Reaching for High Performance in the Consumer Goods and Services Industry: Overview

Accenture helps companies in the consumer goods and services industry transform their businesses to attain high performance, increasing shareholder returns and ensuring long-term success.

The consumer goods and services industry has outperformed the Standard and Poor's 500 index for the past five years—and those that have achieved high performance have done so by a massive 270 percent, outperforming their peers by an average of 73 percent.

Yet consumer goods and services companies face real challenges, including a much more demanding universe of end customers and competition from the private label brands of retailers—not to mention the complexity of global supply chains.

Accenture's continuing research into the characteristics of high performance in the industry indicate that these high performers, four in total, have achieved this performance through positioning innovation as a pervasive capability driving an entire organization, rather than a discrete strategy or initiative.

This focus on innovation is backed up by excellence in five key capabilities:

• Strategic positioning—The ability to exploit distinctive and relevant positions in the market.
• Customer-centricity—Sales and marketing excellence is based on the ability to understand exactly what customers want and the willingness to then restructure the company around that insight.
• Collaboration and partnerships—To satisfy customer needs, high performers partner with a diverse network.
• Operational excellence—High performers benefit from the reliable bottom-line contribution of cost control and superior execution.
• Talent and change management—Fostering internal entrepreneurs and rewarding performance and team work are key competencies.

Related Research and Insights

Learn more about Accenture's research into the characteristics of high performance in the consumer goods and services industry.

Alliances

To help our clients outperform their peers, Accenture has close alliances with some of the leading vendors in the consumer goods and services industry.

Accenture has the experience, insight and acumen to help companies in the consumer goods and services industry transform to achieve high performance, creating the ability to succeed whatever the state of the market.

For companies wishing to begin or continue along the journey toward high performance, Accenture has a unique mix of capabilities that make us the perfect partner:

• Deep industry insight—We have been working in this industry for years and have a track record of helping consumer goods and services companies around the world enhance performance.
• Business acumen—Our continuing research into high performance ensures that we have a scientific understanding of the capabilities that underlie it. As the world’s largest management consultancy, with a vast pool of business talent, we can help companies innovate intelligently to create competitive advantage.
• Global reach—Accenture's global presence means we can leverage local insight like nobody else. And the Accenture Global Delivery Network means that consumer goods and services companies can leverage the skill and cost benefits of global sourcing, adding scalability and flexibility to their business processes.
• Technological excellence—The capabilities enabling high performance are increasingly driven by technology. From innovation to what works, nobody understands how to use technology to increase business advantage better than Accenture—and we have the global capability to manage technology cost-effectively at higher service levels.

Accenture is committed to partnering with you in your journey toward high performance, helping your company achieve its strategic goals in the most effective manner.

Client Successes

Learn how Accenture helped Sara Lee Bakery (formerly Earthgrains) boost its image as an innovative player in the food industry through an e-commerce strategy.

Contact Us

To discuss how Accenture can help you understand high performance in this industry—and how best to reach it—contact us now.

Accenture has a number of distinct offerings that can be used to help your company progress toward high performance—or we can assist with an end-to-end transformational program. The specific services we offer are:

• Sales and Marketing for the Consumer Goods and Services Industry.
• Customer Relationship Management Services: Marketing & Customer Strategy
• Supply Chain Optimization for the Consumer Goods and Services Industry.
• Accenture Procurement Solutions
• Supply Chain Academy Solution
• Outsourcing in the Consumer Goods and Services Industry.
• Business Process Outsourcing for the Consumer Goods and Services Industry.
• Talent Management for the Consumer Goods and Services Industry.
• IT Transformation for the Consumer Goods and Services Industry.