Accenture explains how high-growth companies in the Nordic region are turning innovation investments into financial results. Learn about our distinct approach to innovation, by examining what Innovation champions (high growth companies) are doing right.

1. Draft – for discussion purposes only
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TRANSFORMING
WITH
CONFIDENCE
Turning innovation into results

2. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 2
Innovating with confidence
THE NORDIC OPPORTUNITY
Most companies are challenged in
turning their innovation investments
into results. However, certain Nordic
businesses possess a far deeper and
embedded understanding of what it
takes to innovate successfully than
most others.
They are setting the pace; their
experiences offer lessons for all.

3. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 3
Innovating with confidence
THE NORDIC OPPORTUNITY
Most companies are challenged in
turning their innovation investments
into results. However, certain Nordic
businesses possess a far deeper and
embedded understanding of what it
takes to innovate successfully than
most others.
They are setting the pace; their
experiences offer lessons for all.
WE CALL THEM
INNOVATION
CHAMPIONS.

4. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 4
Innovation Champions know how to
TURN INNOVATION INTO RESULTS
According to our
survey, we found that
Not only do these companies score
higher on our Innovation Maturity
Index. They also report higher
revenue growth and profit from
innovation in the past 5 years AND
expect stronger financial results
from innovation in the next 5 years
%
are
INNOVATION
CHAMPIONS.

5. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 5
THE CHAMPION APPROACH
in broad strokes
Innovation champions focus
on innovation ventures
geared to solve problems.
THEY INNOVATE BY DESIGN and
EMBED INNOVATION PRACTICES
that encourage innovation
throughout the organization – and
they are prepared to support
innovation reliably and repeatedly.

6. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 6
See end-note for description of the Accenture Innovation Maturity Index
ACCENTURE
INNOVATION MATURITY INDEX
PILLAR 1 PILLAR 2
Innovation
Culture
Innovation
Architecture
Innovation
Strategy
Hyper
Relevant
Technology
Propelled
Data
Driven
Asset
Smart
Inclusive
Talent
Rich
Network
Powered
INNOVATE
BY DESIGN
INNOVATION
PRACTICES

7. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 7
THE CHAMPION APPROACH
in broad strokes
Innovation champions focus
on innovation ventures
geared to solve problems.
THEY INNOVATE BY DESIGN and
EMBED INNOVATION PRACTICES
that encourage innovation
throughout the organization – and
they are prepared to support
innovation reliably and repeatedly.
INNOVATE BY
DESIGN
INNOVATION
PRACTICES
Accenture Innovation
Maturity Index scores. Max=100
Innovation
Champions Other
52
74
55
68

8. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 8
Small changes
MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
1on the Accenture Innovation Maturity
Index will on average drive a:
Growth in
REVENUES
Growth in
PROFIT
%
%
*See description of the modelling on slide 29
Modelling* our survey responses to
quantify the link between
innovation and financial
performance, we found that a

9. INNOVATE
BY DESIGN
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 9
Innovation
Strategy
Innovation
Culture
Innovation
Architecture

10. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 10
INNOVATION STRATEGY
FOCUS ON
DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION
INNOVATION EFFORTS TO BE
HIGHLY CONCENTRATED
Champions differentiate themselves
by focusing more than others on
DISRUPTIVE VERSUS INCREMENTAL
INNOVATION
Champions expect their innovation
pursuits to be highly concentrated and
HEAVILY CONNECTED RATHER
THAN EXISTING IN DISPARATE
SILOES
Innovation
Champions
Other
INNOVATION DESIGN
35
67
675

11. Innovation
Champions
Other
INNOVATION DESIGN
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 11
INNOVATION CULTURE
Most Champions manage
innovation through their
SENIOR LEADERSHIP
TEAM
Ideation can be a struggle, but
most Champions find a good
balance between
IDEA GENERATION AND
COMMERCIALIZATION
INNOVATION MANAGED BY
SENIOR LEADERSHIP
BALANCE BETWEEN GOOD IDEAS AND
COMMERCIALIZATION
44
83
44
67

12. Innovation
Champions
Other
INNOVATION DESIGN
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 12
INNOVATION ARCHITECTURE
Champions are serious about creating
their future through innovation,
putting a strong focus on
SCALING NEW BUSINESSES THAT
DON’T EXIST TODAY
Champions have a stronger focus on
TAKING INNOVATIONS TO MARKET
THROUGH COMMERCIAL PILOTS
SCALING NEW BUSINESSES THAT
DON’T EXIST TODAY
SEEING
COMMERCIAL PILOTS
AS A HIGH PRIORITY
13
67
30
83

13. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 13
INNOVATE BY DESIGN
Case: Fortum
Article “Charge & Drive –
smart solutions
for e-mobility“
Article “Digital
Mobility Services“
Witnessing the rise of electrical
vehicles, the Finnish clean-energy
company Fortum spotted associated
challenges and developed the FORTUM
CHARGE & DRIVE PLATFORM.
The platform connects drivers with
some 70,000 charging sockets.
It also helps charging station operators
manage and grow their businesses
regardless of the type of chargers they
deploy.
INNOVATION DESIGN

14. INNOVATION
PRACTICES
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 14
Hyper
Relevant
Technology
Propelled
Data
Driven
Asset
SmartInclusive Talent
Rich
Network
Powered

15. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 15
Innovation Champions
STAND OUT MARKEDLY
Innovation Champions
differentiate themselves in all of
the seven innovation practices,
but they stand out most in their
ability to continuously be
ASSET SMART, DATA DRIVEN
AND TALENT RICH
Asset
Smart
Technology
Propelled
Data
Driven
Hyper
Relevant
Inclusive
Talent
Rich
Network
Powered
48
59
52
55 53 54
51
77
84
76 77 75
70
63
29
(60%)
25
(42%)
24
(46%)
22
(40%)
22
(41%) 16
(30%) 12
(23%)
Others Innovation Champions
INNOVATION PRACTICES
More insight on each of
the seven practices

16. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 16
ASSET SMART
Asset Smart means adopting intelligent
asset and operations management in
innovative ways to run BUSINESSES
AS EFFICIENTLY AS POSSIBLE while
also freeing up the capacity for other
innovation.
INNOVATION PRACTICES

17. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 17
Of Innovation
Champions92 50made significant
progress to DIVEST
UNDERPERFORMING
ASSETS, vs. 9% of others
made significant progress to
DIGITALLY TRACK PRODUCTION
AND VALUE CHAIN to ensure
product quality, vs. 19% of others
In the past 5 years…
%
Of Innovation
Champions
%
ASSET SMART
INNOVATION PRACTICES

18. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved.
18
Article “Carlsberg Sweden
intends to change
its distribution“
Article “Carlsberg
Sweden: distribution should
be run by an external party“
To strengthen their competitive
position, offer customers more flexible
options, gain access to a bigger
distribution network, and become more
mindful of the environment, leaders at
Carlsberg Sweden in 2018 decided to
OUTSOURCE DISTRIBUTION.
Carlsberg can now focus
more fully on its core, while improving
services to end customers.
ASSET SMART
Case: Carlsberg
INNOVATION PRACTICES

19. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 19
DATA-DRIVEN
Generating, sharing and deploying
data to deliver new product and
service innovations safely and
securely requires STRATEGIC
THINKING ABOUT WHAT THE TRUE
PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED ARE.
INNOVATION PRACTICES

20. In the past 5 years…
DATA-DRIVEN
INNOVATION PRACTICESINNOVATION PRACTICES
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 20
Of Innovation
Champions83 67made significant progress to
USE DATA-DRIVEN BEHAVIOURAL
INSIGHTS to influence customers,
vs. 20% of others
made significant progress to
PREDICT CUSTOMERS’ FUTURE
DEMANDS by analyzing multiple
data sources, vs. 24% of others
%
Of Innovation
Champions
%

21. DATA DRIVEN
Case: Volvo
Article “Volvo Car
Mobility launches
the mobility brand M“
In July 2018, Volvo Cars launched “M” –
a brand POSITIONED TO GROW THE
COMPANY’S GLOBAL MOBILITY
OFFERING by providing access to cars
and services on demand through an
intuitive app.
Through M’s technology platform, the
brand will learn from users’ experiences,
preferences, and habits to create a
personalized experience.
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 21
INNOVATION PRACTICES

22. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved.
TALENT RICH
Actively working on developing a
flexible, augmented and adaptive
workforce IS KEY FOR
TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN AND
HUMAN-CENTRIC INNOVATION.
Which will help attract talents
to the organization.
INNOVATION PRACTICES

23. TALENT RICH
INNOVATION PRACTICES
Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 23
In the past 5 years…
Of Innovation
Champions83 100made significant progress to
ACCESS MULTIPLE SOURCES OF
TALENT OUTSIDE the current
workforce, vs. 24% of others
Made progress to break down
silos, MAKING THEIR WORK-
FORCE MORE “FLUID” vs. 46%
of others
%
Of Innovation
Champions
%

24. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 24
TALENT RICH
Case: Telenor
Telenor asked employees to commit
to spending at least 40 HOURS ON
SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING AT
WORK IN 2018.
Employees exceeded expectations.
Now Telenor has homed in on seven
critical training areas: data & analytics,
personalized marketing, automation &
process, cloud and virtualization,
cyber security, customer-facing IT,
and product management. Article “Telenor CEO:
Impressed with
employees’ hunger for
learning“
Article “40 hours to
transform yourself“
INNOVATION PRACTICES

25. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 25
WHAT REALLY MATTERS
Companies can become more effective
innovators by improving on practices that
build all seven innovation practices.
But for these activities to add up to a
meaningful whole, they must be
accompanied by an outlook that sees
INNOVATION AS THE COMPANY’S
FUTURE IN THE MAKING.

26. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 26
THE WISE PIVOT
Balancing the core and the new
Companies that clearly realize the connection
between innovation and their future business
WILL BE BETTER ABLE TO SEE HOW THE
INNOVATION PRACTICES WORK WITH AND
COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER so that the
organization develops an innovation fluency.
In this way a company can keep core offerings
current, while conserving the resources it needs
to pivot to new business activities and give them
the attention they need to succeed.

27. ABOUT THE RESEARCH
Survey fielded December 2018-January 2019
30
3030
30
27
21
46
1412
Comms, Media & Technology
Financial Services (ex. Banks and
insurances)
Products (ex. Retail, Automotive
and Life Science)
Resources (ex. Energy and
Utilities)
Health & Public Services
SECTOR (SPLIT)COUNTRY (SPLIT)
Sweden
Finland
Denmark
Norway
3INDUSTRY
SECTORS
across all Nordic
countries
17 INNOVATION
PRACTICES
tested in the survey
49NORDIC
EXECUTIVES
from the largest Nordic
companies
120 SURVEY
COMPONENTS
including demographic data and
financial information, test of
innovation approach, and application
of innovation practices

28. ABOUT THE RESEARCH
Identifying Innovation Champions
3INDUSTRY
SECTORS
across all Nordic
countries
17 INNOVATION
PRACTICES
tested in the survey
49NORDIC
EXECUTIVES
from the largest Nordic
companies
120 SURVEY
COMPONENTS
including demographic data and
financial information, test of
innovation approach, and application
of innovation practices
We applied 1-100 scores on the survey responses on innovation-related
approaches, practices and processes to develop the Accenture Innovation
Maturity Index.
Innovation Champions were identified as those who had a higher than
average index score (one standard deviation above the mean) and who also
self-reported revenue growth and profitability above the sample median
over 2012-2017 and expected this to continue from 2017-2022.
Survey fielded December 2018-January 2019

29. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 29
RESEARCH MODELLING METHODOLOGY
To quantify the rewards that
come with innovation maturity,
we developed an econometric
model to examine the
relationship between the
INNOVATION INDEX SCORES
AND CORPORATE FINANCIAL
PERFORMANCE We then conducted a simulation to
estimate how growth would accelerate for
all companies if they raised their INDEX
SCORES BY 1 INDEX POINT
The model estimates the probability of a
company FALLING WITHIN A GIVEN BAND
OF REVENUE OR PROFITABILITY GROWTH,
conditional on its revenue/income, size, and
Innovation Maturity Index score.
The results indicate that companies
with higher innovation scores are
SIGNIFICANTLY MORE LIKELY TO
DEMONSTRATE FASTER GROWTH
RATES in both revenue and profits.
1.
2.
3.

30. Copyright © 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved. 30
TELL ME MORE
Claus Wilkki
Nordic Director, Marketing and Communications
claus.wilkki@accenture.com
Pekka Vanne
Managing Director, Accenture Strategy in Finland
pekka.vanne@accenture.com
Pål Ødegaard
Managing Director and Strategy Lead in Norway
pal.odegaard@accenture.com
Agneta Björnsjö
Senior Principal and Nordic Research Lead
agneta.bjornsjo@accenture.com
WHO TO CONTACT TO KNOW MORERESEARCH AUTHORS
Agneta Björnsjö
Senior Principal and Nordic Research Lead
Accenture Research
Nanna Svahn
Research Associate Manager
Accenture Research
Tomas Nystöm
Managing Director and Global Lead for
Emerging Technology
Accenture Technology
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