Service Innovation: The Path to Book Publishing Success in the Digital Age

After centuries of focusing on the bookstore as the “customer,” success in the digital age will require publishers to focus on the ultimate consumer. Given the enormous flexibility and “mass customization” that digital technology makes possible, the future business model for book publishing can best be understood as providing a service rather than a commodity. And “value” is a co-creation—the publisher responds to the specific content needs as defined by the customer for each transaction.

How are publishers to make this transformation? As the world around us changes from a commodity to a service economy, (already 80% of the U.S. gross domestic product), publishers can follow the lead of major companies like IBM, Oracle, and others, who are pioneering the science of service innovation.

This presentation will lay out the basics of service innovation—an integration of technology, business practices, and customer-facing services—as it relates to book publishing in the digital age.