Innovation capital. The share of top growers that reported using data as the basis of decision making was nearly double the share of low growers. Likewise, more than twice the share of top growers said that they have rigorous processes in place to measure the impact of R&D and design, enabling them to build rapidly on successes and abandon failures. Similarly, twice as many top growers are more willing to disrupt their own business models proactively (rather than waiting to be disrupted) and actively search for opportunities to invest in disruptive innovation.
Data and analytics capital. Only top growers say that they have taken the next steps needed to implement their digital strategy, including making effective use of proprietary data, investing in flexible architecture to avoid being held back by legacy systems—so-called tech debt—and ensuring that they can leverage the full power of intangibles through real-time analytics. Top growers are 1.3 times more likely to have proprietary data, 1.8 times more likely to run analytics decisions in real time, and 2.0 times more likely to have a flexible infrastructure.
Human and relational capital. Both top and low growers agree on the importance of attracting talent, but top growers are 2.6 times more likely than low growers to strive to retain that talent by offering a unique value proposition. Top growers are twice as likely to define performance measures for all parts of the organization, and 1.7 times more likely to put in place talent-management processes to foster diversity. Our survey indicates that top growers are 3.0 times more likely to make investment decisions holistically, to do so on a systematic and regular basis, and to maintain agility. Top growers are 1.5 times more likely to make decisions about spending and investment allocation through systematic but agile evaluation of returns. Finally, top growers are twice as likely as low growers to agree strongly that it is important to scale disruptive new business models.
Brand capital. Only top growers are already deploying this type of intangible to ensure that they can leverage brands effectively by not only listening to the voice of consumers but listening in a tailored way to serve them with personalized offerings backed by real-time data analytics and tailored pricing and promotion. It is notable that 2.5 times more top growers than low growers regard personalization as the core part of the customer experience, and more than double the share of top growers say that they continuously allocate and reallocate marketing spending in or near real time.
