Thank you to Professor Popp for yet again teaching the course “Service Management” to the MBA students !
In recent years, we have witnessed a major evolution in societies from being predominantly manufacturing-based to being predominantly service-based. Services have become critical for competitive advantage in all kinds of organizations in all kinds of industries and branches. For traditional manufacturers, like Siemens, Asea Brown Boveri, General Electric or IBM, services have been becoming one of their primary growth and profitability strategies. Recent publications in business and management increasingly focus on service as the main reason of economic exchange and therefore promote the view that at their core “all businesses are service businesses.”
This course focuses on the challenges of managing services and delivering quality service to customers and introduce key concepts and tools of service management. Moreover, the course will challenge participants to rethink how companies should manage their services in building their competitive strength and profitability.
The course is equally applicable to traditional service companies, i.e. for-profit organizations (e.g.: banks, transportation companies, hotels, educational institutions, professional services, telecommunication, tourism etc.) as well as public/non-profit organizations (e.g.: hospitals, NGOs, schools, public agencies, theatres, museums, etc.). Moreover, the ideas presented in the course are valuable for any kind of organization that is open to take on a service perspective on their business and core competences. The contents of the course will be applied in case studies and tutorials.
Module M5-1: Service Management
Key objectives of the course include an understanding of services and service as well as being able to apply key concepts and tools in service management.
- Explain what services are, describe the central role of services in an economy, and critically discuss the perspectives of the service logic and the service-dominant logic.
- Evaluate and apply service models on service business problems.
- Critically discuss the competitive environment of services, formulate a strategic service vision, apply strategic service analyses and understand the strategic dimension of customer relationships in service management.
- Identify core concepts of consumer behaviour and related service models that are specific to understand how services are evaluated.
- Conceptualize and measure service quality.
- Understand the contribution of different actors and manage people.
- Relate service management activities to the concept of service profitability.
- Become a more perceptive and effective manager (and consumer) through understanding the complexities of service design, delivery, and communication.
- Develop further communication skills and critical thinking about services through learning activities, teamwork, in-class discussions, presentations and other assignments.
