166 Posts found for Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture)

The hope of many CEOs is that we are moving toward an era in which businesses will no longer focus purely on near-term profit and loss as the primary means of valuation, but rather also take into account the positive and negative effects on society and the environment. This would entail a significant shift on the part of business that would in turn involve meeting … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Bruno Berthon, David J. Abood, Peter Lacy | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

High performance isn’t just about achieving “greatness” or “excellence,” concepts that are far too static. Nor is it just about ensuring long-term survival by building a company that will last. High performance is about outperforming rivals again and again, even as the basis of competition in an industry or market changes.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Paul F. Nunes, Tim Breene | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Achievement, Management

When the business is successfully chugging along but has not yet peaked, executives feel that operations can be leaner—they’ve moved far down the learning curve by then—and meaner, since they are under pressure to boost margins. They will then reduce both headcount and investments in talent, and will increasingly focus on talent that can best execute the existing business model. This has the perverse effect … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Paul F. Nunes, Tim Breene | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

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There are three very distinct ways that organizations can fall into the analysis-paralysis trap. One is a managerial tendency to “over-fit the curve”—a statistical term that refers to the diminishing value of additional data once a pattern (or curve, in the graphic sense) has been found. Data collection has a price, inaction has a price and an analytically literate organization will clearly understand the cost … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Kishore S. Swaminathan | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Decision Making, Organizational Behavior, Trends / Analysis

Business proposals and decisions—big or small—have to provide satisfactory answers to this question: “Do we think this is true or do we know?”

Content: Quotation | Author: Kishore S. Swaminathan | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Decision Making, Management

Businesses thrive on stability and repeatability. Stable and repeatable processes justify large-scale capital expenses; they justify large-scale employee training; and they reduce cognitive overhead because processes and decisions do not change and hence their rationale does not have to be explained repeatedly.

By contrast, an analytically based enterprise of the future will have to be designed around volatility rather than repeatability. Volatility—or rapidly changing decisions that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Kishore S. Swaminathan | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Process, Trends / Analysis

High performance requires a keen understanding of not only a company’s appetite for risk but also its capacity to manage that risk effectively. Companies that walk that fine line between the two can better protect themselves and pursue new marketplace opportunities.

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Spinard, Craig Faris, Paul F. Nunes, Steve Culp | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subject: Risk Management

New research shows that when it comes to managing talent, one size no longer fits all. To be competitive and to maximize the performance of a workforce, companies need to understand and respond to the diverse needs of individual employees.

Content: Article | Authors: David Smith, Susan Cantrell | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subject: Human Resources

One of the most lucrative assets companies own could be the data they possess. The challenge is turning it into relevant, usable information. Analytics can be a powerful tool in this effort. Accenture profiles a five-step model for putting analytics at the center of corporate decision making.

Content: Article | Authors: Elizabeth Craig, Jeanne G. Harris | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Knowledge Management

Procuring materials. Locating operations. Raising capital. Sourcing talent and ideas. It often seems that, as the world gets smaller, the challenges become larger. One way businesses can cope is to develop an overarching geographic strategy. Accenture explains what such an effort entails and profiles its five underlying fundamentals.

Content: Article | Authors: Mark Foster, Mark Purdy, Tim Cooper | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subject: International

Customers continue to demand greater value at ever-lower prices. But for many companies, the ability to produce savings through more traditional cost-cutting measures is nearly exhausted. The solution: Combine cost-cutting initiatives with design and development activities, using cost-driven product and service innovations to create new streams of profitable growth.

Content: Article | Authors: Greg Cudahy, James M. Ellis, Paul F. Nunes | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Management, Marketing / Sales, Operations

The new business environment will favor those companies able to execute strategy faster, with more flexibility and adaptability, and move their companies ahead briskly.

Content: Article | Authors: David Y. Smith, Peter Cheese, Yaarit Silverstone | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

We as executives have to resist our natural tendency to avoid or minimize risks. This instinct leads executives to choose to copy successes rather than try to create something brand-new… If you want to be original, you have to accept the uncertainty, even when it’s uncomfortable, and have the capability to recover when your organization takes a big risk and fails.

Content: Quotation | Author: Ed Catmull | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior, Risk Management

Businesses that thoughtfully examine and measure the time customers spend with them, and then either reduce the time costs or enhance the time value of their offerings, can gain an advantage that will continue when the economy recovers. For companies looking to win over today’s more frugal customers, a focus on the value of time comes not a moment too soon.

Content: Article | Authors: David A. Light, Nick Smith, Paul F. Nunes | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

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The objective at the heart of successful talent management in difficult times: to think ahead and to think more strategically about creating a workforce with the capabilities to outperform the competition as the economy turns around. A number of fresh approaches are available to help companies go beyond responses focused only on staff reductions.

Content: Article | Authors: Alan Gibbons, Catherine Farley, Peter Cheese | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subject: Human Resources

Informal networks can play a pivotal role in how organizational decisions are framed and executed. But they can also result in too much collaboration—the kind of lengthy and expensive decision making that can cost companies dearly in missed opportunities.

Content: Case Study | Authors: Rob Cross, Robert J. Thomas, Yaarit Silverstone | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Knowledge Management, Organizational Behavior

If organizations are to achieve and sustain high performance, they need to regard innovation as a business discipline, and then manage and execute it accordingly—as an end-to-end process, from insight development to idea generation to development to marketplace launch.

Content: Article | Authors: Adi Alon, Daniel D. Chow | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subject: Innovation

M&A is complicated. Cross border M&A is even more difficult, and it now accounts for almost half the world’s total deal value. Managing cultural differences, integrating across borders and creating the right organizational structure are just some of the challenges Accenture has identified.

Content: Article | Authors: Caroline Firstbrook, Julie Adams | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: International, Mergers & Acquisitions