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Good morning.
Accenture CEO Julie Sweet has a unique window into what’s going on in the world of business. Her company serves hundreds of large companies in 120 countries, with a half million employees and more than $40 billion in revenues. And from that perch, she told me recently, she sees three big—and I mean big—changes going on in the post-pandemic world.
- “The first is a shift around the value of tech. We are no longer spending time talking about, is technology good or bad and what are the risks. Tech became the lifeline for individuals, societies, business and government.”
- “The second big shift has been about speed. The most successful economies, countries, companies are those whose speed is as fast as possible. We are seeing that every day.”
- “The third shift, which is the one I’m most excited about, is a shift in the opportunity to accelerate the achievement of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).”
For those not into UN lingo, the SDGs are the UN’s attempt to identify and address societies’ biggest needs. The increasing embrace of those goals by business is indicative of a major change that was already underway before the pandemic, but has been accelerated by it. “We definitely have passed the tipping point,” Sweet says. “The pandemic has highlighted the interconnection around the globe. The risks around climate seem much more imminent. The risks of a pandemic in the future are real.” And then there is the need for a massive training and upskilling effort, to give more people the opportunity to benefit from the technology revolution.
In response to these changes, Accenture itself is changing. Sweet today announced a new brand campaign (“let there be change”) a new purpose (“to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity”) and, perhaps most importantly, a new approach to business that emphasizes what she calls “360 value”—helping companies address issues like sustainability and reskilling as part of their technological transformations.
Companies need “to think about serving stakeholders as something that you need to do by design in the change they are driving. It’s not separate from the business. It’s responsible business by design.”
You can watch the entire interview with Julie Sweet here. More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Herd immunity
Trying to achieve "herd immunity" to the coronavirus by letting it sweep through the population (as there is no vaccine yet to achieve the same effect) is "simply unethical," according to World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. And yet, a fringe group of scientists pushing the idea met last week with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Fortune
Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly has paused a clinical trial of its experimental COVID-19 treatment, due to a potential safety concern raised by an independent data safety monitoring board for the trial. There are hopes that the antibody-based drug, LY-CoV555, could benefit COVID-19 patients when added to Gilead's remdesivir. But the pause, which came shortly after J&J suspended its vaccine trial due to a sick volunteer, underscores how unpredictable the timelines for coronavirus vaccines and treatments really are. Wall Street Journal
iPhone 12
As expected, Apple announced the iPhone 12 range yesterday, including the first iPhone mini, and with 5G across the board. But it also announced a couple other things: a smaller version of the HomePod smart speaker, and MagSafe wireless charging accessories for the smartphones. Fortune
EU tariffs
A WTO arbitrator has given the EU the all-clear to whack tariffs on up to $4 billion in U.S. imports, in the latest stage of a long-running (16 years and counting) saga about aerospace subsidies. But the U.S., which says Boeing no longer receives a contentious tax break from Washington State, argues that the EU has no right to impose those tariffs. Fortune
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Oil's unwell
The world's petrostates might want to rethink their strategy, according to International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol, who said yesterday that oil demand will "plateau" (don't say "peak"!) in the 2030s. "They have to prepare themselves before it is too late," he said, warning that the COVID-19 pandemic will depress demand until at least 2023. Fortune
Social media
Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex has "a lot of concerns" for people who have become addicted to social media, she told Fortune's Emma Hinchliffe at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit, which kicked off yesterday. Meghan: "There is something in there, algorithmically, that is creating this obsession." Fortune
Excel warriors
Excel spreadsheet errors are pretty common, and they can have huge ramifications—for example, that time Canopy Growth accidentally posted a CA$52 million loss that should have been CA$155 million. So enjoy this novel piece on the "Excel warriors" that (sometimes) swoop in to save the world from spreadsheet disaster. Wired UK
New normal
What will the new normal for earnings be, now that stocks appear to be enjoying a modest comeback? Fortune's Shawn Tully: "The pandemic has taken the air out of profits in mere months that might have taken far longer, but was still inevitable. By this analysis, we won't see anything even close to the rampaging earnings rebound Wall Street expects." Fortune
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
