High-performance businesses differentiate themselves in their strategy execution. Companies with keen industry insights adopt innovative approaches to growth and know how to extract value from intangible assets. Companies that focus on core competencies effectively allocate IT resources and acquire new capabilities through an active alliances and partnerships policy. Successful M&A and alliance practitioners have an evolving portfolio that creates and sustains value over the long-term. An organizational culture that is adaptive and responsive incorporates a robust strategic management process and utilizes the full scope of its assets.
How is it that a relatively small number of public companies-less than a fifth by our estimates-have been able to consistently grow shareholder value in one of the most volatile business climates in memory? When we look at these companies, we see organizations that know how to deliver results against current expectations, and know how to create future growth.
In short, they appear able to balance today and tomorrow, when measured against multiple time horizons. These high-performance businesses include both some recognized firms and some less-well-known companies. Our research shows they share common, identifiable attributes, however different they may seem to the generalist eye.
Accenture has evaluated high-performance in individual companies by both qualitative and quantitative measures. In interviews we looked for dominant corporate characteristics and key attributes as well as very specific industry measures. We employed Total Return to Shareholder (TRS) standards, focusing our survey universe on those companies that produced the most TRS growth, and choosing time horizons that reflect our belief that current business conditions have limited resemblance to those of even a decade ago. We chose three time horizons, in order to ensure that results measured performance during the recent recession (3-years), included average industry cycles (7-years) and reflected consistency (5-years). We deliberately included the kinds of leading companiesCostco, United Healthcare and Hiltonthat do not appear in industrials-centric performance surveys covering 10-, 20-, or 30-year time frames. |
