Executive Summary
This report aggregates insights from more than 10,000 data points from CovQ® Assessments conducted across industries to understand how companies perform in delivering mission, accelerating growth, fostering innovation, and driving productivity. CovQ®—the Compound Value Creator Quotient—is the augmented intelligence of a new category of Value Creation Management Platforms (HBR Analytic Services Report “Mastering Value Creation”). It enables organizations to align strategy and execution through value-driver-based prioritization, monitoring, and collaboration. CovQ® Scores and CovQ® Factors or Team Alignment range from 10 (insufficient) to 100 (outstanding). This CovQ® Insights Report—developed from proprietary data, artificial intelligence, and human insight—delivers deployable, time-sensitive intelligence to fuel strategic execution and outperform in growth, innovation, and productivity and to become a Compounding Leader.
· Only 26.4% Reach Compounding Levels: Just 4.5% of assessed companies qualify as Compounding Leaders (CovQ® Score 85–100), and 21.9% as Strategic Compounders (75–84), leaving 73.6% operating below compounding performance levels.
· Massive Untapped Potential or Underleveraged / At Risk: The majority of companies remain Stabilized Performers, Opportunity Candidates, or Underleveraged / At Risk. This reflects a widespread underutilization of value creation levers—signaling major opportunities for growth, profit, and valuation gains.
· Growth Is a Capability, Not Just a Result: Higher scores in the Building and Deep segments correlate with stronger product launches, better market expansion, and improved conversion—proving that growth stems from structural capabilities.
· Innovation Needs Structure to Scale: High-performing companies combine creativity with disciplined execution, standing out in value drivers like cross-functional collaboration, initiative execution, and tracking.
· Productivity Comes from Strategic Focus: Companies with clear priorities and alignment outperform those with scattered efforts—highlighting the value of focused execution and strategic coherence.
CovQ® Segments and Focus Areas
CovQ® Segment Performance
The 60 core CovQ value drivers are grouped into five segments that represent foundational pillars of value creation.
Each segment uncovers distinct strengths and risks:
■ DEEP – Strategic Maturity: Visionary leadership and governance strength are common. However, gaps in self-assessment practices and compound strategy thinking reduce long-term agility.
■ IMPACT – Strategic Leverage: Strong product fundamentals and cultural focus contrast with variability in pricing, differentiation, and GTM discipline.
■ CREATES – Execution Engine: This segment is consistently the weakest. Few firms manage execution with clarity, tools, or principles, resulting in strategic decay.
■ VALUE – Progress Performance: Internal communication is routine, yet often lacks instrumentalization — diluting alignment and slowing response times.
■ BUILDING – Growth Enablers: Executive learning, peer development, and thought leadership are underdeveloped, though companies acknowledge their importance.
Summary: Execution capability (CREATES) is the bottleneck. Leadership is present, but delivery systems remain fragmented.
CovQ® Score Tier Distribution
CovQ® Score Tier Definitions
Compounding Leader (85–100): Companies operating at the highest level of value creation. They exhibit complete alignment between strategy and execution, with systems in place that allow value to compound over time.
Strategic Compounder (75–84): Organizations with strong strategic alignment and execution, showing clear momentum toward sustainable growth and efficiency gains.
Stabilized Performer (68–74): Firms with a solid foundation in place, executing moderately well but still with unactivated or underleveraged potential.
Opportunity Candidate (60–67): Companies with meaningful upside if strategic discipline, prioritization, and execution capabilities are improved.
At Risk / Underleveraged (<60): Organizations lacking alignment or systems to execute effectively. These companies are likely leaving substantial value on the table.
Key Insight Themes
1. Growth is a Capability, Not Just an Outcome:
Organizations that scored higher in the ‘Building’ and ‘Deep’ segments demonstrated better product launches, market expansion, and conversion rates.
2. Innovation Needs Structure to Scale:
Top performers combine creativity with execution rigor, excelling in drivers like collaboration, initiative execution, and tracking.
3. Productivity Comes from Focused Execution:
Companies with sharper focus and alignment consistently outperformed those with scattered initiatives.
Quadrant Analysis: CovQ® Score vs. TEAM Alignment Factor
This quadrant explores the relationship between CovQ® Score and the TEAM Alignment Factor across organizations. TEAM Alignment in the CovQ® context is not about interpersonal teamwork—it reflects how well leadership and decision-makers are strategically aligned. It captures whether leaders share a clear understanding of the strategy, priorities, and the value drivers that enable execution and outcomes.
This updated heatmap-style visualization reveals meaningful patterns:
• Top-right quadrant: Strategically strong and aligned teams—likely to compound value over time.
• Bottom-right quadrant: High CovQ® Score but low TEAM Alignment—these firms may face execution drag or internal misalignment.
• Top-left quadrant: High alignment on an unclear or weaker strategic foundation—suggests an opportunity to upgrade the strategic model.
• Bottom-left quadrant: Disconnected leadership and strategic gaps—highest risk, greatest upside.
The heatmap indicates that higher CovQ® Scores tend to correlate with higher TEAM Alignment Factors, but the relationship is not absolute. Some firms achieve high CovQ® Scores despite lower alignment—often due to strong individual leadership or disciplined systems—but this may not be sustainable. Conversely, aligned leadership without strong strategy or execution capabilities may result in group consensus that doesn’t translate into value creation.
CovQ® Scores vs. CovQ® Team Alignment Factors
CovQ+ Layer: Customized Value Creation Intelligence
CovQ+ is the advanced customization layer of the CovQ® Value Creation Management Platform. It enables organizations to expand beyond the 60 core value drivers by introducing tailored drivers aligned with specific industries, functional domains, or transformation scenarios.
CovQ+ is designed for flexibility — empowering internal teams to define what matters most to them, or allowing external partners like consultants and advisors to bring their proprietary playbooks into the platform.
Use cases include:
• Functional deep dives (e.g., sales, product, AI, sustainability)
• Industry-specific frameworks (e.g., healthcare, fintech, consumer goods)
• Ecosystem dynamics: investor-readiness, M&A alignment, or governance audits
CovQ+ brings precision to strategy execution by contextualizing what matters most — and allowing teams to measure, align, and improve with relevance and speed.
Conclusion: Compounding Value Creation is Rare—But Achievable
Only 4.5 % out of the assessed companies qualified as Compounding Leaders with CovQ® Scores between 85–100. Another 21.9% of companies were Strategic Compounders, bringing the total above the compounding threshold to just 26.4% of the sample.
This means that 73.6% of organizations are still operating below compounding levels. These include Stabilized Performers, Opportunity Candidates, and At Risk, Underleveraged companies. The gap highlights a systemic underutilization of value creation levers—and an immense opportunity for growth, profitability, and valuation uplift through structured, value-driver-based execution.
The CovQ® value creation management platform delivers a structured pathway for systematically aligning strategy and execution, unlocking exponential value in a measurable and repeatable way.
How to get started?
If you would like to find out your company’s CovQ® or start a conversation about how to become a compounding leader, please get in touch: https://www.8w8.com/contact-us/
If you like to download the report Mastering Value Creation by Centering Strategy and Execution produced by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services in association with CovQ by 8W8, please download your copy from http://www.8W8.com
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