Harmonize Customer Relationship Management with Customer, Channel and Brand Strategies
In their rush to realize the benefits of CRM initiatives, many companies have used an ad hoc, tactical approach lacking an overarching strategy. An Accenture Customer Relationship Management expert describes how a more strategic approach – integrated with the organization’s customer, channel and brand strategies – can increase the potential of CRM initiatives to boost revenues and reduce costs.
Content: Article | Author: Steven S. Ramsey | Source: Accenture | Subject: Customer Related
Outside Upside: Finding Focus through Finance Outsourcing
What should companies be considering as they move towards outsourcing finance and accounting (F&A) activities? How can they achieve their strategic goals and maximize the benefits, while defusing the risks?
Accenture’s report, “Outside Upside: Finding Focus through Finance Outsourcing,” written in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit, addresses these issues. Based on an online survey and one-to-one interviews with senior executives, the study yields rich … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Sources: Accenture, The Economist | Subjects: Finance, Outsourcing / BPO
Human Performance Framework
Selling in Turbulent Times
Today, the typical sales organization faces steep challenges to bringing in new business. A weakened economy and uncertainty about when times will improve have made sales harder to close and heightened competition in many market sectors.
However, a recent study conducted by Accenture and The Economist Intelligence Unit suggests that disappointing sales performance among global companies has as much to do with companies’ effectiveness at … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Sources: Accenture, The Economist | Subject: Marketing / Sales
Reinhard Ziegler
Bear in mind that creativity is not coming up with an idea out of nowhere; it’s an act of synthesis, of bringing together several things into a novel combination. Creativity is something in service to innovation; it’s not innovation itself. And again, it’s hard work.
Content: Quotation | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Creativity, Innovation
Rediscovering Europe’s Entrepreneurial Spirit
In today’s challenging economic environment, the entrepreneurial skills of Europeans have never been more important. A new study on entrepreneurship identifies significant barriers that must be overcome if the entrepreneurial culture in Europe as a whole is to be strengthened.
Content: Article | Author: Philip Cullum | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, International – Europe
Running Training Like a Business: Determining the Return on Investment of Your Learning Programs
Demonstrating the business benefits of spending on human performance has been challenging for executives and researchers alike. The Accenture Learning Return on Investment methodology breaks new ground by showing it is possible to measure the value of learning. This paper describes the methodology – and the dramatic business ROI from Accenture’s own employee learning programs.
Content: Article | Authors: David Y. Smith, Tad Waddington | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Human Resources, Management | Industry: Education / Training
Knowledge Management Strategies That Create Value
There is no one-size-fits-all way to effectively tap a firm’s intellectual capital. To create value, companies must focus on how knowledge is used to build critical capabilities.
Editor’s Note: introduces a framework based on four categories of work.
Content: Article | Authors: Bruce E. Weitzman, Jeanne G. Harris, Leigh P. Donoghue | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Knowledge Management, Organizational Behavior
Service Management: Building Profits After the Sale
After-sale parts and services are the new frontier of competitive differentiation and profit enhancement, offering nearly double the profit potential of first-time product sales. Of course, capitalizing on this opportunity is not simple, since comprehensive service management can complicate the typical company’s supply chain. However, new strategies, infrastructures and tools-combined with informed oversight-make it possible to create and deliver after-sale support more profitably than ever … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Ajit Kambil, Michael Dennis | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Operations
A Life Cycle Perspective on Intellectual Assets
Are you unsure how to extend the use of your organization’s intellectual asserts? Scant progress has been made in defining and calculating the value of intellectual assets, despite their obvious importance. The Accenture Institute for Strategic Change applies a physical resources life cycle perspective to help managers clarify how, and how well, intellectual assets are used, and reused, in business processes. The framework enables managers … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Jeffrey J. Raider, Kevin C. DeSouza, Robert J. Thomas | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Innovation, Management
Innovation Sourcing Strategy Matters
Companies are increasingly looking to external sources to ramp up their levels of innovation in new products and services, but most lack a strategy for innovation sourcing. Research by the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change pinpoints how leading companies have been successful in creating a diverse set of innovation “channels” and managing an entire innovation-sourcing network to drive profitable growth through innovation.
Content: Article | Authors: Jane C. Linder, Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa, Thomas H. Davenport | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Innovation, Strategy
Supply Chain Innovations: Five Big, Bold Trends
The supply chain initiatives of the past decade rewrote the book on supply chain management. But what might be the next decade’s supply chain management innovations? Accenture’s supply chain management experts identify five major trends driving the innovative thinking of tomorrow’s supply chain leaders.
Content: Article | Authors: Allen J. Delattre, David L. Anderson | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Operations, Trends / Analysis
Silent Commerce: Breaking the Silence
Imagine if your products and equipment could tell you where they are and how they ‘re being used. Imagine that the components and products you buy or sell carried a unique identifier that would enable real-time authentication with 100 percent accuracy. What if you could reduce theft by knowing exactly when and where your products were disappearing? These are just a few examples of Silent … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: Accenture | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business
Basic Leadership Moves
Effective leaders use a remarkably small set of fundamental skills or “moves”. Happily, these moves can be practiced to improve an individual’s performance as a leader. This article from the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change describes five basic leadership moves, and offers insights on how they can be mastered through practice.
Editor’s Note: for basically the same content, see the 1996 Prism article by the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Robert J. Thomas | Source: Accenture | Subject: Leadership
Create a Customer Service Meritocracy
Leading as a Team
Many tools are available to help individual executives hone their skills as managers and leaders. But research by the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change suggests that few leadership teams are equipped to make complex decisions quickly and carry them out collaboratively. Fortunately, executives can learn how to “lead as a team”. This report outlines the basic steps toward leading as a team — and poses … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Robert J. Thomas | Source: Accenture | Subject: Leadership
Customer Relationship Management: Is It Worth It?
Despite the disappointing results of many CRM initiatives, CRM is still one of the best strategies for growing revenue and increasing market share. A new set of customer expectations and competitive demands calls for applying fresh thinking to traditional programs. This article from Accenture’s Customer Relationship Management service line offers a set of guiding principles and components around which companies can organize their CRM initiatives. … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: John Freeland | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business
Nine Opportunities to Achieve Supply Chain Excellence in Asia
Depending on the country and the industry, supply chains in Asia lag three to five years behind the West in terms of creating efficiencies and improving effectiveness. Accenture’s Supply Chain Management experts identify nine specific opportunity areas to close the performance gap and create a competitive advantage.
Content: Article | Authors: Robert Easton, T. Bing Zhang | Source: Accenture | Subjects: International – Asia, Operations
Business Process Outsourcing Big Bang: Creating Value in an Expanding Universe
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) once had a clear place in the executive’s toolkit-it was used to achieve cost savings in transaction-intensive, back office business processes. That’s all changed. BPO is emerging as a flexible and powerful approach that business leaders can use to achieve a wide range of tactical and strategic aims. A new piece of thought leadership, published in conjunction with Accenture’s Institute for … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Jane Linder, Susan Cantrell | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Management, Outsourcing / BPO