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For most firms in the professional service arena, the notion of
a structured R&D process -- monitoring and managing the shelf
life of a service, and taking steps to innovate its service portfolio
– has not yet become deeply ingrained.
Seeing formal innovation as a competitively astute move,
an increasing number of professional service firms have begun to
initiate defined and internally supported R&D processes.
- 36% reported they had created or improved the firm’s new
service development pipeline to become more client-sensitive.
- 68% reported that they had improved or evolved their current
services in the past year.
- 46% reported that they were becoming more market-driven by co-developing
or piloting new services with their clients.
- 22% added new-to-the-firm services that blend into the services
of another industry, i.e., accounting firms offering litigation
support.
- 15% had eliminated services, indicating PSFs have an understanding
of the commoditization levels of their fatigued services.
- 13% developed what they felt were new-to-the-world services.
Case Studies
RSM McGladrey, a Minnesota-based accounting and consulting firm,
wanted to move beyond its traditional accounting and consulting
services toward totally new and effectively integrated services.
It did so by creating an exciting new R&D platform: a highly
experiential client-and-consultant learning laboratory. Results
include a revitalized professional development program, and a noticeable
uptick in revenues from the clients that attended its learning events.
New-York based Rockwell Group created an internal R&D infrastructure
that spurred the evolution of its portfolio beyond the well-known
services of architecture, planning and design, toward the creation
of three-dimensional brand experiences. The firm’s new R&D
process was a quick success; in an early opportunity to apply the
guidelines of its new R&D process, the Rockwell Group captured
an exciting new value-added client.
Additional examples of new services:
- Management consultants Michael Hammer and James Champy’s
1993 manifesto about business-process-reengineering.
- Robert Kaplan and David Norton’s 1996 methodology called
the Balanced Scorecard.
- EVA® – Economic Value-Added -- a new measure for
corporate performance that was coined in the mid-1990s by its
inventors at Stern Stewart & Co.
- Design-build project delivery in the architecture, engineering
and construction sectors.
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