APRAMEY DUBE Apramey Dube is a doctoral candidate at the De- partment of Markeing at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. His current research is centered primarily on invesigaing customer ex- periences of smartphone apps. In addiion, Apramey works as a branding and customer experiences ex- pert with the Finnish brand research irm, Brand Au- dit Group. Apramey holds his MBA in internaional busi- ness from the Indian Insitute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in New Delhi, India. During his MBA studies, Apramey was chosen to visit Hanken as an exchange student. He was invited to paricipate in internaion- al research project in associaion with Hanken, IIFT and Emory University, in the USA. As an outcome of this research project, Apramey co-authored his irst book Titans of Branding with Dr. Kirsi Lindberg-Repo in 2009. Apramey’s research is inspired by the Centre for Relaionship Markeing and Service Management (CERS) at Hanken. Deeply inluenced by service mar- keing and management research, Apramey argues strongly in favor of customer-centric experiences and urges companies to focus on these facets for a stronger compeiive advantage in their respecive industries. KIRSTI LINDBERG-REPO Kirsi Lindberg-Repo holds a Ph.D. in markeing from Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland. She has been acively contribuing to branding research for the past 15 years and has extensive experience in co-operaion with academia and praciioners. Also, she has published aricles with Professor Chrisian Grönroos, as well as with Professor Don E. Schultz in markeing journals, such as the Journal of Brand Management, Industrial Markeing Management, and the Legends of Markeing Series (Chrisian Grön- roos). Adjunct Professor Kirsi Lindberg-Repo is a passionate brand enthusiast and recognized expert in the academic ield. She believes in strong brands with a story. Her experise primarily covers the ields of Brand Management, Service Markeing and In- tegrated Markeing Communicaions. Dr. Lindberg- Repo became interested in brands and branding when studying at Cornell University in the 90’s and wrote her dissertaion on the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand. During her research, she has developed a vast network of research partnerships with branding ex- perts, corporate leaders and business intellectuals all around the world, paricularly in the Nordic coun- tries, the USA, and Asia. Presently she works as an adjunct professor at Aalto University, Helsinki and the University of Vaasa. In fall 2013, she was invited as the visiing professor to Singapore Management University (SMU). In addiion, she has founded a re- search company, Brand Audit Group, based in Hel- sinki. Dr. Lindberg-Repo was also the project director charged with leading the BIG 1 & 2 (Branding, Inno- vaion and Globalizaion) projects at CERS, Hanken School of Economics years 2008–2011. In the BIG projects she acted as a research director and was challenged with concurrently managing interna- ional teams in USA, New Delhi, and Singapore. Her engagement with internaional students and re- searchers has also helped her develop a deeper un- derstanding of academic working styles and cultural ethos on a global scale. Dr. Lindberg-Repo has been acively involved in MBA and execuive managerial-level educaion both in Finland and abroad and she has published two books on branding. Going forward, Dr. Lindberg- Repo aims to help companies to become remarkable brands, which will generate growth and build up memorable stories. Hopefully this book will be a part of that story. TITANS OF SERVICE – BUILDING STRATEGIC SERVICE LEADERSHIP Never have services played a larger role in business than they do today. Today’s business demands excepional knowledge and understanding of how services help companies to grow and reach higher proits. New frameworks are needed that help companies achieve a compeiive advantage. Through these frameworks business professionals can under- stand the meaning and importance of customer-centric business models. This idea in- spired us to conduct this research for Titans of Service. TITANS OF SERVICE combines theory with pracical insights, examples and references from experts. Bring- ing together 14 service experts, this book ofers the most up-to-date knowledge from this ield of aca- demia in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In addiion to ofering theoreical insights, pracical guidance and examples, this book also gives an overview of the current and future role of services. Titans of Service provides a framework for thinking about ways in which new knowledge on services is integrated with high proit and growth. This book is a guide for everyone interested in managing services proitably. It is based on substanial research with leading academic experts whom we call Titans, and provides a pracical and insighful frame- work for business leaders, the educaional community and students. We hope that this book will help further the development of service thinking in organizaions and beyond. STRUCTURE OF TITANS OF SERVICE • Foreword by Prof. Don Shultz • Preface by Prof. Rajendra Srivastava • Evoluion of Services: The evoluion of services and their share in business growth • Service Quality: The role of service quality in fostering growth • Relaionship Markeing: The ways in which companies can form proitable relaionships now and in the future. • Internal Branding: The alignment of internal and external brand strategies for employee-led growth. • Service Design: Design as a tool for facilitaing superior customer experiences. • Service Experiences: Experiences as the currency of new economic order • Service Innovaions: Speciic challenges with service innovaions and their role in gaining a compeiive advantage • Service as Business Logic: The new logic of markeing – service as a support of customers’ value creaion processes • B2B Services: The role of increasing service infusion in industrial companies for gaining strategic leadership • Future of Services by Prof. Micael Dahlén • Epilogue by Prof. Chrisian Grönroos BUILDING STRATEGIC SERVICE LEADERSHIP of SERVICE Kirsi Lindberg-Repo Apramey Dube TITANS OF SERVICE – BUILDING STRATEGIC SERVICE LEADERSHIP ISBN 978-952-93-4433-8 ToS_cover_2014-09-05-14-23.indd 1 5.9.2014 14.24