Rethinking operating models for intangible services : from a mechanistic structure to a sustainable model

This paper presents a co-design process in which operations managers and researchers engage in designing within the aim of radically innovate the operations' management thinking focusing on the whole operation's environment and system, beyond operation's optimization. Organization's operating models have a key influence on the organization's governance and strategy. The design of operating models is thus pivotal for organizations and a key stake for those whose operations are based on high speed information and sophisticated knowledge, such as intangible services like banking, financial, insurance or internet services. A main challenge is to produce new knowledge and tools to address specific intangible services' operating models at a time where service systems' operations cannot any more be understood and planned under a mechanistic view of pre-established continuous chains of standardized micro tasks. The focus in this paper is specifically on the challenges related to pass from a static and mechanistic middle and back office operation's system view to a dynamic, living system like operation's model. The design process itself is designed as an iterative action-learning process.