Accelerating the industrial enterprise
December 7, 2021
In brief
In brief
- Industrial enterprises (IEs) clearly operate in a very volatile business environment and need to move from recovery to accelerated growth.
- Our research shows working across six practices is key to embedding accelerated growth into a company's DNA, which is critical to sustained success.
- Focusing on these six practices is efficient and generates topline improvements of 13%+ revenue growth and 68%+ higher EBIT margins.
Unlocking accelerated growth
Industrial enterprises (IEs) clearly operate in an environment where accelerated growth is not simple. It means finding the right balance between tomorrow´s growth and today´s business. It requires a deep understanding of emerging technologies alongside a ruthless focus on the ever changing needs of both your customers and your employees.
To gain insight into how IEs can accelerate their growth agendas, Accenture surveyed 1,150 executives globally — 45% of whom were C-level or equivalent — across 12 countries and 8 industries, and identified six “practices”, or groups of activities, that are critical to accelerating growth.
Assessing performance across the six practices
We assessed IEs’ behavior and success in each of those six practices, placing companies into one of four groups: Leaders, Aspirers, Mainstream and Laggards. Leaders are farthest along in the growth acceleration journey and set the pace for the other groups. However, there is still room for improvement for them. Aspirers are on a good way but need to be bolder in their actions and aspirations to catch up. Mainstream as the name says, shows an average performance, but lacks the eagerness and a north star to achieve accelerated growth. Laggards seem overwhelmed by the many challenges to accelerate their growth. They need to overcome their lethargy and start their acceleration journey immediately.
What we found:
Increased level of growth acceleration is paying off
Organizations that were one level higher in their growth acceleration journey had, on average:
4%
higher annual revenue growth
19%
higher EBIT margins
IEs´ growth targets are not yet ambitious enough
In general, IEs are focused on growth, but even the Leaders have not reached a growth acceleration potential above four in any of the six growth practices.
10%
of the total sample are Leaders but still need to take action to exploit their full growth acceleration potential
Focusing on six practices can boost business performance
Looking at the six practices as an integrated suite of activities that are interwoven and support one another is key to embedding accelerated growth into the DNA of a company.
13+%
leading organizations we surveyed show a 13%+ boost in revenue growth
68+%
leading organizations show 68%+ higher EBIT margin than those at other levels
How does your organization measure up?
Take 10 minutes and answer a few questions to assess your organization´s growth acceleration potential and benchmark yourself against others in the industry.
Acceleration benchmark tool
View All
Building the foundation for accelerated growth
Unlocking accelerated growth will take time and actions on multiple fronts.
Here's how to get started:
Think growth through and set a holistic growth ambition
Assess your company’s growth potential
Find efficiencies to fuel growth and reinvest the gain
Incubate your individual approach to growth
View All
Contributors
Subscription Center
Stay in the know with our newsletter
Stay in the know with our newsletter