Flexibility is generally considered an important driver of customer-perceived value (Lapierre, 2000). In contemporary business environments where the rapid development of new technologies, globalization, and an upheaval in industrial markets have led to increased uncertainty for firms acting in these markets (Sanchez, 1995, Hitt, Keats & DeMarie, 1998), this appears even more pertinent. Further, it is even more relevant for firms that strive to reposition themselves as part of their customers’ businesses (Normann, 2001). Although flexibility may seem like a natural part of service activities, the service literature is rather vague about this notion. For the most part, prior studies merely note that flexibility is important in a service context, with unsubstantiated claims such as “a degree of flexibility, after all, is central to good service” (Lovelock, 1993, p. 46)or “whereas typical manufacturing values often focus on efficiency, economies of scale, and the notion that variety and flexibility are costly, service-oriented values centre on innovation, customization, and the view that flexibility and variety create profits” (Gebauer, Fleisch & Friedli, 2005, p. 21). Indeed, there is an emerging body of research focusing on how flexibility can contribute to customer’s value creation (e.g., Hansen, Samuelsen & Silseth, 2008, Brozovic, Nordin & Kindström, 2016), but no one takes this issue as far as we attempt to do in this article by conceptualizing the “spineless organization”. A spineless organization is here defined as an organizational unit that always puts the customer's needs at the centre and is able tomeet them rapidly and efficiently regardless of what they are about and whether they were expected or not.