Management's Top Priorities

According to the latest from consulting firm Accenture, managing risk is the new Number 1 priority in larger firms.

Here's the most recent Top 10 list of priorities:

1. Managing risk
2. Achieving growth while increasing profitability
3. Acquiring new customers
4. Using IT to reduce costs and create value
5. Changing organizational culture and employee attitudes
6. The need to increase customer loyalty and retention
7. Improve workforce performance
8. Increase shareholder value
9. Apply innovation to stay ahead of the competition
10. Attract and retain skilled staff

"This latest study illustrates that companies realise they must address the increased risks associated with geo-political instability, globalisation, aggressive growth, increased competition and the information explosion. These risks have ushered in a new era in corporate strategy in which high performance companies are those that sense potential issues and opportunities, and then respond and execute their strategies more quickly."

BOTTOMLINE: "In each of the three previous surveys, workforce-improvement issues have ranked at the top of the executives' priority list but had now been overtaken by external competition issues, said Accenture." That might be the case for larger enterprises, but for small businesses, workforce improvement issues is still Number One.