RESEARCH REPORT

In brief

In brief

  • There is £119 billion of revenue at stake that companies are losing to competitors because they’re not relevant enough.
  • Consumers are switching in numbers to the brands that can deliver hyper-relevance in the moments that matter to them.
  • To achieve sustainable growth, businesses need to continuously adapt to their customers’ needs.
  • More than relevant, businesses need to be hyper-relevant. They need to become Living Businesses.

The state of play

Accenture conducted a major research initiative to discover what constitutes a Living Business and what’s driving companies who are ahead of the pack.

95%

of UK and Ireland CEOs agree yesterday’s growth agenda is obsolete

67%

agree the pressure is on to find new approaches

71%

agree disruption is required to survive

It’s clear businesses in the UK and Ireland recognise the need for the change. They know the journey to achieve relevance is an essential one but actioning the changes to get there is another matter.

How do Living Businesses achieve total relevance?

Living Businesses are fast and agile, continuously adapting to consumers’ evolving needs. These high-performers have five independent sets of capabilities which represent the keys to growth in the future. In order to bridge the gap between comprehension and action, and become a Living Business it helps to consider each of these capability sets as a pathway to transformation:

Target new opportunities

They balance core and disruptive growth initiatives to fuel responsive innovation

Design for customers

They create products and services as hyper-relevant platforms

Build engagement

They build intelligent and innovative customer experiences

Scale with partners

They scale with a broader set of ecosystem alliances

Rewire culture

They rewire their workforces with a customer-first mindset

View All

Companies must do more to stand out from the crowd

The truth is that Living Businesses are a rare thing. In fact, of the companies Accenture spoke to in the UK and Ireland, just:

4%

scored highly on “Vitality” (level of proficiency across the 5 capabilities)

6%

of respondents scored low

This means the vast majority of businesses today sit somewhere in the middle.

The time to take action is now

Accenture’s research shows UK and Ireland Executives see the value of becoming a Living Business. It also exposes some anxiety about making it happen. But there’s no time to waste. A track record of past success no longer guarantees future growth, if it ever did. So, it’s time to turn theory into practice and inject relevance and customer-centricity into your business. That’s how to stand out from the crowd and meet the demands of customers who choose relevance every time.

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