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  • © 2017

How to Make Things Happen

A blueprint for applying knowledge, solving problems and designing systems that deliver your service strategy

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Provides a framework to connect knowledge, brains and efficiency
  • Explores why many brilliant plans fail to deliver in practice
  • Explains how to take advantage of the efficiency that technology and algorithms offer

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Softcover Book USD 37.99
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Hardcover Book USD 49.99
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Table of contents (18 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxv
  2. The Promise, Essence and Flame Red

    • Beatriz Muñoz-Seca
    Pages 21-32
  3. We Work with Brainpower, Not Manpower

    • Beatriz Muñoz-Seca
    Pages 93-108
  4. Making Ideas Happen

    • Beatriz Muñoz-Seca
    Pages 139-164
  5. One Thousand $1,000 Improvements

    • Beatriz Muñoz-Seca
    Pages 165-185
  6. Everybody Happy? Happy People Are More Productive

    • Beatriz Muñoz-Seca
    Pages 211-229
  7. Epilogue

    • Beatriz Muñoz-Seca
    Pages 263-267
  8. Manual

    • Beatriz Muñoz-Seca
    Pages 269-338
  9. Back Matter

    Pages 339-367

About this book

This book offers models and frameworks to analyze your service delivery systems as a whole. It presents the framework to solve customer problems by delivering the right knowledge at the right time to the right place and take advantage of the efficiency that technology and algorithms offer.

Why do so many brilliant plans fail to deliver in practice? Why can’t your employees just do what you want them to do? In most cases, because the operations eco-system in which those plans must be deployed fails to fully understand the problem that needs to be solved.

The fourth industrial revolution is seeing advances in Artificial Intelligence industrialize the service sector. But, despite the cost-cutting that these advances offer firms are still struggling to stay competitive. That is because they think that cost-cutting delivers increased efficiency whereas it is the other way around: increased efficiency cuts costs. And the heart of efficiency in delivering services is people andtheir knowledge.

As industrialization drives ever more standardized offerings and ever little human contact it is in those rare moments of human interaction where the greatest opportunity to add or destroy value lies. It is human brains and the knowledge they contain that are best suited to problem-solving and individualizing client solutions. The real competitive edge will become the ability to foresee and individualize problem-solving.

To do this, firms must start thinking of knowledge as inventory – who knows what, who needs to know what and where and when do they need to know it.

Authors and Affiliations

  • IESE Business School , Madrid, Spain

    Beatriz Muñoz-Seca

About the author

Beatriz Muñoz-Seca is Professor in the Operations and Technology Management Department at IESE Business School, University of Navarra. She obtained her PhD at the University of Navarra and holds an MA in Education (Organizational Behavior) from Harvard University.

Dr. Muñoz-Seca worked for over 15 years in national and multinational companies, in both the private and public sectors, in Mexico, the United States, and Spain. She joined IESE in 1990. She teaches Operations Strategy at IESE and at various business schools in Latin America.
She has been an advisor to the European Commission, and has participated in and led numerous international and national projects in her field. She also works as a part-time consultant in operations strategy, service design, and innovation.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: How to Make Things Happen

  • Book Subtitle: A blueprint for applying knowledge, solving problems and designing systems that deliver your service strategy

  • Authors: Beatriz Muñoz-Seca

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54786-2

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Business and Management, Business and Management (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-54785-5Published: 19 September 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-85481-6Published: 09 September 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-54786-2Published: 21 August 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXV, 367

  • Number of Illustrations: 105 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Operations Management, Innovation/Technology Management

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access