Articles

“I will state unequivocally that services businesses are much more difficult to manage. The skills required in managing service processes are very different from those that drive successful product companies.”

Louis Gerstner (former CEO of IBM)
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance

Management in a product company view the business world from a product perspective. Many managers fail to realize the vast degree of differences between service and product organizations. As a result, they tend to underestimate the amount of time and resources required to launch a services business.

Mary Ann Whiteman is the author of The Art of Professional Services, a book designed to help managers launch and manage a professional services business in a product-centric company. It will be available for order from this website and Amazon.com in September 2009.

Here are a few other recommended books related to the services business:

• Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets, by Micheal T. Bosworth.
• Managing the Professional Service Firm, by David H. Maister.
• Marketing Services, by Leonard L. Berry and A. Parasuraman.
• Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?, by Louis Gestner.

Check out this section in the near future for articles to help you better understand and manage a professional services organization.