Course Description
An exploration of best practices in the service sector by analysis of leading-edge firms and the strategies they employ to create and maintain competitive advantage. Emphasis is placed on the close coordination of marketing and operations in the design and implementation of service delivery processes.
Athena Title
SERVICE OPS MGT
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in EMBA 8750
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course aims to develop a better understanding of best practices in the service sector, and to provide leading-edge examples of innovative firms and the strategies they have employed to create and maintain competitive advantage. By studying "breakthrough" service firms, students can understand how these enterprises use information technology and globalization to reinvent the nature of the service itself, with alternative delivery systems, new and creative ways of meeting customer needs, and operating strategies that seemingly defy geographic logic. The specific objectives of this course include the following: (1) To highlight those elements of management of particular importance to service-producing as opposed to goods-producing organizations, including (i) the close coordination of marketing and operations in the design and implementation of service delivery processes in which the same person may produce and sell the service, (ii) the development of human and technical skills among employees, and the selection, training, and motivation of people who represent the most important point of contact between the organization and the customer, (iii) the challenge of managing a geographically diverse, multi-site operation, (iv) the role of technology, in particular information technology, in changing the nature of the service delivered and/or the way in which the service is delivered, and (v) the management of capacity and quality in situations where a service is created and consumed simultaneously. (2) To encourage analytical thinking about services, and develop practical conceptual and empirical tools that can be used to enhance the performance of service-producing organizations. (3) To foster an active, constructively critical posture as customers of services, with the objective of motivating service providers to improve service quality.
Topical Outline
1. Introduction 2. Developing a Strategic Service Vision 3. The Economics of Customer Loyalty 4. Mobilizing Human Resources 5. The Service Profit Chain 6. Service Mapping and Capacity Analysis 7. Leveraging Information Technology in Services 8. The Globalization of Services 9. Service Quality 10. Recovering from Service Failures 11. Service Guarantees 12. Reinventing Service Businesses 13. Achieving Breakthrough Service
Syllabus
Public CV