Only the right people are strategic assets of the firm

Purpose - In service-based industries employees are in direct contact with customers, either personally or electronically, completing transactions that are part tangible and part experiential. In such industries, people have become integral to the value proposition. This paper aims to investigate this issue.Design methodology approach - Case examples show how innovative service providers are learning to reconsider their service delivery employees as critical contributors to the value of the firm's offering. The paper focuses on two key questions: Is there a way to tell how people in a service firm are viewed and managed as strategic assets? How can they become strategic assets if they currently aren't?Findings - To make people strategic assets of the firm: Criteria for selection and retention of people must be consistent with company values. Performance management must be linked through measurement to the firm's strategic goals.Originality value - The paper shows how in today's service-based companies, employees are "the center of organizational performance." Where people drive low-cost service (Walmart) or where they become inseparable from the service (JetBlue and Starbucks), employees feel they are valued because they possess an acute awareness of the impact they have on their company's strategy.