Service Operation Management

Session 3
Topic 2
Service Concept and Customer perspective
 Competitive Role of Information and Information
Technology in Services

Information in any Service Organization

• Represents large percentage of cost structure to manage and store
Example: A hospital captures, stores and process information on patient records,
physical notes, test results and insurance claims
• Determine the relative bargaining power of players.
Example: Auto dealers can have information on types of repairs the customers
ask for their auto vehicles. Such information can act as a source to achieve
competitiveness by taking action on changing design of vehicles or improving the
parts and components which seeks frequent repair.

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 Competitive Role of Information and Information
Technology in Services

The retailers of supermarket have information on the sales of different products which
can be acquired by various companies supplying to supermarkets to analyze customer’s
preferences or choices or buying behavior.
• Act as a glue that holds the whole value chain.
Information Technology forms Basis to Achieve Competitive Advantage
• IT based entry barrier. American Airlines introduced SABRE reservation system
which altered industry structure by creating switching costs among reservation agents.
It helped American airlines to achieve higher level of capacity utilization than its
competitors.
• IT helps in eliminating cost and time utilized for manually undertaking repetitive
tasks of information processing. This helps in reducing overall cost and companies can
exhibit overall low cost strategy.

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 Competitive Role of Information and Information
Technology in Services
• IT can be utilized to merge various services like banking and insurance to provide
differential service products with large variety.
• IT helps in achieving lower overall costs by avoiding traditional distribution channels
and by avoiding physical search of suppliers and buyers.
Examples
1. Many software vendors or anti-virus vendors use internet to distribute software
with some subscription fee.
2. E-market place helps in searching for suppliers and buyers and conduct auctions
to finalize deals over internet.

Example
Walmart utilizes point of sales data with item-by-item sales to plan for reordering of
inventory. Walmart’s stores are linked to the suppliers for automatic reordering with
visible information on available inventory.
So, as compared to the competitors, Walmart tie up less money in the inventory.
 Teaching Plan
Session Particulars Reference Book
Service Operation Management
Overview of Service Operations by Johnston
The session will enable the students to understand: Chapter 1
1 • Operations Management
• What are services
• What are Service Operations Management
• Importance of service operations management
Service Operation Management
Introductory CASELET Singapore General Hospital by Johnston
Service Concept and Customer perspective Chapter 2
The session will enable the students to understand:
2
• Service concept
• Understanding Customer Perspective
• Challenges for types of service

Operations Management for

Introductory CASELET – SouthWest Airline competitive Advantage by Chase
Strategic Positioning and Service Strategy Chapter 7
The session will enable the students to understand: Service Operation Management
3 • The concepts of operations strategy by Johnston
• How an operations strategy can contribute to the Chapter 15
sustainable competitiveness of the business
 Learning Objective

This session will enable you to understand:

• The concepts of operations strategy
• How an operations strategy can contribute to the sustainable
competitiveness of the business

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 SouthWest Airline

SouthWest Airlines is a US organisation that many budget airlines have copied in recent
years. There are a number of reasons for its continued success but first and foremost
SouthWest delivers the concept of low-cost, dependable transportation incredibly well.
They understand that what passengers want is not airport to airport transport but rather
door to door. They also understand that competition comes in the form of buses and cars
rather than other airlines.
In order to deliver this proposition, SouthWest Airlines have focused on cost and
dependability as the heart of their operations strategy. Key decision areas were
 Using secondary airports (lower cost and less congestion delivering
dependability)
 Using short haul flights with no interconnections (dependability)
 Use of one type of plane (lower maintenance and crewing costs)
 Direct booking only (low cost – and greater visibility of demand)
 Choice of routes with potential to grow volume (cost and dependability).

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 SouthWest Airline

The additional stroke of genius with SouthWest Airlines is that even though this is a
high-volume, standardised service, they have managed to create a customer-focused
culture with some life to it!
As the CEO of SouthWest Airlines, Gary Kelly, stated, ‘Our people are our single
greatest strength and most enduring long-term competitive advantage’.
SouthWest concentrates on building relationships, both internal and external, and this
is their leadership focus. It is perhaps no surprise that other low-cost airlines can copy
the product but not the experience!

