Professional service firms differ from other business enterprises in two distinct ways: first they provide highly customised services thus cannot apply many of the management principles developed for product-based industries. Second, professional services are highly personalised, involving the skills of individuals. Such firms must therefore compete not only for clients but also for talented professionals. Drawing on more than ten years of research and consulting to these unique and creative companies, David Maister explores issues ranging from marketing and business development to multinational strategies, human resources policies to profit improvement, strategic planning to effective leadership. While these issues can be complex, Maister simplifies them by recognising that 'every professional service firm in the world, regardless of size, specific profession, or country of operation, has the same mission statement: outstanding service to clients, satisfying careers for its people and financial success for its owners.'

`Bill Hollins continues his practical investigation of design in the service sector. In this new book with Sadie Shinkins, he provides a down to earth approach to an important topic in the field′ - Naomi Gornick, Honorary Professor, University of Dundee Guiding readers through each stage in the design and implementation of service operations, this book combines lively examples that are easy to relate to with clearly explained theory. Throughout, chapters contain pedagogical features that will help students to get the most from the ideas and examples being presented in the book. They include: - Chapter objectives; - Short cases; - Student exercises; - Chapter summaries; - Further reading section; - A glossary of key terms.

Managing Local Government Services, 3rd ed. is a comprehensive text on the subject of local government services relevant to local governments of all sizes. This edition is refocused and updated to include the demographic, economic, technology and cultural trends that affect the management of service delivery. New chapters discuss the shift from ¿government¿ to ¿governance,¿ alternative methods of service delivery, community development, and the five management practices that are fast becoming the standard for professional local government management.Each chapter lays out the manager¿s responsibilities in each service area, and provides effective policies, practices, and procedures. Short case examples give you a practical look at the goals, challenges, and solutions in the manager¿s world.

The book is a collection of perspectives on service and service management written by leading researchers in the field. It considers the range and importance of services, the challenges of managing services and recent contemporary innovations in services and service management.

This book focuses on complex services, that is, services embodying the knowledge and capabilities of professionals, sought because of the client’s lack of knowledge or skills in specialized fields. This book is also concerned with the many organizations, such as hospitals and banks, that provide services requiring a mixture of professional and other services to produce the results that customers or clients need. Professionals, semi-professionals, and technical workers laboring in all spheres of human endeavor, from law to medicine, accounting to engineering, social work to architecture, who are involved or are interested in taking part in managing their businesses, small or large, will find this book an invaluable tool in achieving success. This third edition comes with an augmented value proposition: as you read and try to understand and experiment with the material, you are invited at various points to view video clips, lasting between 15 and 25 minutes, that will clarify, complement, illustrate, or go further than what you are reading.

The increasing importance of industrial services and rapid digitalization towards smart and remote services pose opportunities as well as challenges to the manufacturing sector. This book provides a holistic understanding of industrial service management and guides companies into building capabilities and management practices for smart and remote services. By combining insights from research and practice, it offers a unique perspective on the core and enabling activities of manufacturing companies for growth in the service business. In essence, the first part covers action-based research findings regarding service strategy, organizational design, service innovation, service sales, services operations, and customer relationship management together with insights into value networks. The second part introduces outstanding practices from leading manufacturing companies in industrial and smart services. The book concludes with a summary of key messages and recommendations to navigate the landscape of industrial and smart service management successfully.