Innovation in Service Delivery
Lead Research Organisation:
London Business School
Department Name: Management Science and Operations
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Kamalini Ramdas (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Kamalini Ramdas
(2012)
Four Ways to Reinvent Service Delivery
in Harvard Business Review
| Title | Business School global leadership summit : innovation in services |
| Description | Video of a presentation given by Professor Ramdas entitled 'Innovation in services' at the London Business School global leadership summit, held on 5 July 2010. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2010 |
| URL | http://london.edgeboss.net/wmedia/london/2010/video/gls2010/gls10_highlights_big_ideas_kamalini_rama... |
| Title | Levers for innovation in healthcare delivery : a new service innovation framework |
| Description | Video showing Professor Ramdas giving a presentation entitled 'Levers for innovation in healthcare delivery : a new service innovation framework' at the 'Innovation in healthcare delivery : a one-day meeting for healthcare leaders' event, held on 16 July 2010 at London Business School. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2010 |
| URL | http://london.edgeboss.net/wmedia/london/2010/video/wmv/healthcare160710_kramdas.wvx |
| Title | London Business School alumni reunion 2010 : innovation in services |
| Description | Video showing Professor Ramdas presenting to an audience and contributions from participants at her presentation entitled 'Innovation in services', given at the London Business School celebrate alumni reunion, held on 2-4 July 2010. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2010 |
| URL | http://london.edgeboss.net/wmedia/london/2010/video/alumnireunion2010/kamalini_ramdas_ar2010.wvx |
| Description | Through the research supported by this grant my co-authors and I found through extensive case-study based evidence that radical innovation in service organizations can be achieved by changing four dimensions of service delivery innovation that we identified and examined in our research. The nature of the provider-client interaction characterizes whether one service provider employee serves one client at a time, one serves many, many serve one, etc. The boundary of the service characterizes which part of the client's problem is solved by the focal service provider, by other providers, or by the client themselves. The organization of the service characterizes who within the service provider does each of the tasks that need to be done to solve the client's problem. The final dimension is the location of the provider-client interaction. For each of the above dimensions of service delivery, in our research we conceptualized how organizations can think through how the service should be configured. For example, consider the nature of interaction dimension. Here, one-on-many interaction, where one service provider serves many clients at once, is suitable when shared information or shared experience is valuable to clients. In particular, we find that there are important variants of the one-on-many interaction - such as having a one-on-one interaction with each member of a group of clients when all clients are present at once, which can result in a very different service offering, and, if it is appropriately used, an improved value proposition. In our Harvard Business Review article, this type of interaction is illustrated in healthcare through the concept of "shared medical appointments" where a doctor treats patients in a group one at a time. We highlight cases were this model has been associated with improved outcomes and reduced costs. In contrast to one-on-many interaction, a many-on-one interaction, where many provider personnel interact at once with a client, is valuable when provider personnel need to coordinate closely to best serve the client. As another example, consider the service boundary dimension. Here, if most clients of a focal service provider also require a specific other service to solve their problem, and that other service is either hard to access or of poor quality, then the focal service provider may consider integrating that service. On the other hand if clients of a focal service provider each need different other services then integration is unlikely to be optimal. In this case the focal service provider may be able to improve value by serving a coordination role by directing the client appropriately towards other services. An important element of our framework is that we focus on service innovations that improve value by simultaneously reducing costs and improving quality and access. The conceptual framework that we have developed is very general and is applicable to any service organization, and also to the service components of manufacturing organizations. We chose to focus our Harvard Business Review article on two sectors, healthcare and financial services, to show that the framework can be fully illustrated in any sector. |
| Exploitation Route | As mentioned earlier, the research framework we developed in the Harvard Business Review article is being put to use in a wide variety of practitioner settings. For example, several hospitals and hospital systems in the US, India and the UK are working to implement different facets of that framework. I am personally involved with these hospitals in the implementation process as there are many very interesting follow on research questions as yet to be answered. I have applied for grant funding from a UK healthcare fund and a European research fund to examine these issues. I presented recently opportunities new service business models in a high profile invited session on future research opportunities at INFORMS, the leading conference for my academic community. I am working with several co-authors located in institutions in the UK, India and the US, and PhD students and researchers at LBS, on research projects following on from this framework. I have presented in a variety of high powered academic audiences on the importance of studying innovation in services and innovation in contexts outside of traditional product development and R&D management. These include research panels to which I have been invited to speak from my perspective as Department Editor and Associate Editor for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation department at Management Science. Today many more researchers are embracing service innovation and examining service business models than was the case in 2009. I believe my research that was supported by the ESRC grant, and the several conferences I have spearheaded in this area (two conferences on innovation in healthcare delivery and an annual conference on operational innovation at London Business School), have played an important role in catalysing this trend towards research on service innovation. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Retail |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fPUIXJzZew |
| Description | The research framework we developed in the Harvard Business Review article is being put to use in a wide variety of practitioner settings. For example, several hospitals and hospital systems in the US, India and the UK are working to implement different facets of that framework, including changes in the nature of interaction through shared medical appointments, and also changes in the location, boundary and organization of their services. For example, a major psychiatry services provider in the UK is implementing several facets of this framework, with a view to improving the quality of and access to psychiatry services and simultaneously reducing their cost. These services are greatly under-provided at present in the UK. Aside from healthcare, the framework is also being used to spur innovation in a variety of sectors including financial services, venture capital, law, and education. Aside from service organizations the framework is also applicable to service arms of technology and manufacturing organizations. For example a major paint manufacturer has used this framework to identify innovations in how to advertise and sell paint. Hewlett Packard has applied this framework to identify new ways to provide IT support services. I have presented this research in a variety of audiences including World Economic Forum Davos 2011 and TEDx London Business School 2014. I also teach this framework regularly in MBA and Executive MBA classes, and through these avenues practitioners in many sectors are applying my findings to spur innovation. The framework is used not only in large and established organizations, but also to spur innovation in start-ups, through my involvement in teaching core entrepreneurship as well as an elective on innovating business models at London Business School, in which I teach this framework. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Healthcare,Other |
| Impact Types | Economic,Policy & public services |