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The journal of
high-performance business
Special Report
Analysts and the business and financial depending on the industry, are able to sustain
press have never been at a loss when it top performance over time.
comes to compiling lists of top-performing
companies, as measured by one benchmark What happens to the rest? Many run aground
or another: the best 100, 500, 1,000 or because they lack a coherent way to measure
2,000. But when one turns to companies and plan for growth through profitable and
meeting Accenture’s standard for high per- sustainable innovation. Focused primarily on
formance—the ability to outperform industry P&L transactions and drivers, com-panies find
competitors across business and economic it easier to look to past performance or to
cycles—the numbers dwindle considerably. the immediate present—resulting in insights
1
Outlook 2007
Indeed, our research shows that only about that often account for less than 5 percent of
Number 3 5 percent to 20 percent of companies, a company’s market value.
Every company is after sustainabil- that can accelerate growth beyond
ity, of course, because every com- the expected performance of their
pany wants to achieve profitable core operations. Future-value pre-
growth over the long term. Recent mium analysis can quantify the mar-
research from Accenture and the ket’s expectations of whether a
Economist Intelligence Unit found, company has a positive or negative
for example, that about two-thirds growth advantage relative to its
of the senior executives surveyed peers. By offering that perspective,
expect growth initiatives to take future-value premium analysis leads
a more prominent place on their companies to consider a portfolio of
company’s strategic agenda. initiatives and the innovation required
to build new growth platforms (see
But until now, the desire to perform sidebar, page 6).
at high levels into the future has not
been accompanied by strategies and Companies are beginning to look
operating models that enable those at new kinds of leading indicators,
companies to accurately determine beyond such traditional metrics as
how much of their market value is price-earnings ratio, to assess their
represented by investors’ confidence effectiveness at generating growth
in their long-term outlook. through innovation. Determining
a company’s future-value premium
In our experience, many companies provides a simple but effective way
are constrained by an inability to for management to diagnose and
achieve long-term growth through understand the complexities of mar-
innovation. Their competitive advan- ket expectations, as well as the
tage, if they have one, cannot readily investment community’s confidence
be sustained because it is built only in the company’s long-term outlook.
on their current enterprise, with
insufficient attention paid to the Many CEOs are startled when they
innovations necessary to drive future see a future-value premium assess-
growth and create future value. ment of their companies. Accenture
recently performed such an assess-
Such companies often have superb ment for a highly regarded global
financial acumen or sales manage- financial services institution. The
ment. They excel from an opera- company has a solid track record of
tional perspective. But in terms of delivering strong returns to its share-
what Accenture calls a “future-value holders. In fact, however, it actually
premium,” even some of an indus- had a negative future-value premium
try’s most respected names might over the final three years of the
actually be in the red—meaning analysis period (see chart, page 7).
the market expects the company’s
growth to be lower than the GDP Short term, long term
growth rate. For example, our analysis Why did the market no longer expect
shows that during the past decade, the company to grow faster than the
the percentage of the publicly listed GDP? Like many companies, this firm
US companies in the Russell 3000 was more focused on improving cur-
Index that have a negative future- rent operations and meeting short-
value premium has increased from term expectations than on sustaining
about 50 percent to more than high performance in the long term. It
60 percent. had failed to allocate the resources
required to build future-growth
Leadership teams need more sophisti- platforms. The company lacked the
cated leading indicators and types of organizational structure and disci-
2
Outlook 2007
analyses to help them make successful pline (including dedicated funding)
Number 3 strategic investments in innovations to support an innovation strategy
and portfolio, and therefore had not senior management moved quickly
been focused on developing a suite and aggressively to put the opera-
of innovation capabilities for the tional structures in place to support
commercialization of new ideas. the exploration and development of
those focus areas. Within six months,
Increasing a company’s future-value the company had fully staffed a new
premium by harnessing innovation innovation capability group and had
more effectively has two major developed statements of work for six
thrusts, parts of what we call a growth platform pilots.