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SouthWest Airline

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 Activity Mapping: Airline’s Low Cost Competitive
Advantage

Courteous, but limited

passenger service

Lean, productive Short haul, point-to-point

employees routes, often to secondary
airports
Competitive Advantage:
Low Cost
High aircraft Frequent, reliable
utilization schedules
Standardized fleet of
Boeing 737 aircraft

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Strategy Making Hierarchy

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Operations Strategy – Designing the Operations Function
An Example

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Operations Strategy – Designing the Operations Function
An Example

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Corporate Strategy and Key Operations Management
Decisions

Corporate
Corporate strategy
strategy

Market analysis

Competitive priorities

New
New Service/
Service/
No
Product
Product Development
Development
Performance
Gap?
Yes
Business strategy

Operations strategy Capabilities

Decisions
• Managing Processes
• Managing Value Chains
 STRATEGIC POSITIONING

• Operational effectiveness is not Strategy. The main problem is the failure by some
organization to distinguish between operational effectiveness (OE) and Strategy.
• OE is performing similar activities better than rivals.
E.g.: Reducing defects in products/services
• Strategic Positing is performing different activities from rivals or performing similar
activities in different ways.
• A company can outperform rivals if it can establish a difference that it can preserve.
E.g. Japanese companies rarely have strategy
• Strategic positioning lays the groundwork for building brand awareness or help
focusing on efforts to build better products.
• Strategic positioning is all about establishing a direction in organization’s vision and
proactively seeking ways that vision can be met.

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Operational Effectiveness Vs Strategic Positioning

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17
 WHY DO ORGANIZATIONS NEED STRATEGY?

• Without a Strategy
‒ time and resources are easily wasted
‒ there’s no formal structure about mission, objective and tactics
‒ critical activities are ignored
‒ Internal employees perform tasks that don’t bring any value
• Strategy provides a path or direction and a destination to aim for by
defending and sustaining competition.
‒ Strategy helps the organizations to focus on core competencies
‒ Strategy provides meaning for the members of an organization as well
as outsiders
• A properly designed strategy reduces uncertainty and provides consistency
in organizing and dealing with experiences.
• How a Manager perceive the relationships among actions, context and
performance which helps in making specific business decisions

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 Service strategy
A service strategy is required to be in place because service organizations need to
take decisions like:
‒ Who will be the customers?
‒ What can be offered to the potential customers which competitors do not?
‒ On which customer desires will a service organization compete? Within my
cost constraints to survive
‒ How will the business grow?
‒ Why a service organization should be the first choice of customer?
‒ Are customer’s expectations aligned with the service concept?
‒ Do customers see value in service product? How to create value?
Who do you think can be key contributor to strategy development?

Today, the key contributors to strategy development must include those in

constant contact with market requirements: the customer-facing staff.
They often have advance information as to customer likes and dislikes, and
about the way that customers’ tastes are changing.
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 Key components of a strategy
Five critical elements of strategy are the creation of corporate objectives, an
understanding of the environment, the development of an appropriate service
concept, the identification of appropriate operations performance objectives, and the
development of an appropriate operation

These provide
the targets or
goals for the
strategy
People, processes,
Environment needs to be
structure, performance
understood to assess the
measurement systems,
opportunities that it might
supply chains etc.., may
afford, the likely response of
have to be developed
other organisations and the
and changed to
reaction of customers to
implement the strategy
change.

The service concept helps the

Provide the means by
organisation focus on the
which a strategy is
value that it can provide to
translated into operations
customers.
language, setting out the
priorities for the operation

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 Strategy: Harnessing Five Elements
Corporate objectives. These provide the targets or goals for the strategy. If a strategy is
a set of plans or policies to meet objectives, there needs to be a statement of those
objectives. In part the objectives provide the motivation for change, but they also set
out the size and speed of change. Such a statement is an important step in making the
change ‘public’ so that employees are made aware of what is expected of them. In
essence the objectives set out the parameters for change.
Environment. All organisations operate in a context and that environment needs to be
understood to assess not only the opportunities that it might afford but also the likely
response of other organisations and the reaction of customers to change.
Service concept. This identifies the nature of the service. The service concept helps the
organisation focus on the value that it can provide to customers.
Performance objectives. These provide the means by which a strategy is translated into
operations language, setting out the priorities for the operation. Together with the
service concept they specify the task for operations.
Operation. People, processes, structure, performance measurement systems, supply
chains etc. – the operation – may have to be developed and changed to implement the
strategy. Also the operation may provide the impetus for change through its current, or
potential, capability.

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Customer Criteria for Selecting a Service Provider
What is your criteria for selecting a particular service provider?

