PALO ALTO, Calif. (May 17, 2010) - Profound changes in the global innovation landscape have set the stage for the creation of a new executive-level knowledge exchange called the Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network. The aim is to further thought leadership about how global companies can "transform to better perform" as they seek to tap more complex, cost-sensitive, growth economies with large, diverse and evolving consumer markets and infrastructure needs.

The BPI Network already has thousands of executive members worldwide representing companies with nearly $1 trillion in aggregated annual revenues and is led by a diverse C-level advisory board spanning key functional areas. It represents the evolution of a respected global thought leadership organization, the Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum, to one that will focus on exploring emerging trends and transformational ideas and practices that are reshaping global business and competitive markets.

Business recovery and rejuvenation following a prolonged downturn is driving renewed innovation across products, critical processes, supply/demand chains, manufacturing systems, back-end operations, as well as business models to accommodate new economic realities and the need for higher productivity, greater adaptability, lower cost and more efficiency.

Disruptive innovators, many from emerging economies, are raising the bar for companies worldwide.  Significant market opportunities in developing countries, which will account for an estimated 70 percent of world GDP growth over the next several years, requires new business models, distribution strategies and frugal product and service designs.  A globally distributed talent pool demands different approaches to sourcing, re-skilling, and training of both aging and younger workforces. Technology continues to create huge opportunities for productivity gains and enhanced channels for transacting, collaborating and co-innovating with customers, partners and affinity groups.
 
The BPI Network (www.BPINetwork.com) is working closely with leading global business executives, consultants, authors, academicians, and sponsoring organizations to research and promote peer-powered thought leadership around important agents of global business change to help companies become more adaptive, agile and relevant in a digitally driven, resource constrained, and highly complex and competitive world marketplace.

"Business innovation, more than ever, is now a globally distributed phenomenon and critical resource for accelerating economic growth and corporate performance," said BPI Network Executive Vice President Dave Murray.  "The BPI Network will serve as a valuable channel of insight, access and influence for identifying, exploring and promoting inventive ideas and practices that advance business value, gratify customers, ensure sustainability and create competitive advantage. We've assembled and are continuing to build a world-class, multi-disciplinary advisory board of leading executives and experts to fuel our thinking and shape our agenda.  The BPI Network already reaches more than 50,000 business decision makers around the world, and we anticipate significant growth in membership and audience throughout 2010."

Recent studies, reports and articles indicate profound global shifts underway in the world economy. For example:

1. There are now more than 21,500 multi-nationals based in the emerging world. (United Nations World Investment Report)


2. Fortune 500 companies have more than 160 R&D facilities in India and China alone


3. Brainpower is now cheap and abundant in countries like China and India, which graduate millions of college students and tens of thousands of researchers with advanced engineering and science degrees annually. (The Economist)


4. The economies of China, India and Brazil are expected to grow at a combined annual rate of 6.4 percent in 2010 and 2011, compared with a 2.9 percent rate in the United States. (International Monetary Fund)


5. Emerging market share of global consumption has eclipsed that of the United States, now accounting for 34 percent versus 24 percent for the U.S. (JPMorgan Chase)


6. Emerging world share of global GDP is expected to top 51 percent by 2014, compared to 36 percent in 1980. (JPMorgan Chase)


7. Productivity in China grew by 8.2 percent in 2009, compared to a rise of 2.5 percent in the United States. (The Conference Board)


8. Emerging markets are expected to outpace developed nations in consumption and production growth, while also becoming increasingly important centers of capital, talent and innovation.  Yet, no more than 40 percent of executives in developed countries expect to derive a quarter or more of company revenues from these markets in the next five years. (McKinsey & Company)


9. North American companies appear to be taking the least action to capture emerging market growth, with 20 percent of executives saying their companies are taking no action to capture that growth. (McKinsey & Company)


10. Emerging markets account for more than 80 percent of the world’s population of 6.8 billion and already lead the world in mobile phone service subscriptions. Between 2002 and 2007, mobile penetration in emerging markets grew 321 percent compared to 46 percent in developed countries. (Vital Wave Consulting)

Senior executives interested in membership can register on the BPI Network website at www.BPINetwork.org/join.php.  New BPI studies, thought leadership papers and programs are also available on the site.  Among the programs and reports available are:  

1. Collaborate to Innovate, a new thought leadership initiative to evaluate the degree to which companies are optimizing and transforming their Business Collaboration Networks, embracing partners and customers, to improve customer experience and business performance.


2. Acceleration of Eco-Operation, an authority leadership initiative that seeks to assess progress and educate the market on the imperative to unify, focus and control complex, globally distributed value networks and bring new levels of verifiable sustainability across the entire demand and supply ecosystem.


3. Define Where to Streamline, a new report from the Marketing Supply Chain Institute, a dedicated knowledge center focused on driving best practices in the $1.5 trillion marketing services sector. This includes improved effectiveness of spend, procurement processes, agency resource utilization, the sourcing and delivery of marketing consumables, carbon footprint reductions, workflow management, and overall supply chain performance.


4. Service Invention to Increase Retention, a global audit by the Customer Experience Board of some 140 telco, wireless, cable, satellite, broadcast and Internet service providers. Highlights where and how technology convergence and customer empowerment are bringing rapid and profound changes to the industry and challenging companies to increase customer loyalty and retention.

About the BPI Network
The Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network (www.bpinetwork.org) is an influential group of senior-level executives driving transformation, process re-invention, organizational innovation, lean operation, and competitive adaptability in multi-national enterprises worldwide. Members of this change-centered affinity network represent companies with combined annual revenues of more than $1 trillion. The aim is to share thinking and advance best practices in how enterprises can "transform to better perform" as they seek to tap more complex, cost-sensitive, growth markets with large, diverse and evolving consumer and infrastructure needs.

Media and Industry Analyst Contact:
Matt Farrell
GlobalFluency
(646) 652-5204

mfarrell@globalfluency.com