“growth and innovation accelerator”
(see chart, page 4). First, what are 2. Profit pools
the sources of growth most important An analysis of any company’s finan-
to a particular company? Is the com- cial performance reveals that its prof-
pany focused on the right growth its will group, or “pool,” around a
opportunities, given its current discrete selection of opportunities
capabilities, industry realities and within its overall portfolio. Sustain-
customer desires? Second, how can ing high performance over the long
a company unlock its cultural and term depends on a company’s ability
operational capabilities to accelerate to develop a clear and real-time
its ability to convert the raw material understanding of its current profit
of ideas into profitable growth? pools; the impact of emerging trends
on those profit pools; and potential
These two thrusts, in turn, correspond profit pools (including their timing,
to five areas of focus. magnitude and possible risks) so that
a company is always changing ahead
1. White-space opportunities of the curve.
Setting a course toward a higher
future-value premium requires identi- High performers are invariably adept
fying the right growth opportunities at “seeding, feeding and weeding”—
through a purposeful scanning that is, they allocate resources to probe
of three important dimensions: new kinds of opportunities and poten-
customers, competition and context. tial profit pools; they support a hand-
ful of such opportunities through the
One major pharmaceutical company, early stages of development; and they
for example, has recognized the need know how to identify the winners in
to generate growth by effectively a timely manner and cut off support
identifying its white-space opportuni- for the non-starters before they
ties, whether in its traditional busi- become a drain on growth and profits.
ness model of new-drug development
or in uncharted and completely new Canadian financial services company
businesses. Several years ago, senior Scotiabank successfully altered its
management set new five-year presence in the marketplace through
growth targets that mandated looking astute analysis of its current and
at marketplace opportunities beyond future profit pools. Because of the
the company’s current operations. maturing of the Canadian banking
One element of this exercise was a marketplace and the increasing glob-
comprehensive growth assessment for alization of the financial services
the company that included market industry, Scotiabank realized it needed
research to determine converging to redefine its identity—to change
trends in the industry, as well as an from a Canadian bank with an inter-
analysis of the company’s current national presence to a global bank
capabilities and operating model. with a Canadian presence.
3
Outlook 2007
The project team identified several As part of a three-year global growth
Number 3 key areas of focus for innovation, and agenda, Scotiabank commenced a
Global Trends Report, which included to deliver long-term, sustainable
the identification of potential profit competitive advantage. It is here,
pools by country and by financial most especially, that high perform-
product. The bank was able to quan- ers begin separating themselves
tify its identified profit pools and from the pack by making the strate-
estimate their impact on current and gic distinction between effective
future profitability. innovation in general and the
effective commercialization of
Scotiabank also conducted a com- innovation.
petitive positioning analysis in key
markets and, most important, deter- Accelerating growth through inno-
mined the key capabilities it would vation requires becoming more dis-
need to establish a presence in ciplined at identifying a company’s
those markets that would support innovation “center,” as it were. For
profitable growth. some companies, such as Apple,
innovation generally flows from
3. Growth platforms its products and services. Other
This area of focus refers to the companies, such as Wal-Mart, fuel
selection, prioritization and com- growth through operational innova-
munication (both internal and tions. Business model innovation
external) of new growth platforms has helped drive companies such
and business concepts that promise as eBay and Skype.
Portfolio management
Profit pools
Talent Organizational
management effectiveness
4
Outlook 2007
Number 3 Source: Accenture analysis
Companies must manage growth Consider Wells Fargo & Company. As
from that innovation center, rather the financial services industry and its
than from the periphery. Part of products have become more complex,
that commitment to innovation companies like Wells Fargo can strug-
involves embracing new and disrup- gle to deliver a consistent and high-
tive ideas. Another important aspect quality customer experience. To meet
is leveraging open innovation and this challenge, the bank launched an
open sourcing methods that bring enterprisewide program to identify
together suppliers, partners, employ- solutions and strategic change ideas
ees and management. to improve the customer experience
and, in the end, ensure customer
Companies that effectively commer- loyalty and retention.
cialize innovation also develop more
risk tolerance when scanning for Wells Fargo created an “innovation
opportunities outside their immediate network”—a means of connecting and
business environment. They become tapping into the insights of the
more willing to cannibalize products bank’s employees to identify and
and services when investigating new address the main threats to customer
growth platforms. They become more loyalty. An organization can accom-
adept at the operational requirements plish more by mobilizing this type
of their winning concepts, leveraging of broad horizontal network of par-
current partners, networks, assets ticipants than it can by leveraging
and distinctive capabilities to help a small group of experts such as
drive growth through innovation corporate development or strategy.
