Dr. Leonard Berry is the author of On Great Service: A Framework for Action; Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality; Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations; Service Quality - A Profit Strategy for Financial Institutions.

He is also the director of the Center for Retailing Studies, editor of the Arthur Andersen Retailing Issues Letter, and former president of the American Marketing Association. His extensive research into the success factors of companies renowned for their quality of service have led him to the conclusion that there are four principles of great service: reliability, surprise, recovery, and fairness. His latest book is Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success (February 1999).

Health Care Agenda for Business
The health care system in the United States is in crisis, and the implications for businesses and their employees are profound. As employers struggle with unrelenting double-digit health insurance cost increases, some firms have decided to drop coverage entirely, and many others have shifted costs to employees. Meanwhile, the quality of the health care being paid for by companies and their workers remains highly uneven. On its own, business cannot solve the health care crisis in all aspects, but that does not mean it cannot do a lot more to improve the system. Some companies are taking more active control over the issue and getting better results on both cost and quality.

To learn from such companies and those who influence and deliver health care services, Dr. Leonard L. Berry has conducted in depth interviews with thought leaders in business, health care and related sectors. The overriding lesson from his research: Companies must build bridges to other players in the system to address the systemic problems that transcend the most powerful corporations. He proposes a partnership-based health care agenda for business that will benefit not only companies and employees but also health care overall by strengthening the market mechanism and encouraging fruitful collaboration.