NYU Polytechnic Institute Graduate Program

MG 7733 Services Innovation, Spring 2009

Saturdays 8:30am – 12:45 pm

Harun Asad

Syllabus

Course Description

This course deals with services innovation. Services have eclipsed manufacturing, and are now the dominant part of a modern, advanced economy. According to some estimates, services account for close to 80 percent of US employment. This course examines how value creation occurs in a range of fast-growing services sectors, including retailing, hospitality, financial services, professional services, travel, logistics, and healthcare. The course emphasizes that services are diverse, and explicitly distinguishes traditional and high-value services. This course focuses especially on the latter type of services. A key objective of this course is introducing to course participants best practices for nurturing modern services innovation.

Course Materials

1. Handout. Service Management: Operations, Strategy, Information Technology, 6th Edition, James A. Fitzsimmons and Mona J. Fitzsimmons, Chapters 1-5.

2. Service Innovation: Organizational Responses to Technological Opportunities & Market Imperatives (Series on Technology Management), Volume 9, Joe Tidd and Frank M. Hull.

3. Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating And Profiting from Technology, Henry William Chesbrough.

4. Case studies

  • Bank of America (A) by Stefan Thomke and Ashok Nimgade (HBS)
  • IDEO Product Development by Stefan Thomke (HBS)
  • The World VCR Industry by David B. Yoffie, Makoto Aoki and Katsuya Debari (HBS)
  • KLM Distribution
  • Pharmacy Services Improvement at CVS (A) by Andrew McAfee (HBS)
  • Dogfight Over Europe: Ryanair (A, B, C) by Jan W. Rivkin (HBS)
  • SAP: Industry Transformationby Andrei Hagiu, Pai-Ling Yin, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Vincent Dessain (HBS)
  • Facebook vs. Google

What We Will Cover

  • Fundamentals of services businesses including role in the economy, services strategy, technology in services and the role of innovation.
  • How innovation in services is different than products, and the role of open innovation.
  • Tools and frameworks for services businesses including process design and mapping, platforms and platform innovation, and business models.
  • We will examine services across a variety of industries including but not limited to financial, healthcare, technology, services and travel.
  • We will have some guest speakers from industry to provide a real world perspective on key issues. Emphasis will be given to the emerging discipline of services science and open innovation.

Course Requirements

We will rely heavily on case studies and classroom discussion. There will be minimal lecturing. Students are expected to read and prepare case studies in advance of the class (except where noted). Also any additional readings included in the syllabus are expected to be read in advance to facilitate richer classroom discussion.

We will also have a brief midterm paper and a final group project. Grading will be as follows:

Classroom participation 40%

Midterm assignment 20%

Final group project40%

Midterm Assignment

Describe a recent service experience. Discuss pros and cons of the experience and what you think could have been done differently to improve your experience. Prepare a written report in Word 5-8 pages in length in 12 point font double spaced. Papers will be evaluated on how well they apply concepts from the course.

Group Project

The class will be divided into two teams. Each team will be asked to develop a services innovation for a real world company. Presentations should be in power point and approximately 50 slides in length. The oral portion of the presentation should be divided among team members such that each team member has an opportunity to participate in the oral presentation. We will use the final class for team presentations. Presentations will be evaluated based on how well they apply concepts from the course as well as presentation quality.

Office Hours

I will be available by appointment. I can be reached at 914.299.6193 or

Class Schedule and Assignments

Session 1 (Jan 24)

Introduction to the Course

Readings:

Service Management, Chapters 1-5

Session 2 (Feb 7)

Services vs. Product Innovation

Case: Ideo Product Development

Case: Bank America A

Session 3 (Feb 21)

How Services Changes the Business

Readings:

Service Innovation, Chapters1-5

Session 4 (Mar 7)

Strategy and Standards in Services

Case: KLM Distribution

Case: The World VCR Industry

Readings:

Open Innovation, Chapters 1-3

Service Innovation, Chapters 8, 11, 12

Session 5 (Mar 28) Midterm Assignment Due

Process Design and Analysis

Case: CVS Pharmacy

Team project (during class):Design a process flow for prescriptions.

Readings:

Medical Board Requirements for an Electronic Prescription Writer

Definition of Medical Prescription – Wikipedia

Session 6 (Apr 11)

The Business Model and Platform Innovation

Case: Ryanair

Case: SAP Industry Transformation

Case: Facebook v. Google Open Social

Readings:

Open Innovation, Chapter 4-8

Session 7 (Apr 25)

Course Conclusion

Team Project Presentations

Additional Resources



Harun Asad5January 2009