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The Service Industries

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Achieving Focus in Service

Organisations
a
Robert Johnston
a
Warwick Business School , University of
Warwick , Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK
Published online: 28 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Robert Johnston (1996) Achieving Focus in Service

Organisations, The Service Industries Journal, 16:1, 10-20, DOI:
10.1080/02642069600000002

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069600000002

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 Achieving Focus in Service Organisations
ROBERT JOHNSTON

This article builds upon the work on focus found in both the
manufacturing and service literatures. The theme of the study is
that lack of focus is a fact of life for many service organisations
but there are many ways in which organisations can achieve the
advantages of focus. The author uses information from thirty
service organisations and proposes that there arejive distinct and
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hierarchical levels at which service organisations may choose to

focus. The jive levels are service concept, business, site, delivery
system and service encounter: Each level is described and some
of the operational implications are identified.

INTRODUCTION

The concept of focus was introduced into the manufacturing literature by

Skinner in 1974 and it has now become one of the central pillars of the
subject of manufacturing strategy [see for example Hayes and Wheelwright,
1984; Hill, 1985,1993; Skinner, 1985; Slack 19911. Skinner [I9741
described the focused factory as one which saw its problems not as
productivity problems but as competitive problems. He maintained that
organisations should not just concentrate on improving the efficiency of
direct labour, for example, but should focus each plant on a concise,
manageable set of products, technologies, volumes, markets and learning to
ensure that manufacturing policies concentrate on one explicit
manufacturing task instead of many inconsistent, conflicting implicit tasks.
Focus was defined as 'a narrow product mix for a particular market
segment' [Skinner, 19741. The key to focus is to understand the needs of a
specific market and to focus all the efforts of the plant on achieving them
through the use of proven technologies. The idea of a consistent and explicit
manufacturing policy was fundamental to the concept of the focused
factory; a factory dedicated to a market, supported by the appropriate
technologies, layout, planning and control systems and structure. Skinner
[I9741 explained the advantage of focus; 'a factory that focuses on a narrow
product mix for a particular market niche will out perform a conventional

Robert Johnston is at Wanvick Business School. University of Warwick, Coventry C V 4 7AL,

UK.

The Service Industries Journal. Vol.l6, No. 1 (January 1996). pp. 10-20
P U R I . I S H E I > B Y F R A N K CASS. I.ONDON
 ACHIEVING F O C U S IN SERVICE ORGANISATIONS 11
plant, which attempts a broader mission'.
Much has been written developing and refining this concept. Hayes and
Wheelwright [1984], for example, identified focus as a key element of a
firm's manufacturing strategy; 'an effective strategy usually requires
concentrating one's activity, effort or attention on a fairly narrow range of
pursuits. Focusing on these chosen activities implicitly reduces the
resources available for other activities.' Hayes and Wheelwright identified
four dimensions of focus, the markets served, the production volumes of
different products, the degree of product customisation required, and the
nature of the process technology employed.
Hill [I9851 developed a framework to show how firms can 'provide
coordinated manufacturing support for the essential ways in which products
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win orders in the market-place at a level which is better that its competitors
are able to do'. His argument attempted to lead organisations away from the
traditional marketing-led strategies, towards a strategy that coordinates the
needs and characteristics of the market place with the capabilities of the
manufacturing unit. Hill summarised focused manufacturing as dealing with
'the issue of linking an organisation's manufacturing facility to the
appropriate competitive factors of its business(es) with the aim of enabling
that company to gain a greater control of its competitive position'. Hill also
argued that Skinner's definition of narrowness of tasks is misleading and
may lead to simplistic approaches to what is in essence a complex task. He
argued for focus to be based upon the homogeneity of tasks and repetition
and experience within the manufacturing firm,and, in response to Hayes
and Wheelwright, that there is also a need to reflect on the order-winning
criteria of products when establishing the basis for choice of dimension of
focus. Hill and other authors underpinned their work using two different
types of focus; product focus and process focus [see for example: Hayes and
Schmenner, 1978; Hill 1989; Hill and Duke-Woolley, 19831. Product focus
implies a general purpose manufacturing facility; an ability 'to meet the
needs of a range of products, including product development'. A process
focused plant 'is designed to meet the needs of a relatively narrow range of
products, normally with high volume and/or similar process requirements'.
He then linked these two dimensions to the product life cycle, arguing that
product focus is appropriate for the early and decline stages and process for
the mature stage.
It would seem that the concept of focus has become an important
weapon in the manufacturing strategy armoury. Its application has taken
many diverse forms such as plant-within-plant, the application of group
technology, the use of general-purpose plant and the use of dedicated
facilities [Harrison, 19921. However, it would appear that consensus about
the definition and nature of focus is, as yet, some way off.
 12 T H E SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL
SERVICE FOCUS

