Orchestrating Collaborative Influence

Investment in human capital is critical for enterprises in general and many services in particular. Because investing in the diverse functions to develop a new service may be expensive, enterprises often undermanage by skimping on human capital and/or failing to deploy functions appropriately for achieving their strategic objectives. Sometimes over managing occurs if functions are engaged when and where they do not add value. Therefore, results from four analyses are summarized to provide guidelines for orchestrating the configuration of human capital. The goal is to optimize investment in 10 kinds of functional expertise. First, which functions do high performers deploy more than low performers and at what phases? Second, which functions have relatively greater impact on performance for enterprises pursuing a strategy of developing radically new offerings? Third, which functions need to be more engaged to the extent enterprises exploit knowledge in their offerings? Fourth, which functions are relatively more important for developing competitive advantage in one or both by developing differentiating features or improving delivery processes. Finally, the role of each of the 10 functions in new service development (NSD) is profiled and contributions to performance detailed. A case example illustrates each role.