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The thing about passion is that it is catchy…the energy it gives rubs off onto others. A colleague of mine had a recent ‘service experience’ and wanted to share it with me and I would like to share it with all of you. I would like to introduce you to Lucinde Klop (@Lucinde_K ) – another passionate customer service consultant from Accenture – and this is her service experience.
Selecting a new health insurance plan has been on my ‘to do list’ for a couple of weeks. I was not looking forward to this task, as I was expecting my only choice was between marginal differences in monthly payments and reimbursements. However, when I finally got to it, I was highly surprised! Not only could I choose from monthly payment options, but I could also choose between various levels of service defined per insurance package.
What great transformations will the world see in the next decade?
Tomorrow marks the kick-off of the 42nd edition of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting which will take place January 25-29 in Davos, Switzerland under the theme The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models.
Over 2,600 top officials from leading private-sector companies, governments, nonprofit organizations and academic institutions will gather to discuss the increasingly complex, interdependent and fast-paced era we live in whereby leaders return to their core purpose of defining what the future should look like, aligning stakeholders around that vision and inspiring their institutions to realize that vision. Ahead of the event Accenture CEO Pierre Nanterme outlines 3 trends that are driving this global transformation.
Like last year, Accenture Chairman Bill Green was once again invited to share his vision and opinions and will moderate a panel session entitled A Smart Growth Solution that examines how technological advances drive economic growth and employment.
In the wake of the recent recession, consumer behavior has changed substantially. Expectations of customers globally are accelerating: they expect the highest product quality, more value for money and better tailored service. Like stated by my colleague Jort Possel in his previous blog post: “Consumers are connecting in more than one way and on multiple devices, consuming more content, and doing it all on the go”.
With the explosive growth of online, mobile and social media channels, customers choose their interaction channel of preference and demand a seamless multi-channel experience. To sustain high performance and growth through uncertain times, companies will need to work harder and smarter to find and capitalize on growth opportunities and to provide a great customer experience.
As the end of 2011 approachs it time to take a moment to look back at all it has brought and all it has become. What a disappointment. Now I am not trying to be the grinch that stole away the happy holiday feeling but lets’ face it folks, no one really surprised us this year?!
I opened the 2011 year with a positive post about customer service and a challenge question as to whether this would be the year that companies would make the difference or if they would continue to kick-back and let customers scream at the door. As a law abiding Netherlands consumer let me just say I have lost my voice a few times this year. But has all been lost? Can our little Dutch customer service economy be saved? I still really believe so and am awaiting to meet the individuals with the ‘doorzettingsvermogen’ to change the game. Oh where oh where can they be….?
In my last post, I talked about how true high-performance companies manage to jump the S-curve, not just once but repeatedly. It is just as important, however, to understand how companies get onto and climb the S-curve in the first place. This requires something we call the Big Enough Market Insight, or BEMI. At Accenture, we believe this is at the heart of all successful businesses. A BEMI is an insight into the future of a market with enough growth potential to generate substantial revenues – and profit – for years to come. An insight so powerful that it puts your company way ahead of the competition, at least for a time.
To be a real high performer, it’s not enough to simply win. You have to win big; so big, in fact, that the market knows immediately that you’re playing in a different league to your competitors. One example is pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. Read more…
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.
So how do a select group of companies outperform their peers over a sustained period? And how do they manage to consistently grow both revenues and profitability, even during economic downturns and market disruptions? Is it down to the business ‘excellence’ that was the focus of so much business literature in the latter part of the 20th century, or is it the ‘greatness’ that everybody was talking about in the early part of the last decade? In 2003, Accenture embarked on a major research project to find out what really sets these companies apart. Over the past eight years, we have looked at over 800 companies across dozens of industries and going back decades. What we found is that truly great companies get to the top and stay there by accomplishing the one thing that evades the majority of companies: they jump the S-Curve of business performance.
This post I want to share with you was written by Mark Foster, group chief executive, Management Consulting, Accenture. This post was first published on the Forbes Blog in the segment ‘Davos Notebook‘ and details Mark Foster’s opinions about the second day of the WEF 2011 in Davos.
The highlight of the morning was a plenary session led by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France on the role of the G20 in global governance. He explained that a direct implication of our interdependent and complex planet is that no nation in the G20 or outside it can “go it alone.” In setting out the agenda of the French presidency of the G20 he covered many topics including making a plea for more collaboration and convergence between the players. He paid tribute to the contribution of the G20 to creating the conditions for 5% growth in global GDP in 2010 but recognised that it was easier to get agreement under the pressure of a crisis – and will be tougher to do in a more benign context. The G20 is only legitimate if it continues to be a decision-making body rather than a ‘talking’ shop. He identified real continuing challenges and issues that remain, including inflation and global tensions from commodity price volatility and currency imbalances. The G20 and G8 must discuss this and act. The President called out the weakness of the UN as a body to deal with the issues due to its lack of permanent representation on the security council of Africa, India and Latin America. He described a vision of a new global architecture for collaboration in an interdependent world. In the Q and A which followed, President Sarkozy was deeply emphatic about the long-term future of the Euro at the heart of a durable Europe despite recent uncertainty. He was also pretty ardent on the need for substantive regulation of the financial sector. Read more…
At the recently held 41st edition of the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos, Accenture chairman Bill Green (as was Management Consulting Group Chief Executive Mark Foster, more on his views in another post) was once again invited to share his vision and opinions on the current economic climate, and the ways in which economies and organizations can foster growht. Mr. Green, who has recently transitioned to his new role as Chairman from his former CEO role at Accenture (note: read the personal interview Forbes’ Mia Saini had with Mr. Green about his transition during his stay in Davos), emphasized the importance of Growth though Innovation. The video below gives an impression of Mr. Green’s views which he shared during te WEF summit.
The Businessweek 50 represents the most successful companies of the S&P 500—those that have consistently surpassed their competition based on business growth, high performance and value creation. Priceline.com leads the pack with a 911.9 percent return over a five-year period. For the seventh year in a row, Accenture is sponsoring the annual Bloomberg Businessweek 50 issue.
Accenture brings a strong advertising presence in both the publication’s print and online editions. Based on years of original research on business performance, industry analysis and our experience with clients, Accenture offers a set of practical insights for organizations that aspire to high performance on accenture.nl/research.
Leslie: I will have to agree with Wouter…Too many companies do take their customer’s loyalty for granted…Hopefully this will change...Read the full comment
Wouter: Nice story, Angela! Unfortunately there are still too many companies that take the loyalty of their customers for granted. I hope Roy’s story...Read the full comment
The thing about passion is that it is catchy…the energy it gives rubs off onto others. A colleague of mine had a recent ‘service experience’ and wanted to share it with me and I would like to share it with all of you. I would like to introduce you to Lucinde Klop (@Lucinde_K ) – another passionate customer service consultant from Accenture – and this is her service experience.
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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.