It was only a matter of time before the concept of focus was applied to
service organisations. Heskett [I9861 was one of the first to argue for
focused strategies in service organisations. Focused operations, he claimed,
are at the heart of all successful operations; 'successful firms have identified
those elements of strategic importance and have concentrated their efforts,
investments and controls on them'. Van Dierdonck and Brandt [I9881 stated
that, 'there is little doubt that the concept of focused factory applies equally
well, or even more, to service industries'. They used the definition of focus
developed by Hill and Hayes and Wheelwright and agreed that focus 'does
not necessarily mean narrowing of the product line'. They identified that
focus could be the opposite, where focus means focusing on a particular
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theme or concept that might include many diverse but supporting products
or services (a multi-service concept for example as defined by Morgan
[1988]). Focus, they suggested, is the development of an interaction
between marketing and service production.
Davidow and Uttal [I9891 suggested that one of the problems of the
decline in service quality (in the USA) is the lack of focus in service
organisations: 'Tight focus is imperative because you can't provide great
service unless your business system is optimised to the needs of a certain
segment'.
Heskett et al. [I9901 suggested that focus can be achieved along two
dimensions, range of services and targeted customer segments. They
provided many examples of service organisations that have taken strategic
decisions to focus their operations. These two dimensions were also used by
Johnston and Kimes [I9901 and Kimes and Johnston [I9901 to compare and
contrast the competitive strategies of several different service organisations.

CAN UNFOCUSED OPERATIONS B E SUCCESSFUL'?

Both the manufacturing and service literatures seem to imply that focus is a
good thing and that focusing operations are an important means of gaining
competitive advantage. However, some service organisations may not have
the opportunity or desire to focus on a targeted set of customers or limited
set of services. The success of hypermarkets is based upon their lack of
focus. Multi-screen cinemas are designed to provide a wide range of
services for a wide range of markets. It is difficult to imagine Disney or
Alton Towers considering restricting their clientele to the 10-15-year-olds
for example, or reducing their range of rides to the 'white knuckle rides'
only. It is unlikely that many Trust House Forte Hotels. whilst
acknowledging their main executive market, would ignore the leisure
 ACHIEVING FOCUS1 IN SERVICE ORGANISATIONS 13
market and not provide the range of services and facilities required to attract
such customers to its hotels. It is inconceivable that Thomas Cook, one of
the UK's largest travel agents, should do anything other than provide a wide
range of holidays for a wide range of customers. The police, ambulance and
medical services have little choice but to try to cope with anything and
everything that comes their way. In the days of comprehensive schools,
superstores and medical centres, there is a need to manage, and manage
efficiently, unfocused service operations.
The question that this article seeks to address is how do these apparently
unfocused organisations, whose task is to serve customers with a wide
variety of expectations with a ,wide range of services, gain the advantages
extolled by the focused literature? There are three important points here.
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Firstly, it is suggested that unfocused operations are prevalent in the service

sector. Secondly, having an unfocused operation is not necessarily a 'bad
thing'. Thirdly, and most importantly; focus, and its advantages, can be
acquired in different ways.

FIVE L E V E L S O F S E R V I C E F O C ' ~ J S

It is proposed that service organisations do gain the advantages of focus but

this can be achieved at a variety of levels within an organisation. These
levels and their associated 'approaches to focus are based upon the
development of the concept of focus discussed above, upon discussions
with senior managers from thirty service organisations and on published
material about service organisations. The structured discussions with the
executives centred on the nature of the business (service concept) and how
the organisation tried to match its operations to the needs of the market
place, jn particular how it sought to gain advantage b; either limiting its
range of tasks. andlor limiting the range- of customer's needs that were
provided for. The organisations covered a wide range of service providers
including hotel and catering organisations, leisure, tourism, 'retailing
utilities and financial services.
The ways in which organisations operationalised focus separated into
five distinct and hierarchical levels. The five levels of focus are service
concept focus, business focus,, site focus,, delivery, system focus and
encounter focus (see Figure 1j. ~he'fi&tlevel, concept. focus, is the type of
focus identified by, for example, .Heskett et al. [1990] and Kimes and
~ohnston[1990], and is based upon the tw.6 main dime"sions found'al'so in
the manufacturing literature (maiket focus and product/service focus). be
next three levels have similarities with the ways in which'focus has been
implemented in manufacturing organisationi. The fifth isnot . .found
, i n the
manufacturing focus literature.
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL

FIGURE 1
FIVE TYPES OF SERVICE FOCUS
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Delivery system

Encounter
/
LEVEL O N E - SERVICE CONCEPT FOCUS

The highest level of focus exists at a service concept level; a strategic

statement about the nature of the business. Heskett et al. [I9901 and
Johnston and Kimes [I9901 provided a classification for the types of focus
at this level where a range of service concepts could be defined by two
continua, market focus and service focus. The resulting two by two matrix,
identifying four basic service concepts, is shown in Figure 2.

