From Tin Soldiers to Russian Dolls: Creating Added Value Through Services

by SandraVanDerMerwe (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $3.27

  This book is based on several years' research into how companies can gain and maintain customers by adding value through first-class service. The tin soldiers of the title reflect the product-focused attitudes and systems of many companies up until the late 1980s. Immersed in technical innovations and many manufacturing efficiencies, they somehow forgot the customer. The Russian doll image reflects the new customer-focused company which sees its people, processes and core markets as a whole, made up of interconnected and interdependent parts. The author examines why this is happening and what manufacturers and service companies can do to adapt their structure, skills and strategies to compete by adding value through services.

• Used

  Paperback
  1994

  $3.27

  This book is based on several years research into how companies can gain and maintain customers by adding value through first class services. Tin soldiers - companies, structures and people who produce internally efficient 'things' (products or services); and Russian dolls - companies, structures and people who produce solutions for customers, of which value added services are increasingly the prime component. Sandra Vandermerwe's book examines the key strategic question of the 1990s - how will companies gain market dominance now that the emphasis has shifted from products to customer service? It examines what is happening to corporate strategy and attitudes. At the same time the author suggests what manufacturers and service companies can do to adapt their structures, skills and strategies to compete profitably in the long term, by adding value through services.