Hackett’s Myths and Realities of Global Growth

After a keynote presentation by David Kepler of Dow, Chris Brennan and Sean Kracklauer dove right in and hit the attendees hard and heavy with Hackett Research focussed on the key enablers of global growth. A key part of the presentation was focussed on the myths and realities of the three key enablers of global growth and blasting through the ill-conceived perceptions that must be abolished before companies can achieve world class performance. Here are the three big myths for each area.

Global Leverage

Myth Reality Proof
Our organization is too complex or unique to manage end-to-end. Most processes can be designed and managed end-to-end. (At most, 20% of processes will need some localization.) 80% of top performers are either on the path or already there.
Most companies are only beginning the globalization journey. Most companies have their globalization initiatives well underway. Within 2-3 years,

  • 67% of top performers will have predominantly or fully global policy & strategy processes,
  • 50% of top performers will have predominantly or fully global functional management processes,
  • 66% of top performers will have predominantly or fully global technology and support operations, and
  • 62% of top performers will have predominantly or fully global process design.
The costs to move to end-to-end processes is prohibitive. The costs of fragmentation far exceed the cost of transformation. Hackett has found that transformation and consolidation will save a $10B company 44% in the finance organization alone!

Better, Broader Information

Myth Reality Proof
Enterprise Peformance Measurements (EPM) addresses our enterprise issues. EPM is mostly financial and historical. That’s why 59% of world class companies use analytics in proactive decision making vs. 44% in the peer group.
Shortening planning cycles will get us to world class performance. Emphasis must shift from calendar to event driven decision making. That’s why 67% of organizations now use rolling forecasts.
Our company requires ever more information to make a decision. Companies require less, but more targetted information, to make a decision. That’s why there is 38% utilization of self-serve drill-down dashboards and reports in management by top performers vs. 8% in the peer group and 50% utilization in operations by top performers vs. 23% in the peer group.

Agile Execution

Myth Reality Proof
Centralization & Standardization erodes service quality. Centralization & Standardization actually reduces cost and improves service quality. We’re talking a 2X reduction in cost and a 5X improvement in quality!
Deep functional expertise is enough for global business services success. Global business services success requires a value mindset. The proof is in the pudding. World class organizations meet 100% of cost targets vs. 61% in the peer group, 100% of quality targets vs. 66% in the peer group, and 94% of delivery targets vs. 75% in the peer group. In addition, world class performers acheive more than 40% savings 73% of the time vs. only 33% in the peer group.
Optimization of technology and process will get us to world class performance. Without employee engagement, you’re only half way there! Not only are talent management leaders 16X more likely to link employee engagement to business impact, but there is 21% higher employee engagement in double-digit growth companies when compared to single-digit growth companies.

In other words, blast through the myths and you’re on the path to double digit growth.