I wrote an entire series on Technological Innovation and Leadership a few weeks back (which I plan to continue now) but it struck me that most of what I was saying is restricted only to the products front. In innovation literature one often sees the grandiose themes of R & D, breakthrough technologies, and Intellectual Property. While these themes are extremely important in the services business too, I find that they do not necessarily cover everything that there is to know about the services business.

I also find it quite puzzling that there is very little services specific innovation literature in India especially since in real terms, the amount of value that the services adds to the GDP of our country is growing at about 8.5% per annum. In the U.S., services contribute to about 78% of the entire GDP – in India too that number will be reached soon.

So why is there a need for services led innovation literature?

-       Primarily because services can be commoditized. As markets become more open and there is more free flow of information, the forces of commoditization of services get even more rampant. Take for example China’s proposal to build ‘a Bangalore’ 80 km off Shanghai.

-       Commoditization in services is MUCH faster because there are fewer barriers to entry, processes and innovations are easier to copy, and there are fewer patent protections because it becomes extremely difficult to patent a service.

So how does one innovate in a services environment? It’s a puzzle that is going to be extremely difficult to solve and over the course of the next few weeks, I, along with your help (and the help of various resources) am going to try and look at innovation in services and how they can be delivered more effectively.

I hope that this eventually becomes a conversational thread so I honestly want to know what you think is the most important aspect of innovation in the services business and then we can take it from there!

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