Action without study is fatal. Study without action is futile. (Mary Beard)

TECHNOLOGY, SOCIAL CHANGE AND RESHAPING THE BUSINESS MODEL

Now and Next is about managing a business in a time of uncertainty, disruption and change. It is about understanding some of the forces and trends that reshape our business world. And it is about translating that understanding into a framework that you can use to build your next-generation service business model.

Now and Next does not tell you what to think, but rather what to think about. This book uses history as an anchor not as a backdrop to current events but as the guidepost to the future. The future does not just happen it happens because of the past and present.

FORMULATING A PLAN

Now and Next guides you into the future without recklessly ignoring the past. Successful people and companies in every era have understood the specifics of the moment. They did not remain static, clinging tenaciously to their business model and processes as those processes and models became outdated. Neither did they rashly dispose of all that had helped them achieve their past success. In every era they walked the middle course, eliminating the outdated, keeping the useful and introducing the new.

More than a review of the literature, Now and Next draws a range of ideas from a variety of sources and constructs them into a plan of execution. In addition to theory and models, the book offers real-world examples and lessons learned, as well as a framework for developing a plan for the future.

SERVICE AS A FOCUS

Although Now and Next is applicable to any business, its focus is on service businesses. In the emerging environment the values and expectations of employees and customers, as well as increasingly competitive forces, make the fast-growing service sector one of the most challenged arenas in business. Now and Next explains why this is happening and provides recommendations for managing a service business and prospering in the new and risky era.

TRENDS

Now and Next explains the origins of some present trends and disruptions in the business world and links the practices of the past with possible patterns of the future. It also translates those patterns into a framework for evolving a business model.

For example, one trend in this workbook addresses changes to or the demise of the social contract between employer and employee. In this context, the social contract includes components such as lifetime employment, pensions, healthcare and other benefits. The social contract was not always in place, and it may not be in place in the future. But why is the social contract changing or disappearing? More significantly, if something like the social contract (a mainstay of working life for many generations) is going to change or disappear, what is the impact on a business and the people it employs?

Another trend involves management hierarchies. Today the trend is to flatten organizations and eliminate layers of management. But why are layers of management, which were once so vital to large-scale organizations, no longer necessary? Eliminating layers of hierarchies without understanding why they were originally created risk the collapse of a companys management infrastructure and with it the collapse of portions of the business.

Another example concerns the fact that we live in an instant age instant access, instant information flow, instant results. We have raised at least two generations with expectations of instant response and gratification. What are the implications to a service provider when its customers expect an instant response? How can a company retain customers who dont give second chances to those who fail to deliver instant results?

Now and Next examines these and many other trends and changes. Then it places them in past, present and future contexts, exploring the implications that these changes have on a companys service business model. Any company can use this book to help its managers determine which portions of their service business model to retain and which to change.

SPOTLIGHTS

Spotlights or vignettes throughout Now and Next further illuminate concepts being discussed at a particular point in the chapter. These spotlights offer stories and parables drawn from history and general life experiences to provide analogies and alternative perspectives to a specific topic.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

Two essential steps in developing any plan for the future are assessing the situation and determining what you are going to do about it. Each chapter in this book ends with questions designed to assist in the assessment process.

BOOK STRUCTURE

Each chapter in Now and Next follows the same structure.

* Introduction an overview of the chapters topic
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* Background an explanation of the events that created issues and led to changes
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* Implications an interpretation of the impact of the changes on the service business model
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* Next Steps issues for managers to consider as they plan for the future
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* Questions to Ask questions designed to help executives evaluate their organization and prepare a plan for the future
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MANAGING IN A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY AND RAPID CHANGE

Lastly, Now and Next is a book about putting things in context. In isolation, a situation may seem gravely serious. Set in context, it may turn out to be inconsequential. Context most often gives meaning, gravity and, by extension, emphasis and attention to a particular situation or decision.

Now and Next gives managers and executives the insight, the context and the tools with which to successfully drive their business forward into the uncertain environment of the 21st Century.