A Conceptual Guideline to Support Servitization Strategy Through Individual Actions

The delivery of services creates major disruptive change to a business and involves a change management process at different levels of the service chain, thus really representing a journey for the firm and its partners. Strategically, management teams like the idea of developing service business because customers require after-sales services and margins are generally higher than in the traditional product sales business. But considering moving into service just “a good move” without first understanding the underlying barriers risks failure. This chapter provides a conceptual guideline that supports firms and practitioners to understand the change management aspects of servitization. The guideline is based on conceptual literature, combined with empirical data from a major study based on survey and interview data from 150 firms. It aids middle managers in developing an agile roadmap to allow them to take actions that support their strategic vision around servitization.