Introduction
This piece of writing came out of a clash of thoughts in my head that occoured in a recently concluded management conference. The theme was "Dynamics of modern management - Is service centric strategy the solution?". Well whatever the solution that may have been discussed and debated, what struck me was that "service" is used as a management strategy in today's world to gain and retain customers.
On the other hand my background at the Sri Sathya Sai Institutions had given me a different idea about service. To put it in a nutshell - "Service is a way to God". Numerous discourses and various activities like "Gram seva" reinforced the fact that service is a noble action that pleases God and decreases the distance between Him (gender neutral) and us.
The clash of thoughts occoured for I failed to understand how can I use such a noble action for business profits? Moreover how can I integrate the noble idea of service given by Bhagwan Baba to get business profits?
Research Questions
Since "service" is a buzzword across disciplines and domains, I could not help but define two research question that will help me in conceptualizing "service" that can be used both by spiritual and commercial practitioners.
Question1: What is the basic framework of service that can be used for spiritual progress and business profits?
Question2: What is the definition of service?
Methodology
The methodology I used for arriving at the framework is "situation-analysis" or what we call in IIM lingo as the "case study". However I will like to add that I have taken only those cases that have occoured in front of Bhagwan Baba and am governed by the principle of bounded rationality. The objective I repeat is not to praise individuals but learn from a situation objectively and decode a variable that can help us in decoding service.
The Case Study
This is an oft-repeated story in Prasanthinilayam. It was in 1991 that the Super-speciality hospital was to be built and numerous people were contributing in lakhs. One fine evening Swami walks into the portico with a small envelope. He tears it open to find a letter and a 100 ruppees note. He reads the letter which was written by a primary school child explaining Him that he had saved the money after washing his own clothes without giving to dhobi and decreasing his other kiddish expenditure only to contribute something in His noble mission. Bhagwan lovingly accepted the little act of service and the hospital today is a reality (many doubted its feasibility!).
Conceptualizing Service
1- The first variable that can be instantly decoded is action. Many students would have been sitting there that day appreciating Bhagwan's mission. Among them a few would be thinking of how to contribute in the same. But only one little boy(there may be many but this one came to limelight) thought of doing something, however insignificant it may appear.
2- The next variable that can be decoded is spontaneity. Bhagwan never asks anything nor is Rs. 100 a significant addition in building that huge edifice. Yet what moved and caught Bhagwan's attention (who is the customer in this case!) is the spontaneous reaction of the little boy. Make the customer feel that you are with him / her in thick and thin and will try your level best in meeting his / her expectation. For that spontaneous reaction one needs to tune oneself to the customers' wavelength. Watch out for the need and be quick to respond however insignificant it may appear. Remember many customers watch the process in the service and not the final product. If the process satisfies them, they are yours for lifetime.
3- The last variable that I can decode from the case study is transformation. This I will analyse in both the spiritual and commercial utility. Spiritually transformation means transformation of attitude. Swami says that in the end, you are not serving anyone but yourself and one has to realize that. So the feeling of "give-take" has to be replaced by feeling of "brotherhood". From transaction one has to move to union. From a commercial perspective, it takes a beautiful meaning. It gives the enterprise a chance to analyse the gap between the customer's actual satisfaction and desired satisfaction. Transformation is closing of the gap, and service is the process of closing the same. Moreover, transformation also leads to next step in service where the existing customers become part of the enterprise and helpin increasing the client base (again from transaction it leads to union!).
Definition of service
Having conceptualized service, I now make an attempt to give an operational definition of the same. Before that I want to extend the above dimensions I decoded a step higher.
Action, I argue is a product of head and hand. Similarly spontaneity is an outcome of a sensitive heart. Hence I define service as "An effective coordination of head, heart and hand for the ultimate goal of mutual transformation".
Conclusion
Here I made a small attempt to scientifically and rationally decode the dimensions of service out of a real life example. This was made to operationalize the concept of service in order to facilitate the usage of the same by managers and spiritulists in their endeavour to please their "customers".
4 comments:
Culling from the variables you decoded, here is mine :
Service is spontaneous action leading to transformation.
Having the best interests and the requirements of the customer at heart, however, might pose some problems when you don't have a product that meets them but someone else does ! How many would actually recommend a product of another, knowing well that is the one that meets the customer's expectations ?
This often happens, for example, in selling financial services. After having sat with a customer to understand his financial needs and risk perception, you just discovered that he might be better off putting his money elsewhere.
Note the ferocity with which new mutual fund offerings get marketed by distributors although there is almost no data on a fund's past performance. The fund house may have a general goodwill value by performing in some schemes, which is usually set off by few others from the same fund house not performing well. Yet if one were given the task to market a new fund offer to customers and if one were to have the customer's best interests at heart, then one might have to dissuade them from buying new products, unless the customer has a substantially large risk appetite. What happens in reality, is quite contrary and the 6% commission is often at the back of the dealer's mind.
In commercial ventures, I think, competition and profitability become a major factor in determining service decisions.
One would like to give the best service in the world, but it comes at a certain cost determined by elements external to the system. Often products are priced under competitive pressure and service takes a beating under the price that was fixed so.
Even if one has the best service offering in the industry, one wants to offer such a service so as to remain ahead of others. This aspect, fortunately, does not appear in non-commercial service situations. Events like Gram Seva, come with the affordability determined beforehand, you don't have to cut costs due to a threat from competition and you don't have to cut the service due to the cost threat, so the 'spirit' of service is reflected spontaneously and leads to better transformation.
Namaji
http://whirlmind.blogspot.com/
Very few will recommend Namaji, the product of others..yet there are examples of grocery stores and kirana shops doing it (mostly in case of FMCG products)Logically it sounds feasible there, isn't it? They want to get into the good book of customers at least as an advisor.
But as I said, service is process specific and not product specific..so my process of staying with the customers in high and dry and sometimes with personal sacrifce, will in long term put me in their good books and trust will be blind. Sounds altruist enough but worth a try.
Moreover in commercial ventures of our times, the line dividing product and service is fast dissapearing. For conceptualization to work, this line must be assumed to be immortal. Agreed this is a limitation of my theory.
In events like Gram Seva - it is one cost - the cost of involvement and participation. It is intangible cost but worth consideration. See for example even if money supply is plenty, yet you have a human resource which is bad in spontaneous action, the optimal utilization of the available money will be affected. The intangible cost will finally show as a tangible cost.
Hence when we say cost - it has to be both monetary and non monetary and specially in the charitable organizations its a human resource problem that actually affects the success of their projects.
Surya bro,
Nice article...well analyzed
enjoyed reading it...
Took me time to read the whole article, the article is great but the comments bring more brainstorm ideas, thanks.
- Johnson
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