ABOUT THE BOOK

The service sector has been playing an important role in economic growth in Asia in recent years. The contributions of the service sector to labor productivity growth are also notable in the APO member countries as well. In the meantime, while Asia enjoyed double-digit growth in the past, it began to experience downward dips due to the global financial crisis beginning in 2008. In this climate, urgent solutions are sought to revamp national economies.

The service sector has been identified as the engine to trigger an economic rebound. This sector includes a broad spectrum, ranging from education to IT industries, and different types of service businesses have taken different paths for management innovation. In the era after the financial crisis, service enterprises will assume an important role in economic recovery.

The APO Top Management Forum 2009 was held in Kyoto and attended by 32 overseas participants from 16 APO member countries, as well as by 11 local observers. The forum invited speakers from various service businesses to introduce outstanding examples and management models that allowed leading Japanese corporations to succeed in both domestic and global competition. The forum participants benefited from insightful information and experiences shared by the distinguished speakers, to whom I would like to convey my gratitude. With extensive coverage of a variety of service businesses and their management innovation, I am sure that the APO participants will be able to adopt some of the tools and knowledge introduced during the forum to their own national contexts to start economic recovery and further growth in the region.

This publication contains summaries of the presentations on management innovation for productivity improvement in the service sector. I hope that it helps readers review the topics covered in the APO Top Management Forum 2009 as well as expand knowledge of the best practices of service management innovation by leading Japanese companies.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Japanese government for financial support and to the Japan Productivity Center for its assistance in organizing the Top Management Forum.

Shigeo Takenaka
Secretary-General
Tokyo, June 2009