Service Success!: Lessons from a Leader on how to Turn Around a Service Business
ANNOTATION
Packed with practical ideas and strategies for service managers, this candid case study demonstrates how to improve performance and profitability in any service business. A success story himself, Kaplan pioneers a radical new system for measuring quality in the service industry.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Nine out of every ten new jobs created each year are in the service sector. Although service jobs are at the heart of today's economy, accounting for three-quarters of our GNP, there has not been, until now, a system that enables managers to accurately measure and improve service quality, productivity, and profitability. While manufacturing processes lend themselves to statistical measurement, the intangibles of quality service are much harder to quantify. In this book, Dan Kaplan - the man who dramatically transformed the money-losing Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation into the industry leader with an enviable profit margin - reveals the battle-tested methodologies he used in forging one of the recognized business success stories in the service field. Turnarounds in industry rarely come as 450-foot home runs, Kaplan explains. What is needed instead are 1,000 singles - the kind of steady incremental progress toward a goal that is responsible for most wins, in baseball and in business. In Service Success! Kaplan shows how, by deliberately employing a policy of "small wins," leaders can bring people along with them as they challenge and move beyond the status quo, seeking always to make tomorrow better than today.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publisher's Weekly
Total quality management (TQM) is the most significant managerial theory since 1980; unfortunately, its basic tenets are often obscured by numbing jargon and mathematical formulas. Kaplan, president of Hertz Equipment Rental Corp., and Rieser, a former editor at Fortune , here craft one of the best applied TQM studies to appear this season. Starting with ``a set of simple methods that will enable managers to become more effective and productive,'' the authors describe the turnaround policies (statistical benchmarking, constantly refining service standards and building trust through commitment) employed by Kaplan at Hertz. While the authors' observations on operations management and financial controls are useful, their elaborations on corporate culture, management development and business ethics are particularly strong. (Apr.)
Library Journal
The service sector of the U.S. economy is booming. Until recently, the number of books devoted to the management of services has been smaller than those devoted to manufacturing. These new titles are helping to change the situation. Targeting the service firm with fewer than 100 employees, the Rosses provide a how-to manual geared especially to newcomers to the service sector. They provide guidelines for such frequently encountered problems as formulating a marketing plan, motivating employees, and attracting favorable public relations. While most of the suggestions are already available in standard management libraries, these authors provide a remarkable service by assembling and distilling much of this information. Kaplan targets the larger service company. Presenting the management philosophy he developed while managing the turnaround at Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation, Kaplan details the successful application of TQM principles to a service setting. His core idea is that the ultimate success results from doing thousands of little things just a bit better than the competition. Managers will love this book because it resonates with the tone of a pragmatic manager who can express his ideas in a general way that any service organization can apply. Both books will serve libraries well.-- Gene R. Laczniak, Marquette Univ., Milwaukee