The Four Basic Service Concepts

A 'focused' (i.e., service and market focused) organisation, is one which
provides a very limited range of services, perhaps just a single core service,
to a narrow and specific market segment. Lunn Poly Travel, for example,
whose service concept is 'the sale and support of inclusive tour packages'
does not provide the normal trappings of a high street travel agency, rail
tickets, foreign currency and hotel bookings for example, but sells only
inclusive tours to the package holiday market.
 ACHIEVING F O C U S IN SERVICE ORGANISATIONS 15
FIGURE 2
THE FOUR BASIC SERVICE CONCEPTS

many
Service Unfocused
focused
Number of
T
Eve hingfor
ev ryone
markets
served
Service and Market
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market focused
focused
few
narrow wide
A market focused organisation, whilst concentrating on a narrow market
segment, provides a wide range of services. The service concept of
American Express, for example, is 'to provide a range of services to support
the international traveller'.
A service-focused organisation would be one which provides a narrow
range of services to a wide market. Barclaycard, for example, states that its
business is 'to provide credit facilities through the use of a card accepted in
retail outlets throughout the World'. Recent additions to Barclaycard's
service, however, would seem to suggest that it is moving more toward the
American Express style of business.
Many service organisations are unfocused at the service concept level.
They choose to serve wide markets and provide a wide range of services,
that is 'doing everything for everybody'. The service concept of Alton
Towers, the UK's answer to Disney, is 'to provide an inclusive package of
magnificent surroundings, historic heritage, fun and fantasy to suit all ages
and tastes'. It specifically caters for all ages, from under eight to over eighty.
It provides a wide range of activities from 'white knuckle ri'des' to
spectacular gardens in order to entertain all of the age groups, in the same
place, at the same time. Indeed, many of the 'white knuckle rides' have
other entertainments nearby, such as barrel organs, museums and tea shops,
to allow family groups ro stay close together during their stay in the park.
Figure 3 depicts the relative positions of the four organisations in terms
of their service concepts.
 16 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL
FIGURE 3
COMPARING THE CONCEPTS OF THE FOUR ORGANISATIONS

many a
Alton
a Towers
Barclaycard
Number of
markets
served
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Lunn American
Poly Express
Travel
few
narrow wide
Range of services

LEVEL TWO - BUSINESS FOCUS

Those organisations that are, and intend to be, unfocused at a concept level,
may chose to focus their operations at a business level. This can be
implemented by having each site, in a multi-site service organisation,
specialise on a particular market segment or on the provision of particular
services. The whole business, however, will in total cover a wide range of
services and/or market segments, that is 'do everything for everybody'.
A good example of this is in the hotel sector where a number of hotel
chains have focused specific locations on particular market segments.
Holiday Inn, for example, have separated their hotels into Crown Plaza
Hotels (known as Embassy Suites in the USA) and Garden Court Hotels
(called Hampton Inns outside Europe). The service concept of the Crown
Plaza Hotels is 'to provide the very best in service and amenities ... [they]
are designed for both business and leisure travellers. They feature speciality
restaurants, executive floors, health facilities, bell service, door service, and
outstanding meeting facilities'. The Garden Court Hotels are 'three star
hotels located mainly in smaller towns and cities. They offer an intimate
reception area and a small bistro-style restaurantlbar.' Garden Court hotels
 ACHIEVING FOCUS IN SERVICE ORGANISATIONS 17
provide meeting rooms and a fitness area. All this is coupled with courteous
but 'no-frills service'. While at a service concept level, Holiday Inn
provides a wide range of facilities for everybody, they have focused at a
business level and cater for segments on different sites. This is one way in
which organisations who wish to 'do everything for everybody' may gain
some of the benefits of focus.
But what about organisations that do everything for everybody and want
to have each site catering for a wide range of customers providing a wide
range of services, i.e., an unfocused concept and an unfocused business? For
such organisations there may be opportunities to focus at the level of the
individual site.
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LEVEL THREE - S I T E F O C U S

