Service Innovation: The Next Big Thing

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/mar2007/id20070329_376916.htm

This is an article from Business Week by Reena Jana from March 2007. The focus of the article is the importance of Service Innovation in business today. The focus is shifting from product innovation to service innovation as the next hot area. Service innovation is not a new or unheard of subject; it is simply more hidden and often looked over when thinking of inventions and innovations. The article provides the example of Thomas Edison’s light bulb invention. “People don’t tend to think of the related service innovations—getting light bulbs into houses and schools, setting prices for the electricity services to keep them lit. That’s all service innovation.” IBM has recognized the importance of service innovation in the last few years. To connect with other companies developing service innovation, they contacted the Technology Professional Services Assn. and the Services & Support Professionals Assn. They used the idea that service innovation is not a “one-company thing” but something that can be developed more fully in a community.

The article also discusses the Service Research & Innovation (SRI) initiative, a nonprofit founded by executives of IBM and Oracle. Having an information resource like the initiative will hopefully make service innovation a more common practice in business. The initiative should be more effective than earlier service innovation groups due to its future online social-networking and public archive features. The article does recognize the fact that service innovation will not grow overnight success and that it is a very broad field. Service innovation is the new playing field of business that is receiving a great deal of recognition even in academia. Service innovation is something that all companies should be working to develop, if they have not already, and the SRI Initiative offers up suggested paths of action for companies hoping to jump on this bandwagon.