Accenture tech leaders co-author new playbook for success

A new business book shows that in order to achieve success today – in an era where every company is a tech company and technology innovation continues to accelerate – business leaders must adopt a bold new strategic framework that focuses on the human issues of trust, experience, talent and sustainability.

And those who master these core business differentiators will be best positioned to lead and succeed.

The new book, titled Radically Human: How New Technology is Transforming Business and Shaping Our Future, and co-authored by two Accenture technologists – Paul Daugherty, CTO and H. James Wilson, global MD of technology research – offers business leaders an easy-to-understand breakdown of today’s most advanced human-facing technologies and provides a clear roadmap for companies to lead.

A follow-up to the authors highly acclaimed bestseller Human + Machine, Radically Human is already receiving rave reviews. Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, describes the book as offering a “set of tools and frameworks to remind everybody that the business world is not linear, but exponential”; while Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive, says it provides businesses and leaders with a “startingly fresh perspective on how the increasingly human face of advanced technology is transforming innovation”.

And what’s more, proceeds from sales of the book are being donated to help fund education and training programs focused on individuals in the middle of their careers who need extra support to develop new skills.

Radically Human – people will be the reason most firms succeed

Radically Human reveals how leading companies are adopting a new generation of human-centric technology to drive innovation amid rapid change. Radically human systems are modelled on human brains and behaviours and are able to listen, see, talk, and understand in more human-like ways than previous generations of intelligent technology.

Research from Accenture shows that leading companies that amplified their technology investments during the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly extended their growth advantage over competitors. In fact, by stepping up investments in cloud, AI and other technologies, these leading companies are now growing revenue at five times the rate of companies that lag behind.

Radically Human builds on this shift and explains why in an age of emerging technologies such as brain-inspired computing, emotional AI, blockchain, extended reality, synthetic data and the metaverse, it’s ultimately people — not the algorithms deployed or technologies used – that will be the reason most companies succeed.

Examples of leading companies taking a human-centric approach

Featuring ground-breaking insights and research on more than 10,000 companies, the book provides business leaders with a new playbook for defining success – a framework that challenges commonly held assumptions around five business fundamentals – Intelligence, Data, Expertise, Architecture, and Strategy (IDEAS) – presenting each of these new fundamentals through the lens of talent, trust, experiences, and sustainability.

“In the past, people had to adapt in order to use technology. Now, radically human technology is adapting to people, accelerating their potential and changing the way we live, collaborate and work,” explains Daugherty.

The book reveals rich examples of how leading companies are taking a human-centric approach to using technologies to innovate, grow and transform their businesses, while also achieving advancements rooted in human values: 

• Aesthetics are notoriously challenging for AI, but one e-tailer’s engineers built a unique program that tapped into each customer’s style to create a one-of-a-kind experience;
• Thousands of changing SKUs make warehouse fulfilment a tedious task — but a new generation of smarter robots are learning from humans and changing the game.
• After a fast-food chain put data-based decisions into employees’ hands, they tapped into unexpected value for their customers and created a radically human experience.

Radically Human: How New Technology is Transforming Business and Shaping Our Future is available everywhere starting April 26, 2022, including at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers.

Radically Human – find out more