Second pillar the ocus on large accounts

"Americans." We "The walls o the Accenture meeting rooms ha e beauti ul decorated gol er Tiger Woods giant portraits, the mascot o the company, the suggestion is taken as a mark o ignorance, or e en an insult. In these turbulent times o challenge o the globalization and identity withdrawal, it is interesting to look at the quite exceptional case o Accenture, the largest company o computer ser ice in the world with IBM. Accenture, with its approximately 180.000 employees in more than 50 countries, is not a company American European, nor anything else. It is the irst true multinational without nationality.

Indeed, the great strategic decision o this year 2009 concerned the mo e o the registration o the company o Bermuda to the Ireland. A less sunny but more politically correct destination in this time o hunting to tax ha ens. But no matter to mo e the headquarters o the company, or the good reason that there is not. The boss, Bill Green, works in Boston and the members o the Executi e Committee in Paris, London, rank urt or Bangalore. He gather by ideocon erence, or in one or the other depending on the circumstances.

This assertion, proclaimed on the tones, and which allows not to recognize as genuine competitor IBM, and possibly Capgemini in Europe, is only partly correct. The company has certainly no passport, but the omnipresent Tiger Woods, in ull swing and its slogan, "high per ormance deli ered", moderate the comments. In his head, Accenture will remain ore er marked by his American childhood. Not because it speaks English to all loors, but or his lo e o the procedures and the standardized approach. In a no el published in 2006 (1), incent Petitet, who had worked in the company when it was still called Arthur Andersen Consulting, un this obsession o the model. The hero is assigned missions with orce "key exchange and deli erable on methodologies and the mission, including the Hellington model and the Banko sky algorithm. Here e erything is standardized, standardized and there ore reproducible rom one case to another, rom one country to another.

It is precisely this unique combination o extreme globalisation and normalisation to o ersimpli y which is at the origin o the considerable success o Accenture, become, with its best pro itability, the model o the pro ession o computer ser ices. A model ery di icult to replicate, because it is deri ed rom the particular history o the company. It is based on three pillars closely intertwined: the culture o the Council, ocusing on key accounts and a uni ied world Organization.

Like all the "big i e", these large American accounting Auditors, stars o the 1980s, Arthur Andersen is launched in the management consultancy, and then in the computerization o its customers. Be ore the success o the operation and the risk o con lict o interest raised by the authorities, the company separates in 1989 Andersen Consulting business rom the rest... Be ore recreating a concurrent acti ity. In 2000, a ter two years o trial, the two Andersen separated and branch consulting becomes Accenture. A decision that will sa e the sinking o its ormer parent company, two years later.

This turbulent history, it will remain this culture o the consultant makes him attend business leaders rather than the computer di isions, strategy and business to speak talk about computers and so tware. This legacy is re lected in the chart o Accenture, which places to customers o specialist trades (high-tech, inance, automoti e, distribution, energy, etc.) that will be the irst interlocutors o any project, o course always pompously called "processing". A way to go top in companies which pushed competitors, in the early years 2000 to imitate it by buying a great o the Council: Ernst & Young or Capgemini and PricewaterhouseCoopers or IBM. But lacking in these computer specialists this speci ic culture o the strategic Council or the merger to make sa ely. Result, years o integration and the departure o a large part o the consultants, be ore the machine works. In the meantime, Accenture has dug its trench.

As any O ice o consultants world contention, the important is to gi e an intellectual rein orcing his troops. To do this, the company keeps well to recruit experienced pro essionals. It heads well made but still blank o any bad in luence. Accenture recruits out o schools. With an argument that ly: a trade aried, ery good pay and a C in gold to be recaser later, all this in exchange or constant a ailability. With a principle the beginning, that o "up or out". A ter our to i e years, is rising in the hierarchy... or going. Hence this apparent paradox: an a erage ery young age, 32 years old in rance, and ancient leaders: most per ormed throughout their career in the company, like Bill Green, CEO, years which claims more than 30 years o home, or the rench Pierre Nanterme, pattern world acti ity unds, with Accenture since 26. As long as it rises, it is.

Second pillar, the ocus on large accounts. It comes, here also, the culture o the strategic Council. Today, 96 o the top 100 U.S. companies are clients o Accenture and three quarters o the 500 irst. More important still, 99 o its irst 100 customers are or i e years, and 87 or ten years. It is this depth which allows the company to get more contracts, o ten at best rates. The price o con idence which is measured by an operational margin o 12 to 13, or almost double that o a Capgemini.

The last pillar is o course the globalization process and men. Business without asserted nationality, Accenture was the irst o its sector to understand the issue o globalization. Since 1985, o ices are opened in Manila, in 1995 in India. Today these two countries ha e become the hub o its strategy o outsourcing o it ser ices (o shore) with more than 55,000 people (including 40,000 in India, Accenture irst country in terms o personnel). The company is the urther pushed the concept, able to o er a rench client to the ser ice relocated to Nantes, Casablanca, Mauritius or Manila, according to his needs. Its customers and its " actories" are global. or that it works harmoniously, process, methods, tools, measures, architecture ha e been standardized to the extreme so that all speak the same language (called "accenture deli ery Suite") and eel com ortable e erywhere. Because the e ecti eness o the company is largely based on its science management and sharing o knowledge ('knowledge management'). The irm had sensation a ew years ago by remo ing the concept o physical O ice. O Accenture consultants is limited to their laptop computer that they connected on the same decision-making and in the same en ironment where er they are in the world. Metaphor e en irtual and disciplined globalization including Accenture is absolute lagship.