• Availability (24 hour ATM)

• Convenience (Site location)
• Dependability (On-time performance)
• Personalization (Know customer’s name)
• Quality (Perceptions important)
• Reputation (Word-of-mouth)
• Safety (Customer well-being)
• Speed (Avoid excessive waiting
 Levels of Service–Competitive Dimension
A service organization can be rated as Qualifiers, service winners or
service losers based on the service competition dimension
Levels of Service–Competitive Dimension
An Example
 Order Qualifiers, Order Winners and Order Losers
Example
Taking a group of children to lunch

Order Qualifier: Burgers and fries available

Order Winner: A cool toy is given with the meal
Order Loser: Bad tasting food, soggy fries etc.

You have moved into a new city and want to open a bank account
Order Qualifier: ATM access, online banking, phone banking
Order Winner: No minimum balance, no ATM fees for other banks, ATM
Order Loser: No ATM access, no online access
Create value to achieve competitive edge

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 ELEMENTS OF SERVICE VALUE
A customer look for perceived quality, intrinsic attributes, extrinsic attributes,
monetary price, nonmonetary price and time as important elements of Service
Value. Intrinsic attributes are comprised of core service and supplementary service.
• Core Service: Basic or minimum service a customer expects from the service
• Supplementary Service: Supporting the delivery of core service

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Example of Service Value Model For Airline Industry

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 Integration of Elements of Strategic Service Vision
All the elements of Strategic service vision are integrated in form of positioning, value
leveraging and strategy system integration as presented with basic elements

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 Competitive Service Strategy

Generic competitive strategies

‒ Overall cost leadership
‒ Differentiation
‒ Focus
‒ Fragmented Industries

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 Overall Cost Leadership
This overall cost leadership strategy can be attained by being the low cost
producer in the industry while providing almost same benefits as of
competitors.
• Sources of overall cost leadership strategy are:
– Achieving economies of scale
– Introducing innovative techniques
– Minimizing and controlling overheads
How to achieve cost advantage?
– Provide standard services
• Routine professional services
– Offer no-frill service products
• Spice jet is a no frill airlines in India
– Reduce transaction costs
• ATMs have reduced the personal element in banking sector tremendously
– Run service operations like factory
• A small restaurant offering limited menu helps in quick table turnover, hence hires less
skilled employee at lower wages.
– Seeking out low cost customers
• Spice jet airlines targets price sensitive customers

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 Differentiation
•Differentiation strategy is achieved by a service organization when the
service provided is perceived to be unique by the customers.
• Customers generally are willing to pay a premium price for the uniqueness of a
service and will become loyal customers of the service organization
• Differentiation can be achieved by offering unique or different features
– Product attributes
– Brand image
– Delivery system
– Technology
– Customization
– Location
– Quality (warranties, reliability, after sales service)

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 Differentiation

Differentiation Competitive Strategy Example

• Emirates leveraged on location based differentiation strategy by based at Dubai.
Emirates considered the fact that of the seven billion people on the planet; about
3.5 billion live within an eight-hour flight of Dubai.
• Emirates positioned the airlines to take advantage of developments in the fast-
growing and heavily populated economies of India and China.

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 Focus

• Focus strategy involves concentrating on a narrow or limited customer/ product

segment.
• Serve narrow segment effectively and efficiently by having
– Cost focus within a limited market
– Differentiation focus for limited market

• Cost Focus
– Serve set of customers which are inexpensive to serve
• Differentiation Focus
– This strategy is best suited to situations where customers have
distinctive preferences or specialized needs

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 Focus

The focus can be specific to

• Particular Buyer Group: METRO only members can access
• Service Offered: Specialized hospitals
• Geographic region: Nilgiris grocery chain in south India

Focus Competitive Strategy: Examples

• Cost focus
– Companies selling software with yearly updates over internet to
leverage on costs by charging minimal subscription fee
• Differentiation focus
– Sankara Nethralaya in Tamil Nadu is a focused eye hospital offering
expert ophthalmic care for a segment of patients offering all treatments for
blurred vision, double vision, white reflex in eye, watering etc.

