Reversing the Trend of Commoditization: A Case Study of the Strategic Planning and Management of a Call Center

The paper challenges the prevalent paradigm that differentiates between the management of a core competence and commodity processes. A case study is conducted to examine the strategic planning and management of a call center to illustrate that a commodity process, such as handling customers’ complaints and enquiries, can be transformed into a core competence, if a clear strategic intent is articulated and adequate management approaches are followed. Findings derived from this study suggest that a call center can provide substantial added value to the business and be managed differently through devising an appropriate intellectual capital management approach.