The services imperative: Focusing on the future of business

Services now account for a staggering 80 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product and labor force, but many still view the world through manufacturing lenses, according to W. P. Carey experts Mary Jo Bitner and Stephen Brown.

More than just a game: The impact of a big event

At kickoff time on February 3, Phoenix will be the focus of attention for some 90 million sports fans worldwide. The 75,000 lucky ticket holders and the thousands more who visit with them will give the metropolitan area an economic shot in the arm.

IBM's extreme makeover: Big blue adapts to a changing marketplace

Once best known for making computers and selling them to corporations and government entities around the world, IBM refocused on technical support and professional services in the 1990s, in the process becoming the leading edge of a change that has swept manufacturing companies.

Xerox Global Services: The product is service

Xerox still makes copy machines, sells toner and fixes broken office equipment. But its fastest growing segment does not market a physical product.

Chase Home Equity: Innovation from the inside out

The home-equity loan industry is crowded with competitors, making it tough for mortgage companies to hang onto market share — much less grow revenue, according to Brad Connor, president of Chase Home Equity, who recently spoke at the 18th Annual Compete Through Service Symposium, sponsored by the

Zane's cycles: Empowering employees to deliver 'extraordinary customer service'

Chris Zane goes to work every day with a smile on his face, buoyed by his philosophy that "most of the population are good and sound and trustworthy people." Sound naïve? Perhaps. But Zane apparently knows what he's talking about.

Pete Winemiller: The little things mean a lot

It looks like a recipe for a customer-service nightmare: A company offers a product that is inconsistent, the frontline employees are mostly part-timers who don't work directly for the organization, and many of the customers have been drinking alcohol.

Selling services to 'pet parents' fetches comeback for PetSmart

PetSmart was designed to be a category killer with dominant prices and dominant variety when it was founded in the late 1980s, and the concept worked well for the company's first decade. But by the late 1990s the company was losing steam.

Podcast: A company's road to success, building trust, 'fessing up' and listening to customers

Creating a great product or service is just the first step on a company's road to success. It's also necessary for your potential customers to know about that great product or service. So how does a company go about developing a successful customer focus strategy?

Rendering authenticity: How to succeed in the experience economy

The new consumer sensibility, widely heralded in the business press, is the Experience Economy. Our world of mediated, staged and multi-sensory experience — an increasingly unreal world — gives rise to people desiring authentic or "real" experiences. But what is authenticity?