225 Posts found for Source: Accenture

Is strategic planning still relevant in a world of tumultuous economic events and stunning social and technological shifts? According to an Accenture report, the answer is yes, although new approaches (particularly relating to risk management) are likely needed. The report also introduces five elements of an effective strategic planning process.

Content: Article | Author: Robert Gjetsund | Source: Accenture | Subject: Strategy

The strategic direction of the company must engender clear expectations about the markets in which the company will compete, which capabilities the company must possess to be able to achieve its desired position, and how the company’s organizational culture will measure and value performance. With these expectations clearly defined, management then must develop a set of concrete implementation plans that will drive the company in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Robert Gjetsund | Source: Accenture | Subject: Strategy

Accenture identifies five key dimensions behind a global business strategy for high performance businesses.

Content: Multimedia Content | Source: Accenture | Subject: International

Marketing mastery is crucial to achieving high performance, but how can it be achieved in an ever-evolving business landscape? In this podcast, one of several spotlighting the building block of high performance we call “distinctive capabilities,” we examine how high performers focus their marketing efforts across many fronts. Utilizing Accenture’s research identifying five core marketing capabilities as well as 120 supporting skills underlying them, we … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Source: Accenture | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Most businesses generate a lot of data, but relatively few use it effectively to create competitive advantage and enable high performance. Accenture’s Dave Rich, Brian McCarthy and Jeanne Harris use research findings and their experience to outline how high-performance businesses are using analytics to pull ahead of competitors and turn data into actionable insights.

Content: Article | Authors: Brian McCarthy, Dave Rich, Jeanne G. Harris | Source: Accenture | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

Companies increasingly rely on a relatively scarce resource to maintain their competitive edge: the people who are able to use statistics; rigorous quantitative or qualitative analysis; and information-modeling techniques to make business decisions. Or, in shorthand, “analytical talent.”

For business leaders, the importance of such people poses several challenges, but in our experience one question stands out: What’s the best way to organize analysts? Executives have … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Elizabeth Craig, Henry Egan, Jeanne G. Harris | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Some companies excel at generating ideas for new products. Other companies are good at rapidly bringing new products to market or staying within budget. However, only product development masters do all of these things well. Referring to new research, Accenture discusses product development mastery and the rewards that mastery often engenders.

Content: Article | Source: Accenture | Subject: Best Practices

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Historically, there is a significant increase in the number of executives leaving their companies as market conditions improve and more job opportunities open up. Accenture research shows that executives tend to stay longest with those companies that offer the greatest opportunities to enhance their employability. By providing the three opportunities that executives want most, companies will be in a better position not only to retain … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Elizabeth Craig, John R. Kimberly, Peter Cheese | Sources: Accenture, Wall Street Journal | Subjects: Human Resources, Management

Accenture research has found that despite its importance, the sales function in many companies is not excelling—for two significant reasons: insufficient employee awareness of corporate sales strategy and basic shortcomings in the behaviors and capabilities of sales people.

Some companies have attempted to address these shortcomings by creating a pay-for-performance culture—shifting more of what they pay people from fixed to variable compensation—in the hope that money … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Eric Gist, Patrick Mosher | Source: Accenture | Subject: Marketing / Sales

In today’s economy, it is easy for managers to lose focus during the risky merger integration process. In fact, the chances are that one in two integrations will fail. Based on research, Accenture has identified seven catalysts that can help managers integrate an acquisition successfully, positioning their companies for financial stability now and high performance when the upturn comes.

Content: Article | Authors: Alberto Verga, Andy Tinlin | Source: Accenture | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

In today’s economic climate, high-performance businesses will increasingly set themselves apart by their ability to quickly make smart decisions. Accenture believes that rolling forecasting is not the solution for many companies, and has created a framework for a more pragmatic alternative—event-driven dynamic planning.

Content: Article | Authors: Brian McCarthy, Sarah Batchelor | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Finance, Management

Accenture High Performance Business research has found that high-performance businesses can use an economic downturn to improve their competitive position. Building a merger and acquisition (M&A) capability—with platforms and processes that span every stage of the deal life cycle—can ensure that a company can take advantage of M&A opportunities as they arise, thus positioning itself to achieve high performance when conditions improve.

Content: Article | Authors: Donna L. Peters, Jill S. Dailey | Source: Accenture | Subject: Mergers & Acquisitions

Loyalty is not necessarily an emotional connection to the brand. True brand evangelists—or even potential evangelists—are at best rare and possibly non-existent. Companies need to recognize, develop and manage more than one kind of customer loyalty: conditional, emotional and passive—using more than one kind of strategy.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Naomi Kasolowsky, Woodruff W. Driggs | Source: Accenture | Subject: Customer Related

As brands become increasingly commoditized and competition fiercer, keeping and expanding customer relationships depends on the ability to create loyalty by delivering a customer experience tailored to changing customer needs and values and consistent with the brand promise.

In a time of economic uncertainty—with customer trust eroding and purchase behaviors growing harder to predict—mastering this ability has become even more critical to staying relevant, competitive and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Naomi Kasolowsky, Woodruff W. Driggs | Source: Accenture | Subject: Customer Related

For multinational enterprises, the rise of the multi-polar world— a phenomenon in which traditional centers of economic power are being dispersed more widely across the globe—makes global operating model configurations and organizational capabilities more important than ever. However, a recent Accenture survey shows that 95 percent of senior executives say that they doubt that their companies have the right operating model to support their international … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Joshua B. Bellin, Robert J. Thomas, Stéphane J.G. Girod | Source: Accenture | Subjects: International, Organizational Behavior

The seventh and final chapter of The Talent Powered Organization maps out a talent agenda that is based on the five imperatives set out in the preceding chapters, and which will advance progress toward achieving high performance. The agenda is strategic and long-term, presenting a “call to action” to an organization’s leadership as a primary audience, but also to other stakeholders, reiterating that talent management … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Elizabeth Craig, Peter Cheese, Robert J. Thomas | Source: Accenture | Subject: Human Resources

No company today can avoid the issue of sustainability. How to approach this challenge remains an open question, however, as it can seem to be much more about what not to do than about out-performing the competition. In reality, leading companies are already turning sustainability to their advantage by applying the three building blocks of high performance.

In this report, we explain how sustainability has become … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Andrew J. Hoffman, Bruno Berthon, Eric M. Lowitt | Source: Accenture | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Risk—particularly supply chain risk—has become ubiquitous as globalization causes supply chains to lengthen. Accenture and Oracle combine forces to provide a point of view that will help companies understand the nature of supply chain risk—and what they can do to mitigate it.

Content: Article | Sources: Accenture, Oracle | Subjects: Operations, Risk Management

The founding CEO of The Talent Foundation, Javier Bajer, challenges conventional views on talent management. He believes, for example, that most investments in talent are simply being wasted by the use of expensive but flawed programs to find or cultivate the right people.

Bajer argues that companies should spend less time trying to separate the right and wrong people, and more time trying to help individuals … [ Read more ]

Content: Thought Leader | Author: Javier Bajer | Source: Accenture | Subject: Human Resources