In developing the ideas for this book，we have been blessed by atalented array of colleagues within our organization，MarketspaceLLC，and our parent company,Monitor Group，the strategic advisow and merchant banking firm based in Cambridge，Massachusetts．In addition，we have benefited tremendously from our colleaguesin faculty posts at both Harvard Business School(HBS)and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California(USC)，where we served on the faculties，and colleagues elsewhere in botll business and academe．We owe much inspiration and direction to the extraordinary students we had the privilege to teach at Harvard and USC in the M．B．A．programs at both those schools；their intuitive sense for technology and its changing roles in business brought energY,momentum，and inspiration to our thinking．

Companies face increasing demanding customers and a cack of skilled workers to serve them．At the same time，networked“smart”technologies—from Web sites jn retailing tokiosks in shopping-are enabling managersto recruit machines into“front-office”roles that both drive down the costs of consumer interactions and deliver more satisfying customer experiences．

Acknowledgments vii

InProduction xiii

1．Interfaces As the Next Frontier of Competitive Advantage

2．The Interface Imperative

3．The Front-Office Revolution

4．What People Do Best

5．What Machines Do Best

6．Putting the Amalgam of People and Machines to Work

7．Managing Interface Systems

8．The Interface Audit

Notes 

Glossary of Key Terms

Index

About the Authors