The Four Ps of strategy
The lifecycle has, at its core, a service strategy.
The entry points to service strategy are referred to as ‘the Four Ps’
• Perspective – describes a vision and direction. A strategic perspective articulates the business philosophy of interacting with the customer or the manner in which services are provided. For example, a shared service provider (Type II) for a global law firm may adopt the strategic perspective of, ‘We will be a best-in-class service provider for our law firm’. The CIO determined that his business most values a certain type of service provider. By setting a perspective of competing against other industry specific
providers he not only narrows the field of competing alternatives, but
also cements his own distinctiveness in the minds of his customers
• Position –
describes the decision to adopt a well-defined stance. Should the provider
compete on the basis of value or low cost? Specialized or broad sets of
services? Should the value be biased towards utility or warranty? An internal
service provider (Type I) restricted to serving one business unit may adopt a
position based on ‘product know-how’ or ‘customer responsiveness’. The law firm
CIO may adopt a needs-based
position: attorney-centric offerings for knowledge, collaboration and
document management services.
• Plan –
describes the means of transitioning from ‘as is’ to ‘to be’. A plan might
detail, ‘How do we offer high-value or low-cost services?’ Or in the case of
our law firm CIO, ‘How do we achieve and offer our specialized services?’
•
Pattern – describes a series of consistent decisions
and actions over time. A service provider who continually offers specific
services with deep expertise is adopting a ‘high-value’ or ‘high-end’ service
strategy. A service provider who continually offers dependable and reliable
services is adopting a ‘high-warranty’ strategy. If mid-course corrections are
to be made within the framework of an existing perspective and position, this
is where those decisions and actions are formulated. The law firm CIO, for
example, may decide to offer the same specialized services but with enhanced
levels of client privacy (warranty).
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