(see “Leading by imitation,” Outlook,
January 2007). The success of Wells Fargo’s innova-
tion network was twofold. First,
Finally, these companies know how it generated a pipeline of more than
to communicate their growth and 50 ideas highlighting specific prod-
innovation strategy, both within uct and process issues, as well as
their company and to the market- ideas for improving the end-to-end
place. Like the old story of the tree customer experience. Second, imple-
falling in a deserted forest, future menting the innovation network
value that is not communicated fostered higher levels of employee
effectively to the marketplace doesn’t engagement and awareness for the
make any noise. customer loyalty program. More
than 250 Wells Fargo employees—
4. Culture and organization representing more than 21 US states
Accelerating growth through innova- and 90 job titles—submitted substan-
tion means treating innovation as a tive ideas, resulting in seven high-
discipline, not simply as a personal- quality innovations for the company.
ity trait. High performers know how
to apply operational excellence to Following this initial success, Wells
innovation: the discipline and orga- Fargo is creating ongoing, collabora-
nizational infrastructure that enable tive networks as part of a broader
capabilities and assets to support innovation capability that will support
idea generation, and then the inven- the transformational and cultural
tory and screening of those ideas. changes needed for the company to
They are also more disciplined at achieve sustained high performance.
proactively creating the kind of
culture that values and rewards 5. People and capabilities
innovation. Such discipline enables Accelerating growth through innova-
companies to accelerate the genera- tion comes down, ultimately, to the
5
Outlook 2007
tion of business value by selecting
Number 3 and testing innovative ideas. (Continued on page 7)
Calculating your future-value premium
Corporate executives are increasingly dissatisfied with their limited ability to measure
and track meaningful performance data that can help them plan for future growth.
Their frustration is well founded: Most performance metrics are, in fact, based on
accounting transaction information that delivers insights into only current value. The
corporate asset base has changed dramatically, but today’s accounting management
systems ignore and undermanage intellectual capital assets that are value creating
and that indicate a company’s ability to achieve future growth. (For a related article,
see “Future value: The $7 trillion challenge,” Outlook, February 2004.)
Future-value
premium
1. Enterprise value equals market value of debt and equity less excess cash.
2. Current value is defined as net operating profit less adjusted taxes divided by weighted average cost of capital. It represents the present value of current operations in perpetuity.
Source: John Ballow, Anthony Relvas and Sarah Maloney, “Taking Measure of Your Stock's Future Value Premium,” Accenture Research Note, August 2005; Accenture analysis
6
Outlook 2007
Number 3
Comparing current and future value
A major financial services company had a future-value premium up until 2003. However, its senior
leadership was surprised to learn that from 2004 to 2006, the market did not have positive growth
expectations for the company and that its future-value premium was negative.
Beginning capital
Operating advantage
GDP growth
Growth advantage (premium)
Market value
8
Outlook 2007
Number 3
About the authors Outlook is published by Accenture.
© 2007 Accenture.
Toni C. Langlinais is the New York- All rights reserved.
based global lead for Accenture’s
Growth and Innovation Strategy The views and opinions in this article should
not be viewed as professional advice with
practice. Prior to assuming this role, respect to your business.
Ms. Langlinais held several leadership
positions in the Accenture Financial Accenture, its logo, and
Services group, and she worked with High Performance Delivered
Accenture’s executive leadership team are trademarks of Accenture.
to define and plan the rollout of a The use herein of trademarks that may
global operating model for Accenture. be owned by others is not an assertion of
Ms. Langlinais, who has more than ownership of such trademarks by Accenture
nor intended to imply an association between
20 years’ experience in consulting, has Accenture and the lawful owners of such
helped multinational companies define trademarks.
their growth strategies, orchestrate
organizational and operating model For more information about Accenture,
design and transformational change please visit www.accenture.com
programs, and develop and execute
programs to enhance customer,
channel and product management.
toni.c.langlinais@accenture.com
marco.a.merino@accenture.com