The Big Zero: The Transformation of Zbb into a Force for Growth, Innovation and Competitive Advantage

Do you want to achieve startup speed at enterprise scale?

Growth. It's what every company strives for. But it's become more and more elusive as companies struggle to hit their projected growth rates in an increasingly competitive market.

While zero-based budgeting (ZBB) has been wielded for decades to cut costs, it falls short when it comes to spurring growth. But a zero-based mindset (ZBx) does that and more. ZBx facilitates forensic oversight into resource allocation that funnels savings back into growth initiatives and encourages new sources of innovation.

The Big Zero shows how a ZBx approach focuses on agility over austerity, visibility over guesswork and the future over the past to fuel growth and competitiveness.

Kris Timmermans is a Senior Managing Director who heads Accenture Strategy's supply chain, operations and sustainability practices. He also leads Accenture's ZBx initiative globally. For more than two decades, he has helped clients define cost and operations transformations that create competitive advantage for their organizations. He is based in Brussels.

Chris Roark is a Managing Director and leads Accenture's competitiveness and zero-based platforms for North America. He works with consumer package goods, industrial and retail clients to create enterprise value through implementation of growth strategies, operating model designs and structural cost resets. He is based in Chicago.

For over fifteen years, Rodrigo Abdalla has been spreading the zero-based mindset across the globe in a broad spectrum of sectors. Besides ZBx, his experience includes M&A and corporate turnaround. Based in London, he also acts as an angel investor, board member, and senior adviser to PEs and startups.