Site focus may be achieved using the 'multi-service concept' [Morgan,

19881 where many different parts of the site specialise in the provision of
particular services or are aimed at particular market segments. Morgan
applied this.concept to a very large site, a purpose-built ski resort, where
kindergarten services, ski school, restaurants, hotel accommodation, chalet
rental and sales are all available. All of which services are owned and
operated by a single organisation though each part is run as a separate unit.
The implementation of this concept, on a smaller scale, is sometimes
referred to as a shop-within-shop (similar to the plant-within-plant concept).
An example of this is a retail store that has different departments either
catering for different types of goods or providing only a narrow range of
goods but segmented by age group for example. This concept has also been
referred to as the 'one-stop shop' where a large variety of services and
products can be purchased from under one roof. Some examples include the
customer service bureaux now operated by some of the water, gas and
electricity companies or the DVLC (the Driver Vehicle Licensing Centre)
whose first point of call is expected to be able to deal with the vast majority
of incoming enquires.
This strategy allows for the benefits of focus to be gained at the level of
the site whilst still providing everything for everybody at that location. The
strategy of some organisations is, however, to provide everything for
everybody at the concept level. the business level and even the site level.
The amount of focus and the ability to focus may then rely upon multiple
delivery systems to manage the variety of customer needs and services.

LEVEL FOUR - DELIVERY S Y S T E M F O C U S

Focus can, at.this level, be implemented by using multi-channel service

 18 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL

systems, either sequential or in parallel. In such operations customer needs

and expectations are diagnosed at one stage before filtering and dispatching
them to the appropriate next stage in the service or by bringing different
service workers andlor facilities to the customer. The key to delivery system
focus implementation is having specialist service workers who concentrate
on a sub-set of the total task. A large menu car repair shop, for example, will
have specialist diagnosticians, body repairers, mechanical engineers and
specialist engine tuners who will be brought to the job as and when
necessary.

LEVEL FIVE - E N C O U N T E R F O C U S
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There are some organisations that may wish to be unfocused at all the above
levels, that is they provide a wide range of services for a wide market, in
each location and in all their delivery systems. The ultimate level and
opportunity to manage trying to 'do everything for everybody' falls upon
the contact employee. The ability of the organisation to focus on a set of
customers or the provision of a set of services rests with the individual
contact employee at the service encounter.
To gain the advantages of focus at this level requires a degree of skill and
the training of each service worker. The SAS group of hotels, for example,
have been training their receptionists not to follow the standard list of
greetings and questions in order to process the customer through check-in
but to empower them to vary the service provided according to what they
believe to be the needs of the incoming customer. They might treat
incoming business executives quickly yet courteously, accepting that they
are a frequent user of hotels whose need is simply to sign a card and take a
key. The needs of a family might be perceived to be different and the
receptionist encouraged to spend more time explaining the hotel's leisure
facilities or the room service meals and some nearby attractions. The
receptionist service to them is a main supporting service, whereas to the
business person i t is merely a facilitator.

CONCLUSION

It would appear that the current views of focus are too restrictive. The
definitions of, and approaches to, focus found in the literature, whilst
reflecting major strategic choices, do not adequately reflect the way in
which focus can be operationalised.
Whilst some service organisations do focus themselves upon a particular
market segment or limit themselves to providing a narrow range of services,
many service organisations do not or cannot. Yet some such organisations
 A C H I E V I N G FOCUS I N S E R V I C E O R G A N I S A T I O N S 19
do appear to be able to gain the benefits of focus at different levels in the
organisation. Whilst their overall business intention may be to service all
markets with a wide range of services (doing everything for everybody),
there are several hierarchical levels at which they can and do focus. It has
been suggested in this study that focus strategies can be grouped into levels
of decision-making, each contingent upon each other. It has also proposed
that while unfocused service concepts are prevalent, service operations and
encounters can be successfully designed to make the most of the lack of
focus at a concept level.
As organisations make strategic decisions about not only the amount of
focus but also the level at which focus occurs, the operation needs to be able
to respond appropriately in terms of facilities, processes and staff. The
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higher the level of focus the greater will be the opportunities for the
standardisation of locations, facilities, services, service processes and
service worker tasks. The lower the level of focus the greater will be the
complexity of the service encounter due tq the increasing need for flexibility
and customisation during the service encounter. An organisation which
focuses at the lowest, encounter level will require the service worker to have
considerable knowledge of the products and services, the ability and
authority, to customise the encounter, and to initiate subsequent service
activities. The success of this has implications for the recruitment, training
and empowerment of front line staff.
This article has reported on some exploratory ideas, based upon the
evidence of a small number of service organisations. Much further work is
required. Other levels of focus may exist and some may be more prevalent
in some types of service organisation than others. There is also a need to
develop and test the operational implications of each level of focus by firstly
classifying the types of focus employed and secondly by identifying the key
operations tasks. It might also be possible to identify what appears to be
good and bad practice in the implementation of the different levels of
service focus. A final development, currently underway, is to develop the
'levels of service focus' into a diagnostic tool. This will allow managers to
review any shifts in focus that have taken place over time and to evaluate
whether changes to the service, the service concept and delivery systems are
aligned to those movements. The tool should also allow managers to
compare their focus profile against the competition to identify weaknesses
and opportunities for differentiation.
 THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL

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