ISS 2020 Vision Future of Service Management | Page 103

In a VUCA world, Service Managers will need to prepare for shifts in their competitive
environment. In order to deal with these challenges, organizations need to develop resilience.
We consider “resilience” as a concept that helps actors persist and thrive amid unforeseeable
disruptions – the distinct ability to provide communities, institutions, and infrastructure
with the needed flexibility, intelligence and responsiveness to remain durable in the midst
of economic, technological, and social change. 126 Service organizations should work to
introduce the necessary mechanisms that allow them to improve their social listening ability
and become more resilient. One tool is the radar, shield and sword (see figure 39).
Radar
Key benefits
•
• Anticipatory thinking
Ability to explore, perceive early warnings and imagine alternative futures in order to
assess disruptions before they occur
•
• Disruption preparedness
The ability to plan for and react to emerging risks and potential threats to
organizational assets from all directions
•
• Innovative capacity
The ability to be proactive in exploring opportunities through ideation and
prototyping in core and non-core business areas
Shield
Key benefits
Sword
Key benefits
Figure 39: Radar, shield and sword in Service Management (Source: CIFS, 2016)
The pace of change is currently faster than ever, creating a greater need to have a structured
approach to surveillance in order to determine what is occurring now and what could be
changing tomorrow. Importantly, social listening with an organizational radar will help to
identify opportunities for new product or service development, inspire new business models,
monitor current and potential future threats, scout talent, and evaluate changes within
consumer expectations. In addition, it is important to have the processes in place to leverage
high-value opportunities (the sword) and insulate assets from potential risks (the shield).
At the same time, being embedded within the context in which the service is being delivered
is an important part of developing targeted solutions. In order to create greater service
“situationism” – being informed about how external, situational factors affect behaviour,
in contrast to internal motivations – service providers must maintain an acute awareness of
the circumstances of the interaction. Users will adopt different profiles in any given context,
whose needs and expectations vary depending on the service in question.
126 CIFS, How to be Resilient in the 21st Century, Members’ Report 1, 2016.
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