How to become fearless in the face of devastating innovation.

1. Thriving on disruption
How to become fearless in the face of devastating innovation

2. Managing the threat of disruptive innovation
Established companies are vulnerable
2
of companies in the Fortune
500 have gone bankrupt,
been acquired, or ceased to
exist since 2000.**
of CSOs said new
technologies will rapidly
change their company’s
industry.*
*Chief Strategy Officer Industry Disruption Survey,
Accenture Institute for High Performance, 2016
**Source: Constellation Research, Innosight
of Standard & Poor’s 500
companies from 2012 will
disappear by 2027.**
Nearly all CSOs agree new technologies have changed and will change
their industry.
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95% 75% 52%

3. 3Source: Chief Strategy Officer Industry Disruption Survey, Accenture Institute for High Performance, 2016
20% of companies are
fearless in the face of
disruption; they:
Collaborate to grow
Invest in platforms
Operate with
openness
Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved.
Thriving on disruption
“Disrupt or be disrupted” is rarely realistic
Highly prepared for disruption
Prepared for disruption to some extent
Not sufficiently prepared for disruption
20%
39%
41%

4. 4
Collaborate to grow
Partner more frequently—and with unusual pairings
Companies that are
disruption-ready:
• Partner around
various business
inputs
• Deepen their
collaborations
• Team beyond their
primary industry
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Disruption-ready
The rest
Distributors
Customers
Companies beyond our
traditional industry boundaries
Suppliers
Logistics providers
Advertising agencies
Companies recognized as
investors or innovators
Companies we consider
direct competitors
Design service providers
Retailers
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

5. 5
Invest in platforms
Connect customers and business partners, at scale and on demand
Platforms defined:
Infrastructure that facilitates external
direct interactions/exchanges between
a company’s clients/consumers, and/or
desired business partners.
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Companies that are disruption-ready:
• Rethink business models to connect
with other offerings
• Build off previous platform
investments
• Plan to invest in platforms in
• the future
Companies less
prepared for
disruption
Platform investments:
Companies highly
prepared for
disruption
88%
42%
Invested in the past, will invest in the future

6. 6
Operate with openness
Take concrete operational steps to be collaborative
Companies that thrive
on disruption:
• Rethink existing
business processes
• Incentivize external
collaboration
• Make organizational
changes to accelerate
decision making
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Making organizational changes to
accelerate decision-making
Providing incentives to our executives to
think about the company’s success beyond
immediate sales and earnings cycles
Changing internal processes to ensure that
we can quickly shift resources to address
critical needs
Implementing new operating procedures in
collaboration with our partners
Providing incentives for employees to
engage in alliances with other cost
Allowing more flexible choices when it
comes to partner collaborations
Rapidly revising and adapting our
internal processes
Highest value achievers
Other significant platform investors
Not significant platform investors
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

7. 7
Time is of the essence
Three imperatives to thrive on disruption
Partnerships and platforms are limited—and some
companies are already playing by the new rules:
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Do not face
disruption alone
Deepen and broaden alliances
beyond your core industry.
Make yourself
indispensable
Become part of the
integrated solutions that
customers demand.
Embrace operational
flexibility
Be more collaborative
and open—with processes
and mind-sets.

8. About the research
Accenture Institute for High Performance
• 561 Chief Strategy Officers
• Conducted between November 2015 and February 2016
• Company revenues greater than US$1 billion
• 10 industries and 11 countries
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Retail
Telecom
Utilities Automotive
Banking
Chemicals
Consumer
Goods &
ServicesInsurance
Oil & Gas
Pharmaceuticals
10%
10%
12%
10%7%
11%
11%
10%
7%
12%
7%
15%
9%
9%
11%7%
7%
8%
11%
10%
6%
Industry
Country (HQ)
Spain
United
Kingdom
United
States Brazil
Canada
China
France
GermanyIndia
Italy
Japan

9. Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved.
Contact us
Thriving on disruption
How to become fearless in the
face of devastating innovation
Joshua Bellin
Research Fellow
Accenture Institute for High Performance
joshua.b.bellin@accenture.com
9
Ivy Lee
Research Associate
Accenture Institute for High Performance
ivy.lee@accenture.com
Paul F. Nunes
Global Managing Director
Accenture Institute for High Performance
paul.f.nunes@accenture.com

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Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved.
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for High Performance
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follow @AccentureINST or visit
www.accenture.com/institute.
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