8 FORTUNE APRIL 2020conversation with their workers?
What we say to our clients, what we
do internally, and what we should
all be doing with our communities is
speak in terms of shared success. So
when we have the conversation with
the CEO that says, “Here’s how you
need to use technology. It’s going to
take away jobs,”^3 we advise them
to talk upfront with their employees
about how many can be reskilled—
and for those who likely can’t be
reskilled, we need to ask, How can
we help them get their new job? We
believe that part of our responsibility
is to have that conversation from day
one. In client conversations, I’ve had
over the last two weeks, it has been on
the agenda with probably five of them.Accenture has, of course, disrupted
itself over the past decade. Over
65% of your business is now in digi-
tal, cloud computing, and security
services.^4 What did you learn from
that renaissance?
Well, I think first of all, our renais-sance, as you call it, is really two
things: It’s shifting the services we
offer clients, but it’s also how we
operate ourselves. So 99% of what
we do is now done in the cloud; we’re
using the same platforms that we’re
implementing with clients. We digi-
tized ourselves.INSIDE THE M&A PLAYBOOKYou’ve also been on a buying spree.(^5) How much of your growth is com-
ing from that?
We will always focus most on organic
growth, and we’ve been very consis-
tent in terms of our capital allocation.
If you look back over the last few
years, around two percentage points
of our revenue growth every year is
from acquisitions. So we’re growing
at a 9% compound annual growth
rate. Seven of those percentage
points are from organic growth; two
from inorganic.
We acquire companies for one of
three reasons, though sometimes
all three are relevant. The first is to
scale hot areas of the market. So a
couple of months ago, we bought
a fast-growing Chicago company
specializing in data science and
analytics, a very hot area. The second
reason is to build our deep industry
and functional skills. So we’ve made
acquisitions focused on financial ser-
vices and health care. And the third
reason is to acquire complementary
skills. So last year we bought Droga
(^6) , which was just named the ad
agency of the decade.
Talk about that for a moment. Why
are so many consultancies gobbling
up ad, marketing, and design firms?
We’ve been doing it for 10 years,
building the capability that’s behind
Accenture Interactive. It’s about
creating customer experiences, which
require deep technology skills and
design skills. How do you actually
reach customers, how do you seg-
ment them? To answer those ques-
tions in a holistic manner requires
BETWEEN
THE LINES
Prior to the market’s
dramatic March
slide, surging
revenues pushed
Accenture’s market
cap to a high of
$137 billion on
Feb. 19, up from
around $56 billion
in February 2014.
(2) First among
equals: North
America is Accen-
ture’s largest market,
accounting for 46%
of the company’s
2019 revenues.
(3) Robot
revolution? The
Brookings Institu-
tion estimates that
36 million U.S. jobs
will face “exposure
to automation” by
2030, with about
70% of those at risk
of being replaced by
technology.
(4) The rise of
digital: The share
is up from around a
third in 2015.
What has the coronavirus
outbreak taught us about
global business?
It highlights the integration of the
supply chain around the world and
the dependencies. We’re spending
a lot of time with clients thinking
about their supply-chain strategy
and helping them become more
resilient. One of the big aha moments
is how many large companies still
don’t use collaboration tools and
aren’t using digital technologies
internally. They’re engaging with their
customers, but they haven’t invested
in the infrastructure that allows their
employees to telecommute. That’s
going to be a big area of opportunity
to help clients.
(1) ANNUAL
REVENUES
$
$43.2 BILLION
30
20
10
0
FY 2015 2019
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG
THE CONVERSATION
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