Many companies have been shifting away from a sole focus on products and have added services in order to drive continued growth and differentiate themselves in an increasingly saturated marketplace. In fact, services account for 80 percent of the U.S.

Charging for services involves an organizational shift.

Social isolation in the U.S. has been on the rise for decades, according to research conducted in 2006 by sociologists.

Companies like IBM, PetSmart and Marriott have been proving that enormous success, and enormous profits, can be found in services. Yet services have always been difficult to get your arms around — difficult to understand.

"There is no arrival at customer service excellence," said Terry Cain, vice president of operational excellence at Avnet, Inc.

One-third of U.S. adults are obese, and another third are overweight, according to data recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Marketing scholars Naomi Mandel, Andrea Morales and Steve Nowlis have been investigating what influences our decisions about diet.

"Please hold — your call is important to us."If you've ever heard that sentence then you know what it's like to be "on hold" for customer service.

James Champy is the author of "Outsmart! How to Do What Your Competitors Can't." Champy profiles eight highly-successful firms as he develops his thesis that the key to outsmarting the competition is to focus on the external environment — including the customers.

At the 20th Annual Compete Through Service Symposium, hosted by the Center for Services Leadership at the W. P. CareySchool of Business, business leaders from all industries gathered to discuss (in part) how technology can help companies differentiate themselves in the market.

Thirty-seven years ago Roy Vallee was stocking shelves at a small electronics distribution company in Los Angeles. That small firm has grown up to become Avnet, Inc., a Fortune 500 firm located in Phoenix, Arizona.