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Research Report

A life-centric approach to growth

Seeing your customers, your business and your future through a new lens.

5-minute read

September 26, 2023

In brief

  • Customers’ lives—and the global forces that shape them—have never been more unpredictable. For companies, that creates a crisis of relevance.

  • Life centricity helps cut through the noise: It’s an approach that connects data, tech and talent to see people in new ways and meet unmet needs.

  • Our research-backed strategies help companies respond at the speed of change through growth and product innovation, marketing, commerce and sales and service.

Relevance is the new requisite

Learn how to connect every part of your business to drive growth…fast.

A crisis of relevance

72%

of customers say external factors are impacting their lives more than ever

60%

say their priorities keep changing based on what’s going on in the world

95%

of B2C and B2B C-suite executives believe customers are changing faster than they can keep up

For these reasons, companies must broaden their understanding of customers, whose priorities often shift moment to moment. This broader view, called life centricity, sees customers where they are and adapts to their ever-changing needs.

A life-centric approach means keeping a finger on the pulse of the economic, social and cultural forces that affect modern life and finding ways to respond that create value for all. Companies that take on life-centric strategies are willing to make bold, creative changes to the heart of what they do. And as a result, they are best positioned to maintain their relevance and thrive.

Life-centric businesses are …

3x

more likely to outperform peers on speed to market

5x

more likely to outperform on customer lifetime value

9%

ahead of peers in growth rate

Accenture at Dreamforce 2024

Explore our key highlights from Dreamforce 2024

Reinventing the front office for life centricity

Accenture Song conducted research across key areas of the front office to identify challenges and opportunities for growth enabled by life-centric approaches. Read the playbooks to learn more.

Progress
Progress

Growth & Product Innovation

The generative growth edge

Legacy growth models can’t keep up with the unpredictable speed of change, leaving business leaders to face existential choices. Those with the courage to embrace the future and empower a new framework for growth have massive upside—in fact, if Accenture Global 2000 companies pursued growth in new ways, they could collectively unlock more than $800 billion in new annual revenue—faster.

The question isn’t whether companies want to improve the speed of developing products and services. The real question is how to enable speed and deliver relevant solutions to meet customer needs—without sacrificing quality. Our research uncovers the essential actions companies can take today to become a generative growth company.

Comments
Comments

Marketing

Marketing, the Maestro way

Marketers are struggling to drive relevance in a complex and changing world. The solution? Stop seeing marketing as a solo performance and start conducting it as an enterprise-wide symphony.

Instead of trying to “own” brand conversations end to end, taking a Maestro approach spreads skills to players across the company and positions marketers to direct a broader strategic effort. By breaking down silos, building connections and blending data, tech and talent, this approach helps organizations hear the call for innovation and growth.

Tap to pay
Tap to pay

Commerce

Commerce without compromise

There’s so much opportunity in commerce today. Yet with all the changes across customers, markets, channels and business models, this opportunity comes with complexity. Not if companies think differently.

We found a small-but-mighty group of companies—just 20%—are cutting through complexity and outperforming their peers in both financial and non-financial commerce outcomes.

What’s their secret? Instead of chasing shiny objects or getting comfortable with business as usual, they’re boldly reinventing their commerce capabilities, improving performance and expanding in ways that grow profitability. By evolving in lockstep with customers, the possibilities are endless.

+ preference: organic
+ preference: organic

Sales and Service

Value networks: Building connections for growth

Companies can activate the full power of their data by using it to create value networks, powerful partnerships that serve customers in meaningful ways and drive growth for everyone involved.

Data from digital interactions can be a virtual goldmine. The trouble is, much of it is going untapped. By developing a customer insights advantage and positioning themselves as key strategic partners to both customers and other businesses, companies can create life-centric value networks that deliver results – without significant costs.

We help companies build a foundation of technology and data analytics that can foster the capabilities they need to enhance their customers’ lives and open the door to new opportunities beyond their core offerings.