This book contains a simple but powerful definition of services based upon a separation between back-stage and front-stage activities. Services deal with front interactions, production and manufacturing with back-stage operations. Teboul uses this distinction systematically to explore the important issues of the field within a coherent set of concepts and maps, including the service mix, the service triangle and the service-intensity matrix. This is a novel approach to services that challenges the traditional view.

Toward a New Definition of Services
Services: The Front-Stage Experience
The Service Triangle
The Service-Intensity Matrix
Finding and Keeping the Fit
The Three Movements of Quality
Balancing Supply and Demand
From Industrial to Professional Services
Managing the Change Process
Conclusion

JAMES TEBOUL is a professor at INSEAD, France in the field of Operations and Service Management. His main areas of research are supply chain management, quality management and management of services. Teboul has been the Director of the INSEAD International Executive Programme and a consultant to industrial & service organizations. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Service Industry Management and a leading business author and expert.