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Tech strategies for innovation and growth

A staggering gap in
performance and
getting wider
Before the pandemic, our research
found that Leaders in technology
adoption and innovation were
growing at 2x the rate of Laggards.
Companies have compressed
transformation in the face of
COVID-19. And Leaders are now
growing 5x faster than Laggards.
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Leaders have extended their advantage over Laggards
2x 5x
Leaders’growthrate: 9.11
Laggards’growthrate: 4.24
Leaders’growthrate: 3.98
Laggards’growthrate: 0.80
Leaders’ revenue
Laggards’ revenue

Leaders doubled down on technology
investment during the pandemic
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Sample: Leaders: n = 430, Laggards = 1075
>50%
Leaders accelerated their
investment in different types of
technologies during the pandemic.
Acceleration in Investment for Specific
Technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic
The investments in key
technologies - such as cloud
and AI - helped Leaders not
only absorb impact quickly
but refocus on growth
Security
Real time data
Cloud
IOT
72%
69%
68%
70%
50%
49%
47%
50%
Leaders Laggards

Leaders Laggards
Leaders focus on
creating broader value
They reach beyond traditional
business priorities creating new value
for all stakeholders
• Providing access to innovative
technology
• Creating value with partners
• Bolstering data sovereignty and privacy
• Reskilling and upskilling employees
• Improving employee experience,
well-being and mental health
• Designing human-centric customer
experiences
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100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Employee
training
Employee
experience
Customer experience
Data sovereignty
and privacy
Creating value
with partners
Access to innovative
technology
Percentage of companies achieving specific goals and activities

Copyright © 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved.
Will only Leaders
succeed?
Introducing Leapfroggers
Copyright © 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved. 5

What makes a
Leapfrogger?
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IT Spend = 100%
Making the IT budget allocation flip to innovation
Others
Laggards
Leaders
Leapfroggers
Share of IT spend on operations and maintenance
versus innovation and discretionary spending
Leapfroggers build core Systems Strength,
adopting and scaling new technologies across
their enterprises.
Leapfroggers flip their IT budget allocation,
from maintenance and operations to favor
innovation (30% / 70%).

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Their success provides a
roadmap to those that need
to accelerate change
Replatform
for Systems Strength by moving to
and innovating in the cloud
Reframe
their mindset shifting focus to innovation
and collaborating with partners
Reach
for expanded access to technology across
functions and embrace a broader value
agenda addressing employee reskilling,
well-being and mental health.
How Leapfroggers
overtake peers
and catch up with
Leaders

They replatform
Building Systems Strength
by moving to and
innovating in the cloud
8
Copyright © 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved. 9
Banco Santander SA, the Madrid-based multinational financial services firm, shows
replatforming at work. In 2019, Santander consolidated all of its digital services into a single
global unit, removed potential duplication of apps and systems, and ensured that any new
platforms are built “only once.”
In replatforming, Santander dismantled internal silos. Systems now clearly map to
capabilities. Investments in IT bring together all stakeholders across the organization,
instead of creating shadow IT systems and leaving some groups out in the cold.
Thanks to these replatforming efforts, the bank's app was recognized as the Best Bank for
Digital Services in Spain in 2020.
Santander used the cloud to extend digital capabilities
across new markets and applications
Building Systems Strength in the cloud
Note: This description is based on publicly available information and is not a result of work performed by Accenture.

They reframe
Changing their mindset to
innovation and collaborating
with partners and platforms
10
Copyright © 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved. 11
Carrefour Group, one of the world’s biggest supermarket chains, has been in the throes of a
major overhaul to boost sales and profits and transform itself into a digitally savvy food
retailer. Driving its strategy? Innovation. The company wants to increase food e-commerce
sales to 4.2 billion euros by 2022.
To get there, the company has invested 2.8 billion euros in its digital transformation and has
partnered with the likes of Google to create innovation labs and reinvent the customer
experience, and with startups to foster external innovation.
The investments in innovation technologies paid off when the pandemic hit. In 2020,
globally, Carrefour drove growth of more than 70% in food commerce, reaching 2.3
billion euros and it’s on track to meet its 4.2 billion euros target by 2022.
Carrefour drove its strategy though innovation – with others.
They focused on collaborating with partners from Google to startups.
Second-mover mindset: innovation and collaboration
Note: This description is based on publicly available information and is not a result of work performed by Accenture.

They extend
their reach
Expanding access to technology
across functions, and embracing a
broader value agenda addressing
employee reskilling, well-being
and mental health
12
Copyright © 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved. 13
Germany’s Deutsche Telekom (DT), the telecom giant, embodies what it means to reach.
As COVID-19 lockdowns struck, DT’s networks faced an onslaught of traffic (digital
conferences increased 322%, and Netflix demand soared 3074%). Yet DT’s networks
remained stable and secure, and the company moved 16,000 service and call-center
employees into home offices rapidly.
Why? Because in 2016, DT began to modernize its IT estate and invest in cultural and
tech innovation. The enterprise-wide transformation aimed to improve employees’ skills,
democratize access to tech across the enterprise, and restore stability and reliability to its
IT organization.
DT was flexible, resilient and innovative during the pandemic – for both
their employees and customers – as opposed to merely focusing on survival
Expanding access to technology
Note: This description is based on publicly available information and is not a result of work performed by Accenture.

Reach
Expand access to technology
across functions and embrace
a broader value agenda
Where to start
Scale technology and talent
based on value to reach beyond
traditional business priorities.
Reframe
Shift the focus to innovation
and collaborate with partners
and platforms
Where to start
Flip the IT budget allocation to
innovation and freed-up capital
to further invest in new
technology innovation.
Replatform
Build Systems Strength by
moving to and innovating in
the cloud
Where to start
Migrate and modernize your IT
landscape with cloud through
careful assessment and
prioritization.
100%
Steps towards leadership
Evolving technology strategies deliver
greater success when companies master
these three imperatives
14

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Make the leap,
take the lead
accenture.com/takethelead
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