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 Fragmented Industries

• An industry comprise of many companies where no company has a

dominant position or significant market share

• Such industry is comprised of large number of small and medium size firms
– Laundry and dry cleaning
– Tailoring
– Auto repair

******* 37
 Planned or Emergent Strategies
Strategies may be intended, formal and planned; alternatively, they may either emerge
from an intended strategy that was not realised, or emerge independently of a formal
planning process. 
The creation of intended strategies tends to be a top-down approach, starting with
either a statement of corporate objectives or an evaluation of the environment and
market opportunities.
successful organisations
Emergent strategies tend
A realized strategy is the
to be bottom-up strategy that an organization
processes, often starting actually follows
with an idea for a new
service concept or the
emergence of new
A non-realized
operational capabilities. strategy  refers to the
Both types of approaches abandoned parts of
the intended strategy
may be at work in
successful organisations.
An emergent strategy is an unplanned strategy that arises
in response to unexpected opportunities and challenges.
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Planned or emergent strategies – An Example

Planned Strategy Emerging Strategy Realized Strategy

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 Competitive Environment of Services

To develop an effective strategy it is important to understand the competitive

environment of an organization
Porter’s model of 5 forces to define the competitive environment.

‒ New Entrants
‒ Intensity & rivalry among competitors
‒ Substitutes
‒ Buyers
‒ Suppliers

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 Intensity and Rivalry among competitors
Companies compete on prices, advertising, offerings, and innovations due to many
reasons
‒ Companies which are equal in size and resources.
Examples are HCL and TCS, which are ITeS companies.
‒ Competition is more in slow-growing industry.
Each company fight for market share.
‒ Intense price competition due to high fixed costs.
High fixed costs create pressure to use full capacity of a company.
‒ Price competition due to lack of differentiation or switching costs, which is
more common in commodities.

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 New Entrants
What new entrant can bring?
‒ Additional capacity to industry in terms of new facilities and more work
force.
‒ New Ideas, new technology or new services not available with existing
service organizations.
Impact of new entrant on competition
‒ New competitive challenge.
‒ Loss of customers & market share.
‒ Reduction in revenues.
Examples
‒ Earlier BHEL was the only company bidding for state electricity projects
till new entrants came like ALSTOM, Mitsubishi and L&T.
‒ Jet Airways has also entered into the race of air transport services where
Indian Airlines had long been the only public sector enterprise in this
industry.

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 Managing threat of New Entrants: Entry Barriers
Below factors will help as entry barriers for new entrants
‒ Economies of scale: Declining unit costs as the volume of production of services
increases. This is due to the fact that fixed costs will spread over large customer base.
‒ Product Differentiation: Create strong brand identification and form a loyal
customer base.
‒ Substantial investments by service companies in equipment, facilities, Research and
development can create entry barriers for companies which cannot invest to that
extent. It is difficult for a Generic medicines producers to enter R&D sector of
pharmaceutical industry due to heavy investments.
‒ Competitors will find it difficult to enter in market if customers are unwilling to
switch to new competitor from existing service organization.
‒ Establishing strong distribution channels for services will prevent new entrants to
create new distribution channel or access existing ones.
‒ For certain service sectors there are government policies such as licensing
requirements in healthcare, which poses challenges to new entrants.

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 Substitutes
Another service that performs the same basic function.
‒ Customer’s willingness to substitute and availability of substitutes.
‒ Price change of substitute service product impact the demand of existing
service product.
Challenges in managing substitutes
‒ Cost of switching to substitutes.
‒ Customer’s expectations are unique.
‒ The value of service perceived by customer has to be matched with
‒ customer’s expectations.
‒ International callers prefer to call over internet telephone instead of calling from
ISD booths.

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Strategy Drivers

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 Strategy Drivers
Strategic drivers are forces that shape an organization's strategy.
Whether a strategy is planned or emergent, it is usually driven by some force, which
may be external or internal.
The internal forces or strategy drivers might be existing operational capabilities, or new
skills or technologies that have become available or been developed.
The changing needs of stakeholders may also act as a force for change
‒ pressure from shareholders
‒ political masters
‒ management or employees for an increased share value
‒ change in direction
‒ reduced costs or improved services
External forces or strategy drivers might include the activities of competitors or
changing needs of customers

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 Strategy drivers - Examples
Strategic Driver Example
Change A chain of DVD rental shops must adapt to digital media formats.
Profits An investment bank has achieved an average of 30% profit growth for
10 consecutive years. The firm is under great pressure to maintain or
exceed this rate of growth.
People Bad publicity puts a fashion brand under pressure to be socially
responsible when outsourcing to developing nations.
Markets The price of gold increases dramatically. A mining company plans
production increases.
Competitive An electronics manufacturer ensures that its strategy prioritizes
Forces research & development to keep pace with the competition.
New Technology A car manufacturer adjusts its strategy when a competitor reveals new
energy efficient technologies.
Customer Needs A fashion brand keeps a pulse on ever changing fashion trends.

