A calculus for services innovation

Innovation in the services area — especially in the electronic services (e-services) domain — can be systematically developed by first considering the strategic drivers and foci, then the tactical principles and enablers, and finally the operational decision attributes, all of which constitute a process or calculus of services innovation. More specifically, there are four customer drivers (i.e., collaboration, customization, integration and adaptation), three business foci (i.e., creation-focused, solution-focused and competition-focused), six business principles (i.e., reconstruct market boundaries, focus on the big picture not numbers, reach beyond existing demand, get strategic sequence right, overcome organizational hurdles and build execution into strategy), eight technical enablers (i.e., software algorithms, automation, telecommunication, collaboration, standardization, customization, organization, and globalization), and six attributes of decision informatics (i.e., decision-driven, information-based, real-time, continuously-adaptive, customer-centric and computationally-intensive). It should be noted that the four customer drivers are all directed at empowering the individual — that is, at recognizing that the individual can, respectively, contribute in a collaborative situation, receive customized or personalized attention, access an integrated system or process, and obtain adaptive real-time or just-in-time input. The developed process or calculus serves to identify the potential white spaces or blue oceans for innovation. In addition to expanding on current innovations in services and related experiences, white spaces are identified for possible future innovations; they include those that can mitigate the unforeseen consequences or abuses of earlier innovations, safeguard our rights to privacy, protect us from the always-on, interconnected world, provide us with an authoritative search engine, and generate a GDP metric that can adequately measure the growing knowledge economy, one driven by intangible ideas and services innovation.