Business Services Jobs
Business services refer to a wide range of products and services that aren’t physical commodities. These intangible goods help organizations to achieve their goals and provide them with services they cannot perform themselves.
A service can be defined as any activity that does not result in a physical product, and therefore is not a commodity or an asset. Examples include legal services, accounting, information technology, and management consulting.
Almost every company needs some form of service for its day-to-day operations and to support its sales efforts. Some of these services may be financial or purely administrative in nature, while others involve marketing and logistics.
Businesses can also rely on services for staffing, especially when employees are temporarily out of the office. Rather than hiring a full-time employee, an organization can use a business service company to fill the role in an affordable and timely manner.
The value of a business service can vary widely, from an IT consultant who develops software for a firm based on a contract to a security services provider that provides anti-virus protection and updates for a corporation’s computers. The services industry can be a good option for people who want to diversify their careers and have the ability to work across multiple sectors.
Some of the best businesses services jobs pay well, with some offering bonuses and other perks for employees. For example, a business intelligence service that provides business owners with data about their customers, including click-through rates and financial costs, can be a high-paying job.
There are several ways a business can benefit from the use of business services, such as improving productivity and reducing costs. For instance, a business service company can outsource its accounting, legal, and human resources duties to a professional business service provider so that it can focus on other aspects of its operation.
Another way a service business can boost its profits is to improve the quality of its services. For example, a business service provider that improves the efficiency of its employees’ work can raise productivity levels and reduce employee turnover.
The success of a business service business is directly related to the design and management of its services. This is a fundamental distinction between a product business and a service business, one that is often not appreciated by managers.
As a teaching module at Harvard Business School, I have developed an approach to designing and managing service business that recognizes these differences. It involves four critical elements of the service model (collectively called “service design”) and suggests that they must be aligned for a business to be successful.
Intangibility
The most fundamental difference between a service and a product is intangibility. Because of this, there are several major hurdles to entry for a service business.
For instance, while a product can easily be differentiated and marketed with the aid of a brand name, a service is not usually capable of developing a reputation that will act as a barrier to entry.