making the significant adjustments needed within their organizations to grow services and solutions. Based on CSL sponsored research, a) a novel Service Infusion Continuum will be presented and b) best practices will be shared on how companies are growing services and solutions.  The challenges and the changes being made inside companies and their results in the marketplace will be featured.

ISS Iceland: A Praise Initiative

Roger Hallowell, Ph.D.
Affiliated Professor of Strategy
HEC Paris

There is no better way to find out what to do - or what not to do - to use services strategically than to delve into the inner workings of a service firm. Former Harvard Business School Professor Roger Hallowell will lead you through a thought - provoking case study taught in the classic Harvard business case style. Roger will draw you and your classmates into a high-level, interactive discussion to discover:

• The key ingredients in using services effectively as a competitive strategy
• The importance of sound leadership and decision making to create a service company's game plan
• The ways a company's service culture and service offerings can affect the customer experience

Overcoming Barriers to Change Within the Organization

Douglas Olsen, Ph.D.
Faculty Director, Associate Professor of Marketing
W. P. Carey School of Business
Arizona State University

Sometimes the biggest obstacles we face with a given change initiative, service or otherwise, are forces from within our own organization.  This session will consider thse forces in light of the Comprehensive Change Model, developed by the presenter in his book The 5 Laws of Innovation Success: Generating Critical Momentum for Products, Services and Ideas.  Specifically this session will examine: the three different levels of value communication; decreasing teh stability associated with the existing system; and, reducing the fear/uncertainty surrounding the new offering.

Reinventing the Wheel: The Science of Creating Lifetime Customers

Chris Zane.
President
Zane's Cycles

Everyone knows that acquiring new customers is considerably more expensive than maintaining a relationship with existing ones, but do you know what the lifetime value of one customer is to your bottom line?  In this interactive and engaging session, we will explore the answer to that question.  We will also examine how to:

• Develop an inspiring and unique approach to customer relationship marketing that has resulted in 25% annual growth for 29 years for Zane’s Cycles.
• Understand the psychology of today’s customers
• Reinvent your organization with the tools needed to build trusting lifetime relationships in the B2C and B2B market

Services Leadership Institute Faculty Director

Douglas Olsen, Ph.D.
Faculty Director, Associate Professor of Marketing
W. P. Carey School of Business
Arizona State University

Prior to joining ASU, Professor Olsen served both as a professor and as the Associate Dean of MBA Programs at the University of Alberta. Douglas has been active in both graduate and undergraduate programs and teaches marketing strategy, research methodology and marketing communication. He has been an instructor in a broad range of executive development programs related to business strategy as well as public consultation. Over the past two decades, his dedication to teaching has been recognized with numerous awards for instructional excellence. On a pragmatic level, Douglas has been actively involved in consultation to both government and private enterprise and currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee for Leger Research. His research has been presented at over 30 conferences in Canada, the United States, Europe, South America and Australia. He is a member of the Association for Consumer Research and the American Marketing Association.