Fleet Care: Servicising in the Humanitarian World

Published 30 Sep 2009
Reference 5631
Topic Operations
Region Global
Length 15 page(s)
Summary

Denmark-based Kjaer Group had supplied vehicles and services to humanitarian fleets since 1977. In 2005, in an effort to differentiate their value proposition from that of other suppliers to the sector, they devised an integral fleet management solution, thereby moving from a product to a service based offering (servicising) for their customers. This case looks at the key issues involved in making such a transition in an atypical context. Challenges for Kjaer Group included: pinpointing humanitarian organisations’ real needs, identifying who within the client organisations had decision-making authority to implement the solution, and overcoming the traditional suspicion felt by humanitarians towards the private sector.

Teaching objectives

a) To demonstrate how servicising can be a valuable option for a firm faced with saturation of their core market (Sawhney, Balasubramanian, Krishnan, 2004) b) To highlight the difficulties involved in accurately assessing the needs of the humanitarian sector c) To explore the main customer-related challenges as the firm makes the transition from a product to a service based offering d) To examine the challenges in securing the uptake of a new concept (servicising) by a known but unfamiliar sector.

Keywords
  • servicising
  • fleet management
  • humanitarian operations
  • humanitarian/private sector collaboration
  • decision making
  • RD0909
  • AR2009
  • AR0910