Enterprise systems packages have long been associated with process change. However, it was assumed that most organizations would simultaneously design and implement process change while implementing the systems. A survey of 163 organizations and detailed interviews with 28 more suggests that enterprise systems were still being implemented even among early adopters of the technology, and that process change was being undertaken on an ongoing basis. After the prerequisites of time, critical mass of functionality, and significant expenditures were taken care of, the factors most associated with achieving value from enterprise systems were integration, process optimization, and use of enterprise‐systems data in decision making.

Most executives are well aware of the acceleration in the pace of business, and they want to know what to do about it. The authors talked with executives in 40 companies about how they are dealing with this issue and identified five business‐model myths that are holding these firms back. Companies that have dispelled these misconceptions are not only achieving record profitability they are hitting new highs in the tough business environments that have driven their competitors under. This article describes the five myths and outlines how businesses can become more fluid and ready to respond quickly to change.

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PurposeOver the past three years Accenture developed and applied a new measurement tool that assesses the maturity of an organization's human capital development processes, benchmarks the processes' performance against other organizations, and determines the relationship of each process to bottom line business results. It is designed to help executives make significantly more informed choices about their investments in human capital. This article aims to look at this tool.Design/methodology/approachThe tool, known as the human capital development framework, now has been tested in more than 60 organizations. This case describes how one organization used it to help turn around a struggling division.FindingsResults of the initial implementations of the framework suggest that financial performance improves as a company improves its scoring in those critical human capital processes with strong relationships to financial success. As an organization moves from one benchmarking quartile to the next in these processes within the framework scoring, its capital efficiency – or the ratio of total annual sales to the capital invested in the operations of the business by shareholders and creditors – improves from 10 to 15 percent.Practical implicationsThe framework outlined in this article provides a tool that enables company leaders to make clear‐eyed assessments of the payoff from human capital investments. It helps organizations diagnose their strengths and weaknesses in key human capital practices, to set investment priorities and track performance, and to establish an empirical link between human capital investments, business practices, and overall business performance.Originality/valueThose organizations in the study with more mature human capital processes have better financial performance than those organizations with less mature processes. Specifically, those organizations that focus on processes devoted to three key areas – creating a people strategy aligned with the business strategy, providing supportive work environments, and developing employees by giving them ample opportunities to learn and grow – achieve far greater economic success than those that do not.

It seems as if every week a new management fad or human resources practice is grabbing headlines and clamoring for managers' attention. And yet -as many suspect but are afraid to suggest -companies with the best financial performance achieve those results not by chasing fads but by adhering to sound people management practices that are as old as business itself. These practices enable leading companies to create a ''talent multiplier'' -that is, they enable companies to generate superior results from their workforces. The concept of the talent multiplier is central to a company's performance anatomy, which is one of the three building blocks of a high-performance business.