Workers as Wine Grapes in a Smart Service System

Service-dominant (S-D) logic provides a distinct perspective on markets. Instead of treating people as units of labor, it focuses on how value is co-created through interactions and relationships. At Placement Loop, this is the foundation of how we design workforce systems.

From Wine Grapes to Humans

Winemaking is a helpful metaphor:

• The platform is the vineyard’s soil — the base that enables growth.

• Intermediary organizations provide the platform and govern the rules of the vineyard.

• Suppliers act like the leaves, delivering essential nutrients to workers.

• Code and AI act as vines, carrying insights from intermediaries and suppliers to the grapes.

• The grapes are the workers, shaping the quality of the wine.

• The wine is the outcome, created to add value for all participants, including customers.

Why this matters for workforce development

Placement Loop translates this system directly into workforce development:

• The Job Marketplace-In-A-Box is the vineyard.

• Recruiting firms and sector-based workforce development organizations act as intermediaries.

• Worker Data Accounts (WDA) and AI carry information directly to workers.

• Workers themselves determine the quality of outcomes.

Just as grapes sit at the center of a vineyard, workers sit at the center of a smart service system. Their pursuit of well-being drives everything else. The role of the platform is not to control them, but to provide the architecture that enables them to thrive.

That’s what makes Placement Loop different: the worker isn’t a product. The worker is the system’s value creator.