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Results from the Accenture Learning 2004 survey of 285 cross-industry learning executives reveal that a select group of “high-performance learning organizations” are leading the way when it comes to the impact of learning and training on overall performance.

Content: Article | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Best Practices, Management

How can an organization derive maximum innovation and strategic value from its IT function? By adopting a three-stage approach that considers IT mastery as a management and organizational capability rather than a primarily technical one.

Content: Article | Authors: Gary A. Curtis, Jeanne G. Harris | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Best Practices, IT / Technology / E-Business

Mapping spending plans to industry averages is one strategy to help set competitive levels, but averages are, well, average. Better yet, an examination of spending priorities of best-in-class peers can shed valuable light on spending levels and priorities.

The best comparisons are against frugal spenders that consistently achieve a high ROI from IT investments. This may or may not reveal a “silver bullet,” but it can … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Tom Pisello | Source: BetterManagement.com | Subjects: Best Practices, IT / Technology / E-Business

A new survey shows that consumer goods companies can streamline their operations without compromising customer service.

Content: Article | Authors: Jochen Grosspietsch, Jörn Küpper | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Operations

New research shows a large and growing gap between companies in their approaches to marketing-a gap that increasingly corresponds to similar variations in their financial performance. Here’s how a handful of companies have achieved significant business impact with marketing capabilities so pioneering, and so broadly applied, that they are true pacesetters.

Content: Article | Authors: John G. Freeland, Paul F. Nunes, Stephen Dull | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Best Practices, Marketing / Sales

Performance anatomy is perhaps the most elusive characteristic of all great companies. But with its distinctive perspective on the interaction between leadership and strategy, people development, IT enablement, performance measurement and innovation, it is critical to defining a high-performance business.

Content: Article | Authors: Robert J. Thomas, Tim Breene | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Best Practices, Management

Here’s how growth companies do it.

Content: Article | Authors: Michael Treacy, Robert P. Gandossy | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Best Practices, Management

Executives wanting to know how their organization’s performance stacks up in comparison with that of their industry peers and leading-edge organizations worldwide can access a valuable new resource. A group of large corporations, government organizations and consulting firms has joined forces with the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), a Houston-based nonprofit, to form the Open Standards Benchmarking Collaborative. The organization will create and promote … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) | Subject: Best Practices

Companies beginning an outsourcing initiative often have more questions than answers. This article presents the results of a study by Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit, synthesizing the outsourcing best practices and ideas of hundreds of global executives from companies who have “been there, done that.” In addition to the overall results, you can see specific survey results by industry, including automotive, consumer goods and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Sources: Accenture, The Economist | Subjects: Best Practices, Outsourcing / BPO

The race to change the rules of the game in an industry has two distinct legs. First, the company works toward perfection of its complex business system – learning to achieve industry-leading levels of performance, tuning its value proposition and developing a viable economic model. In our sample, the first leg required an average of 4.5 years. That was the time it took FedEx to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Best Practices, Strategy

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Government has been at the forefront of best practice and quality management and this site published by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reinforces the use of best practice principles as a way of helping businesses become more efficient, competitive and profitable. Contains case studies, reports and a range of self-assessment tools, to help improve many aspects of a business from innovation, raising … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) | Subjects: Best Practices, Management

If you think the book has already been written on shared services, think again. With the renewed emphasis in recent years on profitability as the key corporate metric, “forgotten” functions such as finance, human resources, procurement and IT are back in the spotlight. They are not only being viewed as sources of cost efficiency, which has been the traditional focus, but also as tools for … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Kearney | Subjects: Best Practices, Operations

Deal making is glamorous; due diligence is not. But if your company is beginning to look again at the growth opportunities offered by acquisitions, take heed: Your due diligence team can make or break your business.

Content: Article | Authors: Geoffrey Cullinan, Jean-Marc Le Roux, Rolf-Magnus Weddigen | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Best Practices

Mastery has been a key focus of Accenture’s ongoing high-performance business research program. To date, the program has looked at five areas of functional mastery-information technology, human and organizational development, marketing, finance and performance management, and supply chain management. The following three-part special report showcases Accenture’s latest research in this field and explores mastery from three perspectives.
– “State of the Art” (Julie A. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Best Practices, Management

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Quick, pick the best indicator a brand will grow faster than its category: Brand size? Newness? Leadership within a category? Such is conventional wisdom, but a recent Bain study of 524 brands across 100 categories found none of the above. The study “winners”-defined as any brand that beat its category’s growth each year from 1997-2001-invested differentially in just two components of the marketing mix: product … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: John Blasberg, Vijay Vishwanath | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Best Practices, Marketing / Sales

It is conventional wisdom that Western companies are better at inventing and developing new technologies than at producing and commercializing them, while Japanese companies are particularly skillful at commercializing technology. Convincing arguments have been made for a continuous exchange of knowledge between Design and Manufacturing as a way to improve the entire product development process – from conception to commercialization. This article, based on extensive … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Sigvald Harryson | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Best Practices, Innovation

Bain research has found that the companies most successful at creating long-term shareholder value tend to be constant acquirers through boom and bust.

Content: Article | Authors: Catherine Lemire, Sam Rovit | Source: Bain & Company | Subject: Best Practices