Richard Normann, a Swedish management consultant and researcher, carved a unique and influential path in the world of business thought. His legacy rests on profound insights into service management, interactive strategy, and the very concept of "offerings," fundamentally reshaping how organisations perceive and create value. Born in Finland in 1943, Normann's academic journey culminated in a PhD in Business Economics from Lund University in 1975, quickly leading to a professorship and a distinguished career that bridged academia and practical consultancy.

Early in his career, Normann joined the Scandinavian Institutes of Administrative Research (SIAR), serving as its president from 1976 to 1980. This period proved instrumental in developing his ground-breaking ideas, particularly in the nascent field of service management. He held visiting professorships at the Copenhagen Business School and was a visiting scholar at Harvard Business School, further cementing his international reputation.

A true pioneer, Normann is widely credited with introducing the concept of "mission" in the 1970s, a term now ubiquitous in strategic planning. However, his most enduring contributions lie in demystifying the complexities of service. Working alongside Denis Boyle, he notably collaborated with Jan Carlzon, then CEO of SAS, in the 1980s to develop the transformative idea of "moments of truth" – those critical instances when customers interact with a service and form an impression. This concept became a cornerstone of modern customer experience design.

In 1980, Normann founded the Service Management Group (SMG), and later, NormannPartners AB (https://www.normannpartners.com/), a strategy consulting firm that continues to bear his conceptual legacy. His intellectual output was prolific, marked by seminal works such as "Service Management" (1984), a book considered a definitive text in the field, and later "Reframing Business: When the Map Changes the Landscape" (2001). Through these works, he consistently challenged conventional wisdom, shifting the focus from product-centric thinking to the dynamic processes of value creation and the co-production of value with the customer.

Richard Normann, who passed away in Paris on 18 November 2003, left an indelible mark on management thinking. His life was a testament to intellectual curiosity and a relentless pursuit of practical relevance, shaping the theoretical foundations and strategic practices of the service economy we experience today.