Keynote Speakers

Building A Robust Services Business – A Platform for Economic Growth

J.B. Wood
President and CEO
AFSMI, SSPA, SRII & TPSA

Services play a pivotal role in the success of technology companies and the customers they serve. Leading a thriving services business requires up-to-date knowledge and understanding of the key market dynamics at play and how to best leverage them to your advantage. Learn what is happening in the global technology services market in the critical areas of services organisational design, service innovation, and value-added service strategies. Presented by J.B. Wood, President and Chief Executive Officer of AFSMI, SSPA, SRII and TPSA, service leaders will gain unique and valuable insights derived from proprietary association research and data sets, including the Europe Service 20—a new services market index that tracks financial and other leading performance indicators—that will empower participants to assess their current service capabilities and formulate new strategic options for driving profitable services growth.

About J.B. Wood
J.B. Wood spearheads a broad agenda of vital strategic initiatives as the services industry enters the 21st century. Wood is particularly interested in programs which enhance the practical value of technology companies by educating executives on ways to heighten efficiencies, customer brand loyalty, and overall return-on-investment. Wood also spends a considerable amount of time on advocacy issues, helping build awareness of the vital role that services play across a growing spectrum of both business-to-business and consumer product categories.

Previously, Wood was a co-founder of InsightExpress, which pioneered use of the Internet in market research applications, resulting in quantum reductions in the cost, time and complexity of research. Prior to InsightExpress, he was president and CEO of Prognostics, one of the largest research and consulting companies in the IT industry. Wood also spent 10 years in the software industry as a marketing executive.

Over the course of his career, Wood has counseled hundreds of leading companies including Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM, on leveraging quantitative, verifiable metrics to improve products and services through a more concise understanding of their customer bases.

 

Seasons of Ownership - Delivering Services from the Customer's Perspective

Gregory M. Sebasky
Senior Vice President and CEO
Global Customer Services
Philips Medical Systems

Philips Medical Systems is a leading provider of Imaging Systems, Home Healthcare Systems, Healthcare Informatics and Ultrasound & Monitoring Solutions in over 60 countries worldwide. Known for advanced technology and innovative design, Philips Medical Systems is now focusing on the customer’s environment to design and deliver services that fit each “Season of Ownership”. Greg Sebasky, Senior Vice President and CEO of Global Customer Services for Philips Medical Systems will discuss the company’s service strategy and how they have used customer feedback initiatives to advance beyond “break-fix” to a full suite of services for their medical systems customers. Greg will also share some of the ways in which Philips as overcome the challenges of supporting complex medical solutions in a mission-critical healthcare environment.

About Greg Sebasky
Greg Sebasky is Senior Vice President and CEO of Global Customer Services for Philips Medical Systems.  Prior to accepting this role, he was President of MedQuist, Inc., a public company 70% owned by Philips Electronics. In his current position, Mr. Sebasky is responsible for the growth and profit of Medical Systems’ Customer Services business globally.   He is based in Andover, Massachusetts. 

With more than twenty-three years of experience in healthcare at Hewlett Packard, Agilent Technologies, and Philips, Sebasky has been in a variety of senior general management and financial roles. 
Greg graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor's of business administration degree. He also holds a master's of business administration degree from the Harvard Business School.

He is a member of the Harvard Healthcare Forum and Financial Executives Institute.

 

Competing with Service - Profitably

Laurie Young
International Services Marketing Specialist
Laurie Young Consulting

Many product companies, including famous names such as Unisys, Ericsson, IBM, Nokia and HP, have considered moving into or setting up service businesses. Yet very little has been published on this profound transition. As a result, myths and misinformation abounds.

Drawing on his unique experience of being at the heart of these changes in several organisations, and with case studies from companies like IBM, Fujitsu, BT, Ericsson and Nokia, Laurie Young will shortly be publishing his latest book – From Products To Services: Insights and experience from companies which have embraced the service economy.

In his keynote speech, Laurie will preview the findings of his book, examining how leading firms have addressed crucial issues in operations, sales, brand, NPD and marketing. He will look at the methods for adapting service propositions for international markets and how to avoid the impact on margins of the move from product to services has had for some.

About Laurie Young:
Laurie Young is an international specialist in the marketing and selling of services whose career has included senior positions with BT, Unisys and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has also founded, built, and sold his own consultancy company. Laurie now assists senior executives with strategic marketing issues, brand strategy, new service design, and client care programmes. Laurie is chairman of Fujitsu's Customer Experience Management panel and is on the Innovation Board of Allen & Overy. Laurie has published over a hundred articles on service marketing. In 2007 he was awarded the AFSMI writer's award.

