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Zero-Based Transformation

Holistic approach to cost transformation drives growth, resilience

Managing through the perfect storm with speed, agility

Businesses have been inundated with challenges and change at a speed, scope and scale that is unprecedented. From changing employee mindsets and shifting customer demand to supply chain disruption, labor shortages and record inflation.

At the center of this perfect storm? Cost. As executives rethink and reimagine their business, they must reset cost structures and redeploy resources to support it and build new capabilities that can help enable them to adjust as conditions change.

When everything has changed, where do you begin? We start at zero with a holistic zero-based approach by rethinking priorities from end-to-end, weighing the tradeoffs required from the start. It's no longer simply about containing, cutting or optimizing cost. Transformation requires a fundamentally new approach to cost, driven by rethinking priorities and redeploying resources as a key strategy to drive growth and resilience.

Accelerate cost transformation to drive sustainable growth

Cost interventions may have helped organizations manage through volatility, but the one and done approach doesn’t work in a world of constant change. Instead, companies need a holistic approach and new capabilities to make data-driven decisions in real time and drive sustainable growth.

With signs pointing to continued inflation and uncertainty, companies have a two-fold mandate before them: to accelerate investments in growth while transforming costs holistically for stronger resilience. Executives remain optimistic about achieving their growth goals, but they acknowledge it won't be easy. In this blog post, Managing Director Praveen Kishorepuria lessens the load with five ways to manage through uncertainty in the here and now.

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In the truest sense, cost transformation means optimizing costs in a way that's sustainable over time. But how do you do that when change happens faster than ever? The answer lies in modernizing your capabilities for resilience.

Leaders today need real-time visibility into cost drivers across the value chain so they can pinpoint where spend is going, how it's impacting business and how to redirect it. The tools are here: In fact, there's a growing gap between what technology and data science can do and what they're actually being used for.

With an advanced, cloud-based analytics platform, leaders can forensically evaluate cost structures and model new zero-based ones. They also gain insights to create a new, cost-conscious organizational culture to drive true transformation for long-term sustainability and success.

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Before you can make decisions to maximize profit, you must first understand your cost structure at a granular level. Learn about the "cost-to-serve" methodology, a new, AI- and analytics-driven approach to illuminating your "true" costs and profitability down to the product, SKU, customer, and channel levels.

Gone are the days of simply passing through costs and increasing prices. Cost-to-serve considers both traceable and untraceable costs for a complete view of cost drivers across your value chain. With a deeper and more comprehensive line of sight, you can allocate more precisely and make more powerful moves to respond to, prepare for and embrace change.

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Leading organizations are no longer singularly focused on cost-cutting and survival. Instead, they're reinventing for growth and resilience by starting from scratch with zero-based transformation.

This big reset revolves around three core tenets: technology, sustainability and talent. Our report breaks down the four keys to successful cost transformation and profit acceleration, outlining how future-ready companies address challenges holistically across the organization to foster growth, resilience and competitiveness.

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: CFO JOURNAL

ZBB gains clout as a way for companies to find savings

 

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In the spotlight

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Enterprise Strategy

Want to unlock more value? Focus on true costs

How can you maximize profits; Accenture’s Anshul Singhal explains how a cost-to-serve methodology...

 

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Enterprise Strategy

Inflation and economic uncertainty

With inflation hitting a 40-year high, CEOs need to transform costs with a zero-based approach. Here are 5...

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Enterprise Strategy

5 ways to achieve more with less

Face the challenge of the labor shortage with a zero-based approach and review all of the work done today...

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Capabilities

Cost Strategy

Invest resources where they can have the greatest impact and drive growth, resilience and competitive advantage.

Forensic cost analytics

Combine AI, data, and “should cost” analysis to help gain visibility and flexibility to make decisions rapidly as conditions change.

Sustainability by design

Align cost strategy and resources with priorities such as sustainability to transform responsibly and deliver 360° value.

Organization and workforce

Reimagine your organization and workforce, aligning cost structures and resources to support that vision.

Supply chain resilience

"Supply chain resilience Use data and insights to identify the “should cost” of goods and logistics to help optimize performance, price and agility."

How we work

Adopting ZBT is an investment in tomorrow. By infusing new technologies and an owner-operator ethos across your organization, we can help you shift cost curves and reimagine work itself.

Zero-based commercial (ZBC)

Define the right customer experiences and price points for each segment. Evaluate total share of wallet to optimize investments and grow revenue.

Zero-based organization (ZBO)

Clean sheet your company. Determine your future needs and redesign to shift talent away from work that doesn’t drive the outcomes you want.

Zero-based spend (ZBS)

Identify General & Administration (G&A) with an unprecedented level of granularity to make bold choices that free up cash for growth initiatives.

Zero-based supply chain (ZBSC)

Pinpoint the “should cost” of goods sold based on price, performance and value engineering, then optimize products and services accordingly.

Solvay

The chemistry behind cost transformation

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What we think

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Zero-Based Transformation

Zero-Based Transformation: The big reset

Accenture outlines how zero-based transformation enables companies to reimagine the business, reset cost base and invest in new strategic priorities.
War in Ukraine

How businesses can survive & thrive through high inflation

Accenture outlines the impact of inflation on business and how leaders can survive and thrive through a high inflation environment.
Competitive Agility

Mindsets matter: Are your leaders on board?

Explore the four employee mindsets and the challenges they present to the C-Suite when launching change initiatives.
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Meet our lead

“ZBT has never been more relevant than it is today. Cost transformation is not just about cutting costs – it’s also about growth. ZBT helps to uncover the funds needed to fuel growth, innovate and differentiate.”

Robert Willems
Managing Director – Accenture Strategy, Global Zero-Based Transformation (ZBT) Lead​

Join us

ZBT creates a window into all parts of an organization and its business. Use your vision to solve the biggest business challenges with solutions that have yet to be conceived. Build a career by helping global clients reimagine their organizations in an ever-changing business landscape.

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#MyAccentureStrategy | Employees Around the World

Some of the amazing and diverse people that make up Accenture Strategy tell us their stories about what it's like to work here. See more.

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