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 Key issues in strategy development

‒ Objectives
‒ Environment
‒ Service Concept
‒ Performance Objectives
‒ Operation

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 Key Issues in Strategy Development
Objectives
The development of clear corporate objectives is based on the strategy drivers – the
internal or external pressures or opportunities for change.
The objectives may well be expressed in financial or competitive terms over a set period
of time, for example return on investment, profit, number of new customers or market
share.
The key questions that need to be asked are:
 What are the objectives?
 Are they achievable?
 What investment is required?
 What is the timeframe?
 What methods for review are in place?
 What are the contingencies?

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 Key issues in strategy development
Environment
To ensure that those objectives can be achieved, there needs to be a clear understanding
of the market and the environment in which the organisation currently operates, or plans
to be operating.
A key outcome of this activity is the identification of a potential target market and an
assessment of the perceived needs and expectations of the target customers.
The key questions include:
 What are the characteristics of the market or market segment?
 Is the strategy appropriate for them?
 What are the needs and expectations of customers in this market?
 How well are these needs being served – by this organisation, by other
organisations?
 What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
 What might be the reaction of other providers to a change in strategy?

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 Key issues in strategy development
Service concept
The service concept is a shared and articulated understanding of the nature of the
service, which should capture information about the organising idea, the service
provided and the service received, including the customer experience and the service
outcomes.
The service concept is an important way of capturing the nature of a service so that
customers know what they are getting and staff understand what they are providing.
The service concept can be also be used to help develop new services.
The key questions to be asked are:
 What is the concept?
 Is it aimed at a particular market?
 Is it appropriate for that market?
 Can it be understood by customers and providers?
 How will it be communicated to customers and providers?
 Can it be delivered by the operation?

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 Key issues in strategy development
Performance objectives
Having identified a target market and developed a service concept, the operation needs
guidance as to how it should manage its resources and activities.
This will ensure that the service it provides will meet the corporate objectives and the
needs of the target market and will establish how it will differentiate itself from the
competition.
A clear understanding of the performance objectives and their relative priorities is
required.
The key questions include:
 What are the order winners and qualifiers?
 What are the priorities for change?
 What are the measures of performance associated with each objective?
 What are the targets?
 Are they achievable?
 By when have the targets to be achieved?
 What investment is required?

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 Key issues in strategy development
Operation
The design or development of an appropriate operation may be a complex activity
requiring a large number of interrelated decisions, connecting processes, employees,
customers and infrastructure.
New investment may be required or there may be a redeployment of existing resources.
The operation plan then needs to be checked against the objectives to ensure that the total
strategy is consistent and will achieve the objectives that have been set.
Thus the process may have to go through several iterations before a consistent and
cohesive strategy is created.
The key questions include:
 What changes are required to processes, employees, customer management and
infrastructure?
 How will the changes be brought about?
 What resources are required?
 Can the new concept be delivered?
 Will it meet the perceived needs of the target market?
 Can the performance objectives be achieved?

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 Sustaining Strategy
Without constant appraisal of the changes to the internal and external environments and
consequent adjustments to strategy, organisations may decay. This has been referred to as
‘institutional rusting’. 
Some of the main operational difficulties faced by organisations in sustaining a strategy
are:
Conflicting objectives, such as the need to provide a customised product using existing
processes capable only of delivering a commodity-type service.
 Inappropriate and inflexible operations processes and resources, such as
inappropriate equipment and untrained employees.
 Inappropriate investment, including inadequate investment to provide the
resources required or develop the existing ones.
 Undetected changes to the service concept as delivered by the operation as
opposed to what was originally intended, for example a failure to detect how
managers and employees may be reinterpreting the concept in the way with
which they are comfortable, as opposed to what is required by customers
(concept contamination).

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 Sustaining Strategy

Strategy therefore involves the process of continually checking the organisation’s plans
for direction, progress and cohesion in terms of the continually changing environment.

The importance–performance matrix can be used to check that operation’s priorities are
aligned to, and reflect any changes in, strategy.

Also, creating, using and updating strategy maps to link strategy through objectives to
performance measurement are important means for operations to both implement and
sustain a strategy

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 Tactical Execution
Tactical executions allow for a focused approach, but not on an over aching goal.
With a tactical plan a person is focused on utilizing a particular component in all
aspects of their plan. It is less focused on why someone is doing something, and
more focused on how they are receiving the information.

