Middle East firms risk losing $400 bln to disruption: Accenture

Middle East businesses can successfully prevent a loss of more than $400 billion in enterprise value, which may erode through ongoing technological disruption elsewhere, by improving innovation capabilities, Accenture said in a recent report.

“With more than $400 billion of enterprise value at risk and with unrealized market opportunities in the Middle East, industry leaders must change their approach to innovation,”  Xavier Anglada, managing director of Accenture Digital in the Middle East and Turkey, said in the report.

“By preparing a comprehensive digital strategy, they will be able to pivot to new growth opportunities without abandoning their core business,” he added.

According to the report, many companies have increased their spending on innovation such as investing in research and development in recent years, but these investments have not necessarily led to above-average growth.

At a global level, return on innovation spend has declined by 27 percent over the past five years, it added.

The findings are based on an analysis of 200 of the largest companies by revenue across 18 industries and a survey of 150 senior executives from 11 industry sectors across the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

“The digital revolution has exposed abundant value opportunities for companies to raise efficiency and develop new kinds of products and services,” said Yusof Seedat, a research director at Accenture, said in the report.

“Companies that can leverage innovation to drive deep organizational change are more likely to unlock trapped value,” he noted.