In today’s rapidly evolving business environment one thing is constant – change. In order to stay relevant, develop competitive advantages and all in all, keep the business sustainable, companies must endure change. Employees are the biggest competitive advantage and asset of a company, so encouraging them to take co-ownership of change initiatives and being active actors in the change process can be the key to successful change efforts. This thesis asks whether service design could be used to enable change in an organisation that wants to start the change from within.

This thesis is a research-oriented development project for the case company Paulig Coffee Division. The aim of this thesis is to design a service concept that would trigger change in an organisation that has noticed the need to involve employees in the change process. The theoretical framework of this thesis explores change by comparing prevailing change management theories to the change process that is designed by using a service design approach.

The service concept is designed with a service design process and by using service design methods. The empirical part of this thesis uses the phases of the socalled Double Diamond, concentrating on its Define and Develop phases. The data in this thesis consist of 14 semi-structured interviews, that are analysed in a workshop by using affinity diagramming and by generating design principles for the service concept. Different service concept ideas were generated in an ideation workshop. This thesis introduces the process until the initial service concept proposal.

Based on the theoretical part of the thesis, it can be argued that compared to prevailing change management models, service design offers an alternative approach to change management. People, employees affected by the change are empowered to lead the change. Also by using a service design approach, the change process can become more organic and behaviour-driven. A company that leverages service design can create a new culture of collaboration where the focus is on designing with customers, not only for them. Service design highlights co-operation and user-centricity and changes simultaneously the way of thinking in the whole organisation and therefore also has an impact on the organizational culture.

The service concept designed as a result of this thesis development project is called Bean Society. The thesis suggests that a service concept that is co-created, creates a sense of community that changes the behaviour of employees and triggers the change. By changing the behaviour, the mind-set can change. The service concept created within this thesis facilitates the change that starts from within.

In order to research whether the service concept triggered the change in the company culture, further research should be made by following the Deliver phase of the Double Diamond process. Also, as the change of a corporate culture takes time, it could be beneficial to research the topic when the Bean Society has worked for some time.