Operations managers need to manage both tactically and strategically. Being

tactical is about being focused on the short-term, day-to-day activities. Strategy is
concerned with the long-term and with the operation’s wider contribution to the
organisation

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 Tactical Planning
• Describes the tactics the organization plans to use to achieve the ambitions
outlined in the strategic plan,
• It is a short range (i.e. with a scope of less than one year), low-level document
that breaks down the broader mission statements into smaller, actionable
chunks. If the strategic plan is a response to “What?, the tactical plan responds
to “How?”
• Creating tactical plans is usually handled by mid-level managers
• A very flexible document; it can hold anything and everything required to
achieve the organization’s goal

Smart tactical planning helps ensure that your investment in a Strategic Plan is
not wasted. It turns fine words into daily actions. It minimizes circular
conversations. It helps you succeed

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 Developing and Executing Tactical Plan
Tactical plan are used to accomplish specific parts of strategic plan. Several tactical plans
are used to implement each strategic plan. Effective tactical planning involves both
development and execution

Executing Tactical Plans

Developing Tactical Plans
• Evaluate each course action in
• Recognize and understand light of its goal
overarching strategic plans and • Obtain and distribute information
tactical goals and resources
• Specifying relevant resource • Monitor horizontal and vertical
and time issues communication and integration of
• Recognize and identify human activities
resource commitments • Monitor ongoing activities for goal
achievements

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 Tactical Planning - Example

Hotel Service Strategic Plan To expand Hotel service to different parts of

the country in 7 years

Operational Plan Financial Department to allocate 30% of

annual hotel income for planned expansion of
hotel service

Tactical Plan Fort line managers for training development

To have continuing training development
programs for Hotel personnel to ensure
excellent Hotel services which will ensure
good hotel income

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Developing Tactical Plan for Action

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 How can a strategy be sustained?
Without constant appraisal of the changes to the internal and external environments
and consequent adjustments to strategy, organisations may decay.
This has been referred to as ‘institutional rusting’. 

Some of the main operational difficulties faced by organisations in sustaining a

strategy are:
‒ Conflicting objectives, such as the need to provide a customised product
using existing processes capable only of delivering a commodity-type service.
‒ Inappropriate and inflexible operations processes and resources, such as
inappropriate equipment and untrained employees.
‒ Inappropriate investment, including inadequate investment to provide the
resources required or develop the existing ones.
‒ Undetected changes to the service concept as delivered by the operation as
opposed to what was originally intended, for example a failure to detect how
managers and employees may be reinterpreting the concept in the way with
which they are comfortable, as opposed to what is required by customers
(concept contamination)

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 How can a strategy be sustained?
Strategy therefore involves the process of continually checking the organisation’s
plans for direction, progress and cohesion in terms of the continually changing
environment.

The importance–performance matrix can be used to check that operation’s priorities

are aligned to, and reflect any changes in, strategy.

Also, creating, using and updating strategy maps to link strategy through objectives
to performance measurement are important means for operations to both
implement and sustain a strategy

******* 62
• Strategy Hierarchy
‒ Hierarchy of strategies describes a layout and relations of
corporate strategy and sub-strategies of the organization.
Individual strategies are arranged hierarchically and logically
consistent at the level of vision, mission, goals and metrics.
• Strategic Positioning
‒ Definition. Strategic positioning is concerned with the way in which
a business as a whole distinguishes itself in a valuable way from its
competitors and delivers value to specific customer segments
• Service Strategy
‒ Service Strategy helps to design, develop and
implement service management as organizational capabilities and
strategic assets as well. It enables a service provider to consistently
outperform competitive alternatives over time,
across business cycles, industry disruptions and changes in
leadership.

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• Levels of Service–Competitive Dimension
‒ Competitive advantage is defined as the ability to stay ahead of
present or potential competition. ... Companies develop
a competitive edge when they produce attributes that allow them
to outperform their competitors
‒ The difference between order winners and qualifiers is that order
qualifiers are the competitive standards that make a firm's products
viewed as fit for purchase by consumers, while order winners are
the standards that separate the products or services of one firm
from another
• Integration of elements of strategies and service vision
‒ All the elements of Strategic service vision are integrated in form of
positioning, value leveraging and strategy system integration as
presented with basic elements

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• Planned and Emergent Strategy
‒ A distinction can be made between "planned strategy" (the
intended strategy which is determined by a formal strategic
planning process) and "emergent strategy" (the strategy that
actually happens as a business responds to changes in its external
environment)
• Tactical Planning
• Tactical plan are used to accomplish specific parts of strategic plan.
Several tactical plans are used to implement each strategic plan.
Effective tactical planning involves both development and execution

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