In the period following the global financial crisis (GFC), PlaceMakers and their trade account clients were faced with difficult trading conditions as the number of building consents issued plunged. The imperative quickly changed from simply getting sufficient supply to clients in the pre-GFC building boom to ensuring they had the best possible relationships with their trade customers.

As competition increases and customers become more demanding, service organisations are recognising the need to become more market oriented. This requires developing and being guided by “outside-in” as opposed to “inside-out” processes.

However, many organisations are finding this difficult to achieve. Using the framework developed by Day, the authors examine the use of service principles to transform a large public sector service organisation so it is more market oriented. The authors examine the catalysts that initiated the change, how the change program was designed, and how it was implemented.