Best in brief: Lean, mean business machine

Cynthia Karen Swank

Lean service management allows measurement of performance and productivity from the customer’s point of view.

best in brief

Harvard Business Review: Lean, mean, business machine

Cynthia Karen Swank

Douglas WestUniversity of Westminster

Specialised niche players offering lower premiums and faster handling for life insurance and annuities policies forced fullservice providers like Jefferson Pilot Financial (JPF) to reevaluate their offerings. In response, JPF appointed a 'lean team' to reengineer its new business operations.

These were methods based on the production practices manufacturers introduced to combat Japanese competition in the 1990s. The basic principle of lean service management is always to measure performance and productivity from the customer's point of view. For example, if call reps...

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