Is your company fit for the future?

The acceleration of digital change driven by the pandemic and the resulting more agile work processes could unlock potential value creation of USD 5.4 trillion.

These are the findings of a new study by Accenture. Based on a survey of 1,100 executives at board and VP level, combined with externally validated financial metrics, the study analyzes how the maturity of operations affects company performance.

The four criteria used for this were the degree of digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and data analytics. From this, four possible levels of operational maturity were identified - stable, efficient, forward-looking and future-proof.

Accenture's analyses show that even in the current economic situation, which is characterized by uncertainty, a group of companies has emerged that is almost twice as efficient and three times more profitable than its competitors. In Germany, the number of these future-proof companies is expected to triple from ten percent of all organizations today to 34 percent by 2023.

Future-proof companies are transforming their workflows with the help of extensive data analysis as a basis for decision-making, the right mix of human labor and artificial intelligence, and agile staff deployment.

For the study, Accenture used the performance indicator of the so-called transformation value - a concept that is based on models, studies and experience and uses quantitative and qualitative key figures to determine it. The development of a company towards a sustainable state leads to an average increase in efficiency of 13.1 percent, combined with an increase in profitability of 6.4 percent.