Monthly Archives: May 2011

Having worked for almost 35 years, I believe I’m entitled to say that I am a service veteran.

From the early days of quality management and to operations and service management and as a successor CRM en Customer Experience.

Regular readers of this blog probably will probably have noticed that in the last year I stressed the importance of amongst others Design Thinking and Service Design.

And now I will add another topic: Open Services Innovation.

Having noticed my passionate blogging about innovation in customer service,  various readers and followers mentioned the relevance of Henry Chesbrough‘s latest book Open Services Innovation.  And yes, after having read it (and consumed it like an awesome Gigondas) it is time for me to write my thoughts and impressions.

As mentioned before: Open innovation is one of the hottest topics in strategy and management in the last 5 years.  And any author that creates noteworthy insights for me in the field of marketing and management of services deserves my full- professional and personal –  attention.

And having read the book, I believe Open Services Innovation deserves your attention too.

Henry Chesbrough is professor and executive director of the Center for Open innovation at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkely. Some of his earlier books were received very well in the business and academic world. Professor Chesbrough is rated by Scientific American as one of its Top 50 business and technology leaders.

His latest book offers you a framework to spur innovation and growth within a services perspectives.  The importance of open services innovation for society, nations and companies is outlined. In a world, more and more consisting  of commoditization,  the outlined approach might avoid that commodity trap.

Regular readers of my blog are aware of my belief that avoiding  the commodity trap is a  prerequisite but not sufficient.  Focusing on real relationships or acknowledging the facts that relationships are gone is also of my firm beliefs (The book does not explore the relationship aspect. However, that omission is not even considered to be a minor flaw.)

The book outlines a framework consisting of these elements:.

• Think of your business as a service business
• C0-create with your customers
• Extend servcies innovation outside your company
• Transform your business model with services.

The author  explores the elements of his framework and gives many examples. Often, one reads  about corporate dinosaurs. I liked the inclusion of a chapter of open services innovation in smaller companies and a chapter of open services innovation in services.  Those who are familiar with knowledge management may find elements of knowledge management  in some of the chapters. I hope that in a revised edition the aspect of knowledge management is more elaborated.

The outlined framework enables one to integrate many of the emerging concept in the field of marketing and management of services (service dominant logic, David Roger’s the customer is your network, co-creation, business model innovation and service dominant logic).   Reading this book created  valuable insights for me how  these concepts can be applied more effective in any service environment.

The core

The book is divided into two parts. Part one develops the conceptual framework and approach to Open Services Innovation. Part Two described applications and examples of open services innovation in a variety of industries, geographies and contexts.

My rating

4,5 stars on a scale 0-5.

This book contans an excellent framework of of open services innovation. It offers instructive examples lessons for larger and smaller companies, services business and emerging economies.

For me as a person and as a professional this book created hope.

A firm belief that – having just started – we will be able to innovate services for customers, companies and even society.

And may be that is the start out of the crisis.

Lots of  cases that inspires one, presented simply.

This book is recommended reading for anyone who is interested in transforming her or his services operations to a a level, more in accordance with the challenges of these days.  It is up to you how that knowledge and information will be applied by you  to achieve your business, professioanl or personal goals.

Photocredit:  urbanbixi

Related articles

• Why Open Innovation Hype is a Good Thing (business-strategy-innovation.com)
• How Open Innovation Can Empower ‘Creatives’ – Henry Chesbrough – Open Innovation – Forbes (serve4impact.com)
• Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing on the Rise (business-strategy-innovation.com)
• The Open Innovation Guru: A Discussion with Henry Chesbrough | InnovationManagement (serve4impact.com)