About the research To study how companies are responding to the evolving (and often paradoxical) demands of customers in today’s rapidly changing world, Accenture Research conducted executive surveys as well as a series of executive interviews. The surveys were conducted in two waves (in February–March and June–August of 2022), each drawing feedback from 850 CXOs across 14 countries and 19 industries. This was used as the basis for predictive modeling of company performance, as well as a clustering analysis that revealed the five distinct plays. The interviews included 30 executives from companies based in 11 different countries and 12 industries. The life centricity playbook 28