The purpose of this book is to provide both academic and industry perspectives on T-shaped talent as a framework to develop the next generation workforce. This book will include a number of chapters from the authors of this book (Y. Moghaddam, H. Demirkan and J. Spohrer), and edited chapters from a number of additional experts who have been working on next generation of workers.

The ISSIP BEP T-Summit collection aims to offer insights and practical wisdom easily applicable to the workplace. The context in which service is designed, delivered and experienced has been changing fundamentally. With exponentially growing and evolving technology-enabled, service transformations and innovations (e.g. IBM, Rolls-Royce, Amazon, Google, Lego, Disney, Tesco, iTunes, Uber, Smart Phones, Etsy, AirBnB, eBay).

With this project, we envision to capture the latest thinking, experiences and results, and to publish a collection of practical, focused, easily digestible short papers in the increasingly important area of T-shape talent development, which integrates a variety of disciplines – including areas in engineering, social sciences and management – to focus education, research and practice on an expanding innovation economy.