Introduction
Accenture is a global consulting company providing services to large business corporations all over the world and, most successfully, in the highly competitive American market meaning that this company knows how to differentiate itself from the competitors. The priority consulting spheres are strategic planning, optimization of the business process, outsourcing, client relationship management (CRM), logistic and supply chain management, HR and IT implementation projects . This is the company I took practice as a student and, though, my experience of working in Accenture was not broad I realized that the company offers perfect career opportunities for the young specialists. I hope that the information about the company I provide here will be helpful for those who think whether it is worth to link their life with the consulting business.
The consulting services include a variety of measures such as seminars, workshops, writing technical specifications, project plans, development of ready business plans, financial calculations, and accounting . Besides, the company provides business evaluations for potential stakeholders, contract writing, and cash flow analysis. IT sphere with its numerous projects should be described separately. Specialists in technology install and analyze hardware and software, train staff members, upgrade the existing ERP systems, organize the workshops and restructure the business processes .
The company is currently staffed with the 380 thousand employees operating in 120 world countries. Initially it was registered in Bermuda; however, after 2001 getting the status of a JSC (joint stock company) in Ireland, the company headquartered in New York being listed on NYSE. I was impressed to know that the company is cooperating with the 94 companies from the Fortune Global 100 list and with around 2/3 of the clients from the Global Fortune 500. I will analyze the current situation of the company on the market, its objectives/mission, and SWOT. The SWOT evaluation will give us a detailed information about the company’s business landscape and potential. Having been a member of the company’s team, I think that Accenture has an opportunity to capture the market advantages in East European and Asian business communities and become extremely profitable in the next three years. The SWOT analysis will help me to elaborate a strategic plan.
Objectives
In 2016, Accenture has announced strategic priorities and targets to enhance the customer service in all of the department, make the company more prominent compared to major consulting competitors, adapt to a rapidly changing business environment and keep the steady profit growth providing significant returns to the shareholders . The company is targeting to grow for 50% over the second year in the East European and Asian markets primarily by elaborating strategic alliances and partnerships with the local business groups. The targeted consulting services to the rapidly growing IT sector and giant corporations can give a fertile ground for an increase in revenues above the anticipated $1,6 billion by the third year demonstrating a net after-tax revenue of 13% on the growth of almost 35%.
The key to the strategic growth of the company in East Europe and Asia concludes in the intention to organize the marketing campaigns (seminars, workshops, and presentations) in the areas related to the most demanded spheres such as IT/ ERP implementation, legal services, logistic and supply chain operations. I expect that these services will comprise around 50% of the total revenue and profitability of the company during the first year and approximately 60% by the third year of our strategic planning. A wisely used marketing strategy can serve as a vehicle for expanding Accenture consulting services, which is another important objective.
Mission of the company
The major claimed mission of Accenture is to enhance the performance and effectiveness of the loyal customers, and their opportunities for improved operations within the highly competitive markets. Besides, successful strategic alliances will help the company to expand political and economic influence in business environments of the developing countries.
Accenture: History, Products, and Major Competitors
Accenture is one of the world largest consulting corporations, which has experience in 18 various economy branches. The company founded in 1913 by the accountant Arthur Anderson was initially called Arthur Anderson & Company. The major principle of work has always been based on the concept that the employees of the company should always have their own opinion regarding the solution of the most complicated tasks .
Anderson was sure that if the employees do not have their own opinion concerning the issue, they will not be able to help the customers shattering their confidence. Under the guidance of its CEO, the company has rapidly grown into a large corporation and continued to expand operations even after the founder death in 1947. One of the most successful departments in the company was the group called Anderson Consulting founded in 1942 representing an informational, consulting and managerial division. Its staff consisted of preferably experienced and highly qualified experts, who made decisions on the key business processes of the customers. Therefore, it was not surprising that Anderson Consulting has rapidly expanded and broadened becoming even more profitable than the parent company .
The business operations of Anderson Consulting were soon separated from the Arthur Anderson company and became relatively autonomous. It should be noted that auditors and consultants from various divisions of the company started to have intractable disagreements concerning the operations, which has provoked numerous conflicts and misunderstandings. Therefore, in 1990 an attempt has been made to resolve all the discrepancies signing the Florids Accords agreement, according to which Arthur Anderson company will be involved only in audit operations while Anderson Consulting will do only the consulting services. Each of the daughter companies had a relative independence from each other and the most profitable from the companies was supposed to pay 15% to the second company from the total annual revenues.
However, Florids Accords agreement managed to deepen the mutual disagreement between the companies instead of smoothing them over. The revenues of Anderson Consulting have increased from 1,4 billion to 9,6 billion in the next five years stimulating the unwillingness of the company to pay 15% to the less fortunate companion. The decision to break up resulted in a lengthy lawsuit process lasting for more than 2 years. The result of the process aimed to satisfy both parties. Anderson Consulting gained independence and lost the right to be called “Anderson Consulting”. The new name was announced in 1st January 2001, when the company captured the market with the new brand name of Accenture, which cost approximately $7 billion .
Products and Operations
Being the consulting company Accenture’s primary products are consulting services in various branches and industries. The company facilitates the issues of the business efficiency increase for a broad spectrum of companies selling, manufacturing and distributing products. Accenture cooperates with the largest international producers of food and drinks, home improvement products, agricultural goods, chemical, pharmaceutical, luxury, alcohol and tobacco goods. Working with the business leaders, they share their unique expertise in the spheres of strategical business planning, operational efficiency, cost reduction, digital solutions, informational technologies, and outsourcing.
