In 2008, just before the crisis, Accenture launched its first High Performance Business (HPB) study, which revealed that companies listed on Amsterdam’s AEX index were underperforming their international peers, largely due to less growth. Shortly afterwards, the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis on the US house market led to a freeze in the credit supply in the financial sector. This triggered an economic crisis that hit (international) trade, which in turn resulted in a social crisis driven by increased unemployment rates.
The second HPB study, published during the crisis in 2009, revealed that AEX-listed companies were still underperforming and less well positioned for growth. However, this time their underperformance was also due to the fact that they lacked the operational agility to adjust quickly to the changed market conditions.
The following year saw a slow recovery, largely fueled by government investment in infrastructure projects, stimulus packages, the restocking of global supply chains and strong growth in many emerging markets. However, these measures only addressed part of the core issues, and the remaining weaknesses in segments of the banking sector and lagging production volumes in mature markets remain a major drag on the global economy to this day. Read more…
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Welcome to the first in a series of posts in which I’ll look at what makes companies genuine high-performance businesses, and discuss why so many fail to make the grade. Are enduringly successful companies simply in the right place at the right time? Can it really just be a matter of luck or is there more to it than that? Accenture has explored this topic in detail over the years, and we’ve identified a number of traits that we believe distinguish the winners from the also-rans of the business world.