 

Succeeding through Service Innovation: Implications for Education, Business and Policy

In July 2007, IBM and the University of Cambridge orchestrated an international symposium to help distil the key issues surrounding the nature of service and to identify guidelines for future development.  The essence of the meeting was captured by a discussion paper “Succeeding through Service Innovation” to stimulate debate and build consensus about areas for future development.  This presentation describes the rationale and key messages of the document.  It is followed by a panel session with representatives from Cambridge, IBM and SRII, to encourage further discussions as to how academics, businesses and government bodies can work together to address knowledge and skill gaps in service innovation.

Professor Mike Gregory University of Cambridge	Kevin Bishop Vice President ibm.com, Europe	Tom Pridham Executive Director SRII

About Mike Gregory
Professor Mike Gregory is Head of the Manufacturing and Management Division of the University Engineering Department and of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM). The IfM was created to link science, engineering, management and economics and to integrate education, research and practice. His work is mainly on the interface between engineering, management and policy and he is actively involved in the Institute's work in these areas. He is heavily engaged in ensuring close University/Industry links and directs - with senior colleagues - the Institute's Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre.

About Kevin Bishop
Kevin is the Vice President of ibm.com in Europe with responsibility for telephone and web based sales across IBM’s full product and services portfolio, plus telephone and web based client management for IBM’s smaller clients. In addition to his line management responsibilities Kevin is Partnership Executive for IBM’s relationship with Cambridge University (since 2004), where he co-chaired the Symposium on SSME with Mike Gregory. Kevin is also a Trustee of IBM United Kingdom Trust (since 2002) and was a Director of IBM UK Financial Services Limited (from 1988 to 2002).

Outside of IBM, Kevin is Visiting Professor of Marketing at University of Bedfordshire (since 2004) and a regular contributor to the Cranfield Multichannel Marketing research group (since 2003). He was Chairman the Chartered Institute of Marketing's enquiry into Media Neutral Planning (2003) and is a regular speaker on these and other topics. Kevin is also Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors and a member of their Think Tank on the future of marketing.

About Tom Pridham
Tom Pridham is the executive director of the SRII. In this role, Tom is leading the Service Research & Innovation initiative (SRII) to fulfill its mission to increase the amount of funding for services research, development and innovation in the technology industry. Pridham also maintains overall responsibility for developing and providing members of SSPA, TPSA and AFSMI with access to core knowledge and capabilities of the associations as well as their advanced programs which include Organizational Certification, Operational Service & Support Consulting, Advisory Services, Executive Education, and Individual Education & Training.

Previously, Tom was the CEO of Diversified Software; President of Micro Optics Design Corporation and Vice President, Western Region, for Amdahl Corporation. In each of these executive roles he gained the knowledge and experience that service and support is a critical foundation for effective and efficient procurement, installation, implementation, integration, deployment and ongoing use of hardware, software and services to global corporations. As a result, Tom shares SSPA’s passion for the need for technology companies to increase their investment in service research and innovation in order to meet the growing complexity and demands of our service based economy.

 

The Package Paradox

Thomas Lah
Executive Director
TPSA

Do technology providers want to be solution providers and  trusted advisors that deliver custom, expanding service engagements? Or, do technology providers want to engineer productized solutions that deliver repeatable business benefits for customers and consistent service margins for the providers? In this closing keynote session, Thomas Lah, Executive Director of The Technology Professional Services Association and author of Building Professional Services, will explore this tension to expand customer intimacy and simultaneously drive service consistency that exists within all technology companies.

About Thomas Lah
Thomas Lah co-founded and currently serves as the Executive Director for the Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA).

Since 1996, Thomas Lah has helped a broad range of companies establish or improve their professional services organizations. Prior to TPSA, as founder and principal of Thomas Lah, Ltd. he became known worldwide for his incisive analysis, strategic thinking, and creative solutions. His recent books include Mastering Professional Services (Professional Services Press, 2005), and Building Professional Services: The Sirens' Song (Prentice Hall, 2002). Mastering Professional Services (Professional Services Press, 2005), is the first complete guide to designing a viable services strategy that complements a broader company portfolio. Building Professional Services: The Sirens' Song (Prentice Hall, 2002), has been adopted by technology companies throughout the world, including China’s Lenovo, which acquired IBM’s PC business in early 2005.

In 2004, he was invited to Zhejiang University in China to lecture on the topic of building professional services. In his earlier career, he was Director of Solutions Engineering at Silicon Graphics. Previously, he worked with several other companies in related roles, including Director of Solutions Engineering, Business Development Director, Regional Sales Director, and Senior I/T Development Manager.

He received an undergraduate degree in Information Systems and holds an MBA from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.