Pivot to the Future

Omar Abbosh is group chief executive of Accenture's Communications, Media & Technology operating group. He previously served as chief strategy officer for Accenture. He is a member of Accenture's Global Management Committee and has management responsibility for a number of Accenture's business units. Omar Abbosh is a graduate of INSEAD and the University of Cambridge.

Paul Nunes is global managing director for Accenture Research. He is the co-author of three books Big Bang Disruption, Jumping the S-Curve and Mass Affluence. Paul Nunes is a graduate of Northwestern University.

Larry Downes is a senior fellow with Accenture Research. He specializes in developing business strategies. He is the author or co-author of several books including Big Bang Disruption, The Laws of Disruption and Unleashing the Killer App. Larry Downes is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and Northwestern University.

Disruption is very much a way of life in every industry today. A multi-year research project carried out by Accenture on more than 3,000 companies showed that at any one time at least 63% of companies will be experiencing disruption, and that 44% of the companies in any marketplace are highly susceptible to future disruption.

So what's the best way to respond to ongoing marketplace disruptions? Ideally, you want to become a disruptor, not the disrupted. To do that, you're going to need to have the ability to pivot again and again:

If you can master the wise pivot and keep reinventing your business over and over, you're all set regardless of what happens in the future. To accelerate growth today and establish leadership in tomorrow's opportunities, you have to systematically balance and rebalance your investments in the Old, the Now and the New.

1. Releasing trapped value . When you're dealing with markets which are unpredictable, a single one-time large-scale "transformation" of your company just won't cut it. Constant reinvention and multiple pivots from one opportunity to the next and then to the next after that will be required. The aim here is to keep coming up with new and better ways to unlock the value which is trapped within your current business model and then to refocus your business around the right mix of old and new assets.

2. How to make wise pivots again and again . When you're dealing with markets which are unpredictable, a single one-time large-scale "transformation" of your company just won't cut it. Constant reinvention and multiple pivots from one opportunity to the next and then to the next after that will be required. The aim here is to keep coming up with new and better ways to unlock the value which is trapped within your current business model and then to refocus your business around the right mix of old and new assets.

Thoroughly enjoyed this business book. The authors are all employees of Accenture, which went through a digital-era makeover a few years ago and has lived to tell the tale. I thought the point that they make that you pivot to the future technologies on the strength of your legacy business is valid and smart.

I particularly liked the fact they point out this is always an opportunity to release trapped value and to use that trapped value to fund your future movements into new technologies. That's smart. The traditional way of thinking about turnarounds has always been that you exit legacy businesses and start afresh, but this pivot strategy is far more robust and applicable. Well worth reading.