Productivity Blog

New Study: High-Performance Organizations Place Greater Emphasis on Agility and Innovation

By Erik Samdahl from i4cp | June 16, 2011

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The best companies in the world are increasingly embracing agility and willingness to change in response to economic conditions and continuous innovation, according to new research conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and Human Resource Executive®.

i4cp and Human Resource Executive® partnered to continue the annual study that examines human capital practices that lead to high-market performance. The 2011 report is now available for free on i4cp's website at www.i4cp.com and is featured in the June 16, 2011 edition of Human Resource Executive®.

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The Five Domains of High-Performance Organizations 2011

Research participants - which consisted of human resources professionals representing companies with more than 1,000 employees and from a wide spectrum of industries, including the public sector - were asked to rank their own organizations in each of the five human capital domains i4cp research has shown to be highly correlated with market performance.

While the five domains - strategy, leadership, talent, culture and market - remained consistent, the issues making up each index provided some revealing trends:

High-performers are placing an increasing emphasis on agility and commitment to innovation. Three of the five culture-focused questions most correlated with high-market performance had to do with these attributes, showing that the best companies can respond faster to economic changes and new opportunities.
High-performing organizations look ahead more than lower-performers do, and they use predictive data to drive long-term orientations in multiple areas. They inform product and service design with predictive insights with the aim of meeting customer needs over long time periods, and to identify and address future customer needs.
The top firms present the same face internally that they present externally. The brand identity the world sees is consistent with the employee value proposition and the strategies that define and achieve business objectives.
High-performing companies outstrip lower-performers in their approaches to performance management. Because workers in such organizations understand the connection between their jobs and business strategies, the behaviors needed to accomplish company objectives are more readily apparent, too.

"High-performance organizations are the role models of the corporate world," said Jay Jamrog, SVP of Research, i4cp. "Our research has shown that these companies consistently place an emphasis on the five key domains of human capital. As this year's results show, their dedication to innovation and agility is intensifying. They're preparing for rapid change and it's going to be harder and harder for other, slower responding companies to keep up."

To gain more insights on high-performance that can be applied in your own organization, download the full report for free at www.i4cp.com