Vision - September/October 2007 - (Page 14) viSiOnary Why is constant change so critical for companies? During the life of just about any company, it has to transform itself many times because the underlying basis of its business changes along with changes in customer expectations and values. The business has to reinvent itself to stay relevant. What we’ve found is that high performers have a greater capacity for changing ahead of the curve. They generate confidence in change. They continuously evolve their top management teams. They accelerate the behavioral changes needed to drive transformation. At Accenture, we operate our company in the environment we’ve been dealt. That is just a fact. But we embrace change because we know we have to be relevant to our clients, and we have to be relevant to the people who work at Accenture. We have to make a difference. In order to do that, quite simply, we have to change continually. The good news is that change has served us well. We continue to grow. We continue to diversify. We continue to put distance between ourselves and our competitors. And we will continue to change our company, even when we’re at the very top of our game. I think that’s what it takes to be a leader, especially in today’s world. plex as the technologies quickly evolve and converge—all in a world in which new economies are emerging and geographical barriers are becoming irrelevant. No doubt, it’s an interesting time. What we see from our research and the work we do with clients, to be a high performer in this industry, you have to get a lot of things right—and do them fast. It’s about having leading practices in product innovation to build the right solutions, and to build them in the right way. It’s about optimizing sales and marketing channels, where change can have a direct impact on growth. It’s about making an increased investment in customer service and support, which can really affect your brand for better or for worse. In the end, “customer experience” is the thing to get right. It brings all of these challenges together. How do you measure innovation? How does that correlate to profitable growth? Innovation is just one aspect of driving growth, and we’ve found that the most profitable companies have a unique take on innovation. In fact, in the consumer electronics industry, we studied about 700 global companies and found that there are two types of companies that qualify as high performers—market definers and value players— each with distinct attributes. Market definers are companies that race past competitors with an iconic product, and the name of the product typically defines the market category. They offer focused product portfolios, simplified offerings and highly skilled employees who innovate and collaborate. They are largely focused on fostering innovation and collaboration and have highly talented workforces. These companies have an inherent culture of innovation that springs directly from the top and flows throughout the organization. In fact, the involvement of the company’s leadership in innovation initiatives is largely responsible for setting the tone for the rest of the company. Value/scale players differentiate through total value by offering end-to-end platform solutions—not just products—which increases margins and enables more flexible design and production, resulting in lower costs per unit. How can CE companies compete effectively in a multi-polar world economy? At Accenture, we see the multi-polar world as a new phase of globalization, with emerging economies now actively shaping the global economic landscape. There are some very important implications for organizations striving to achieve high performance in this increasingly complex global environment. The consumer electronics industry is actually a major driver of the multipolar world. The best-in-class companies today design and manufacture consumer electronics using the best and most costefficient processes and people skills from all over the world. Now, whether a consumer electronics company can achieve high performance in this new world will depend on a finely tuned ability to adjust market focus and positioning to constantly shifting locations and sources of competitive advantage. Companies also will need to be simple on the inside, but differentiated on the outside—simplifying their global operations to achieve economies of scale while differentiating their products and services for the diverse markets in which they operate. I also believe culture will matter more. Having a diverse leadership team with knowledge spanning disparate markets will be critical to capitalizing on what the multi-polar world will bring. What is Accenture’s strategy as it relates to offshore operations? The global sourcing of skills and talent has become standard operating procedure in companies around the world. We are out to attract the best people on the planet, regardless of geography. At the same time, to a client, our work is conducted seamlessly, regardless of time zones and geographic regions. How important is India to your global strategy? China? We have had phenomenal success in India. We now have roughly 35,000 people in India, and it is our largest country in terms of headcount. Our team in India will have a crucial impact on the future of our company. India is a key country for Accenture overall, a critical element in our Global Delivery Network in particular, and integral to Accenture’s growth strategy. China also is a critical part of our growth and geographic strategy. It’s important to me personally, and I play a role as the executive sponsor for our growth agenda in China. In fact, I believe if a leader today does not establish a dominant position in China while they are at the helm, they haven’t served the company well. • www.ce.org What do you see as the largest threat for the CE industry? There are a lot of challenges going on in the industry. This is one of our most dynamic— and exciting—markets. While device technology continues to be critical, consumers are choosing products based on the overall user experience, which is harder to predict. The emergence of new competitors is more intense, and this puts pressure on pricing and costs with the addition of new features and functions offering consumers an entirely new value equation. Supply chains are growing incredibly com- 14 September/October 2007 http://www.ce.org
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