Executive Thought Leadership

In February, Cisco® and the Center for Digital Strategies at the Tuck School of Business held the third Thought Leadership Summit on Digital Strategies in Durham, North Carolina. More than 20 CIOs, senior executives, and academic leaders participated in a roundtable discussion to explore the issues of moving service and support from cost-reduction tactics to top-line revenue strategies. Industry participants came from such Fortune 250 companies as 3M, Eaton, General Motors, Lowe's, and Whirlpool—recognized leaders in service and support practices.

Thought Leadership

The session moderator was Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes magazine—a highly engaging thinker and presenter. A key academic participant was Hans Brechbuhl, executive director of The Center for Digital Strategies of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and author of the article "Best Practices: Establishing Service Organizations in Product Companies," which appears in this edition of the Executive Thought Leadership Quarterly.

Guru Q&A

To complement Brechbuhl's article, the Guru Q&A includes an exchange with Richard Chase, professor of operations management at Marshall School of Business at USC; Frances Frei, professor at Harvard Business School; and M. Eric Johnson, professor at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, who share their views on topics such as maintaining customer satisfaction and instilling customer loyalty.

Overall, the Thought Leadership Summit produced some striking insights from top managers, CIOs, and university thought leaders on how companies can take advantage of their service and support operations to create top-line opportunities. We share these insights with you here.

I hope you enjoy this issue of the Executive Thought Leadership Quarterly .