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Service Blueprinting

Services represent approximately 80 percent of the U.S. GDP and a
growing percentage of the GDPs of countries around the world.
Companies, governments, and universities worldwide have recently
awakened to the realization that services dominate global economies
and economic growth.1 Yet, in practice, innovation in services is less disciplined
and less creative than in the manufacturing and technology sectors.2 While Business
Week’s 2007 top twenty-five most innovative companies list includes a number
of service businesses (e.g., Google, Walt Disney, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Target,
Amazon, and E-Bay),3 the number of innovators is not nearly reflective of the
size of the service sector. A recent comprehensive review of the academic literature
on product innovation also reveals little explicit coverage of research on
service innovation.4
There are many reasons for this historic lack of rigorous attention to the
unique aspects of service innovation. Some of these reasons are rooted in the
remnants of the industrial revolution and the habitual fascination with tangible
products and hard technologies as a source of product innovation, as well as an
underlying belief that services have no tangible value.5 Beyond these historic
reasons, however, the lack of widespread and disciplined innovation in services
derives at least partially from the nature of services themselves. Services are
The authors thank the Center for Services Leadership for its support of this project. They also sincerely
thank the individuals who contributed to the case studies including: Greg Reid and Maynard
Skarka of Yellow Transportation (YRC Worldwide); Renee Ryan, formerly of ARAMARK and currently
with Best Western International; Mark Rosenbaum, consultant to Marie Stopes International and a
professor at Northern Illinois University; Rick Mears of the San Francisco Giants; and Sara Moulton
Reger of IBM. They also thank Lynn Shostack for the vision she provided over twenty years...