System convergence in the crafting and execution of a services directed strategy: A technology perspective

The focus of this paper is directed at gaining an insight into services strategy formulation and implementation, with specific reference to the integration of the diverse systems involved. These systems were identified in a previous paper presented at the 2014 PICMET conference entitled “Servitization: An Integrated strategic and operational systems framework”. A key difficulty encountered in practice is that as the future unfolds these various systems are subject to constant change, both at an individual, as well as at an interactive level, a reality that renders strategy creation and execution extremely complex. The convergent, emergent systemic effects and the uncertainty and unpredictably it engenders, exposes fundamental difficulties associated with traditional strategic management practice, based on underlying scientific management principles. The research study entails a multi-disciplinary literature review to determine if a complex adaptive systems approach may not be more effective in practice, a key finding emerging from the study being that this is in fact the case. The value of the research study is that the findings emanating from the literature review could inform future management practice.