Accenture’s services offer the following consulting products:
In strategic consulting
Elaboration of strategic business development;
Strategic cost reduction;
Development of IT strategy;
Development of digital business development
In commercial services
Ideal promo-actions: increase of sales volumes and profit from the promotional product campaigns using the cost reduction strategies for manufacturing companies;
Ideal sales: optimization of merchandising services and activities;
Ideal delivery: optimization of transportation tasks and processes for the manufacturing companies;
Ideal supply: optimization of supply chain processes
In IT sphere:
Implementation of ERP, CRM, MRP, and SCM system in the companies;
Selection of appropriate software and hardware solutions;
Customization of existing ERP systems;
Technical follow-up;
Creation of technical documentation
Major Competitors
Accenture major competitors on the international and internal markets are the companies offering the same level of consulting services. Among the most prominent and professional consulting companies are McKinsey & Company, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young, IBM Global Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and some others, which have representative offices worldwide and the number of employees more than 50 thousand (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. The international distribution of consulting companies market shares (source Heng, Blackmore, & Short, 2015)
On the data provided above, it is clearly seen that Accenture takes almost 4% of the consulting services global market, which is a significant share ranking the company among the best TOP consulting businesses worldwide.
SWOT analysis
Accenture always strives for top performance in all company divisions. The SWOT analysis of the company will be provided in the table below.
It makes sense to outline the three areas of the SWOT analysis because I think them to be essential to my three-year strategic plan: weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. I avoid mentioning the analysis of the strong sides while these strengths are quite stable and commonly recognized. The weaknesses should be primarily addressed analyzing the business to stay afloat. Analysis of weaknesses helps to outline the best possible choice of business strategies. According to Abraham (2012), the choice of the strategic options depends on the corporate culture. It means that the assumptions, norms and values held by the company represent the source of strategic activities when the top managers being guided by the corporate culture choose the best possible strategic alternative. Accenture is the company with strong corporate culture, which can turn weaknesses into advantages.
The dependency emerging from the peculiarity of consulting business makes the company quite vulnerable to the behavior of the personnel, their work quality, expertise, knowledge, and experience. Losing the key personnel or training the younger specialists is always a time consuming and costly process while growing up a good professional requires much attention and effort. The unique nature of the consulting industry makes it quite hard to diversify the business. High dependence on human resources may be treated like a weakness; yet Abraham (2012), underlines that only the perception of the weakness within the company matters. While Accenture is a company basing its expertise on human knowledge, the perception of the weakness can be too subjective. The human resource shortage and turnover are the weaknesses which can hardly be quantified; therefore, the consensus on the matter is highly dependent on the ability of the company to discuss and analyze these weaknesses .
The strategical thinking suggests the logic of a new business format for Accenture, for instance, manufacturing or media communication business. For this three-year strategic plan to be realized it is required to have a good communication network across all business units – international or local. It means that to achieve the goal of diversification the company should improve the quality of coordination between the divisions . The opportunities area is represented by options of business expansion. The company’s growth can be achieved via the establishment of new daughter units in Eastern Europe and Asia in the nearest three years. Also, it makes sense to acquire new successful (local or international) business units to boost the overall performance of the company . The new options of diversification, which can significantly contribute to the new strategic development plan is an elaboration of the new business branches connected to new activity spheres such as production and media communication.
The major competitors never miss an opportunity to outperform Accenture, especially during the economic crisis. Therefore, the key concepts of the competitive markets theory are fully applicable to the behavior of Accenture business, which strategy is profit driven and corresponds the basic principles of rivalry, excludability and no information failure . In other words, the large number of service producers strive to compete for a large number of customers being unable to dictate the market how to operate. Accenture as one of the leading consulting companies has no power over the local or international prices while the latter are formed by the supply-demand forces. Therefore, it is necessary for the company to pay attention to the peculiarity of the provided services. It is essential for Accenture to operate in the competitive environment to maintain the highest quality of expertise. The three-years strategic plan should be carefully considered regarding all the opportunities, threats and weaknesses in the company.
Conclusion
The success of my strategic plan is concluded in the analysis of the company from inside. As a person, who had experience in working with the company, I think that the case study method is most suitable in achieving the outlined purpose. Restating the initial idea Accenture as a global consulting company knows how to differentiate its business from the competitors. The range of services provided by the company units is unprecedented in professionalism and quality; yet, to maintain the achieved success, the company requires to adjust the three-year strategic development plan by expanding the business operations, improving the quality of coordination and cooperation between the units and consider the possibility of business diversification by establishing manufacturing or media communication in Eastern Europe and Asia.
References
Abraham, S. C. (2012). Strategic Management for Organizations. San Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Accenture. (2012). Accenture Overview: Company Overview. New York: Accenture.
Borchardt, W., & Haas, J. (2015). Accenture Strategy. New York: Accenture.
Everaert, E., Nolan, D., & Walkowicz, T. (2015). Capital Markets | Rethinking Investment Banking: Trade Finance: The Landscape is Changing—Are You? New York: Accenture.
Fuchs, R., & Silverstone, Y. (2014). Strategic Workforce Planning Finally Gets Strategic. Accenture Strategy, 1-10.
Govender, S. (2015). Accenture Strategy Survey on Strategic Decision Making. New York: Accenture.
Heng, J., Blackmore, D., & Short, J. (2015, April 22). Market Share Analysis: Consulting Services, Worldwide. Retrieved from Gartner: https://www.gartner.com/doc/3035320/market-share-analysis-consulting-services
