Why should your field service organization care about change management?

What does the term ‘change management’ mean? And why is it relevant to someone working in field service? Let us explore a little bit.

‘Change management’ is a concept usually associated with Human Resources. At the most basic level, it refers to your organization making changes -- in terms of people -- in structure, approaches, revenue models, or anything involving (a) a business concept and (b) how that business concept impacts people.

One reason that ‘change management’ has become a major focus in the last decade is because of this other idea called ‘disruption.’ That idea refers to a smaller, faster-moving (can make decisions faster), well-funded company coming along and starting to out-perform you. The classic examples are Amazon ‘disrupting’ the traditional bookstore model, and Uber ‘disrupting’ cab companies and local transportation.

So the idea is that you need to think about ‘change management’ in your organization in order to avoid being ‘disrupted’ by another company.

How does this apply to field service management?

Let us begin with some research from Wharton on the four types of business models in 2016:

As a FSO, you are in the second category: service provider.

However, now look at these four types of business models in terms of financial returns, also via Wharton:

Service providers do well -- usually 2nd or 3rd in each category -- but in general, ‘network orchestrator’ companies are doing the best financially in recent American history.

This is where ‘field service’ intersects with ‘change management,’ because it is potentially in your best interest to shift your corporate model toward a ‘network orchestrator.’

This might confuse you at first. You are a service company. How can a service company just change its business model to something else? That is impossible!

It is hard, yes, but it is not impossible.

Here is the definition Wharton gives for a ‘network orchestrator:’

• Network orchestrators deliver value through relationships (network capital). These companies create a platform that participants use to interact or transact with the many other members of the network. They may sell products, build relationships, share advice, give reviews, collaborate and more.

Now this should start to make more sense. To change your field service company, you need to move beyond fix and repair -- the service part -- and move toward building relationships, especially with customers.

In fact, one of the strongest paths to growth in FSM is via moving beyond fix and repair and thinking about broader, different aspects of your business. We put together an entire eBook on moving beyond fix and repair, which you can download. It will give you a few ideas on how to move from a ‘service company’ to a ‘network orchestrator’ -- and in the process, maybe start moving some of your own bar graphs to bigger numbers like in the chart above.

Written by Shloma Baum