Global consulting firm Accenture has released a report entitled "The Innovator`s Advantage", which surveyed executives in 18 countries and concluded that the present economic downturn is having less of an impact in SA than in many other places.
The report does, however, say local businesses still believe they are vulnerable to swings in investor confidence.
Despite concerns about the bottom line and the stability of stock markets, Accenture found that leaders in SA have been proactive in expanding their operations and focusing on opportunities in new markets.
They are also more likely to re-appraise their range of products and services and to convert internal business processes into saleable commodities than companies in almost any other country surveyed.
Other key findings include the fact that IT has an important role to play in developing and supporting business strategies; the need to reduce costs has been an important influence on business in SA; and firms are reshaping and rejuvenating their products and services in order to attract new customers.
A higher proportion of local businesses than in any of the other 17 countries surveyed report making extensive changes to marketing and sales (67%), operations (47%), after-sales service (40%) and procurement (37%), in order to support their push into new geographic and product markets.
The report also found that technology investments were well aligned with these priorities, with over 80% of organisations indicating they had either installed or planned to install supply chain, customer relationship management and after-sales service systems.
A further 60% had installed or planned to install e-learning and business intelligence systems to address cost and workforce performance objectives.
Given how closely these investments are aligned to strategic priorities, it was not surprising that a significant majority of South African executives (90%) said they believe IT is a source of competitive advantage for their organisations.
One of the key findings is that concerns about costs underlie many aspects of business strategy in SA, at least partly because of the perceived exposure to currency fluctuations. Due to this, almost half of those surveyed pinpointed operational costs as a main priority for the organisation.
While costs are seen as a major concern in SA, local executives are nonetheless more likely than those in countries such as the US or Brazil to regard innovation and cost-cutting as equally important.
Finally, Accenture reports that a much higher percentage of local executives (83% compared to 63%) than US business leaders are piloting initiatives and IT systems to address their top strategic priorities.
Since actions speak louder than words, this finding puts the case forward that innovation and experimentation is more important to South African business than might previously have been thought.
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