Name: Accenture CEO Julie Sweet on how the events of 2020 have transformed business
Uploaded: 2020-10-13
Duration: 14 min 5 s
Description: She spoke with Fortune CEO Alan Murray.

 ALAN MURRAY: I'm Alan Murray, CEO of Fortune. And 2020 has been a year like no other. A pandemic, an explosion over racial justice, an economic crisis, yet also an unprecedented acceleration of innovation and digital transformation. And Julie Sweet has had a front row seat for all of that. She's the global CEO of Accenture, the professional services firm operating in 120 countries. More than $40 billion in revenue. Nearly half a million employees. Julie, that gives you a pretty unique perch to see how the world is changing. So I just wanted to get you to talk a little bit about what the future of business looks like after being through this extraordinary period. JULIE SWEET: Well, thanks, Alan. It certainly is an extraordinary period. And since our company is already 70% digital cloud and security, we are really in the center of what you talk about as the digital acceleration. But I think if you take a step back, because a lot of people are talking about the move to the cloud. We made a big announcement a couple of weeks ago about our own investment of $3 billion there. Many are talking about the digital acceleration. We call that, really, the global replatforming of business. It's a once in a digital era time period. But I think there is a bigger story that's happening, because there are three shifts that have happened. The first is a shift around the value of tech. We are not spending time talking about is technology good or bad, and what are the risks, right? Tech became the lifeline for individual societies business and governments. So that's a huge shift. No more parables about should we do artificial intelligence, et cetera. Big shift. The second big shift has been about speed. But there are no debates anymore. The most successful economies, countries, companies are those whose speed is as fast as possible. That's what's underlying. And we're seeing that every day, because there is a big difference between the companies who are really making the changes to go faster. So that's a huge shift. It's not about-- you know, we thought it was going to take a decade to transform. We think it's more like five years to replatform business. And the third shift, which is the one I'm probably the most excited about, is a shift in the opportunity to accelerate the achievement of the UN Global Compact Sustainable Development Goals. And what do I mean by that? When we think about those goals-- they're for 2030-- there was always a lot of the complication of how much had to change to actually achieve them. But when you're talking about accelerating the replatforming of business, moving from 20% to 80% in five years instead of a decade, when you think about how we're rebuilding economies and entire industries, the mindset shift that says we can rebuild them with responsible business by design. We can rebuild them by actually upskilling people, building in sustainability practices. Like we just announced our Green Navigator, that measures moving to the cloud and what it does for the carbon footprint. And so instead of that kind of transformation happening over 10 years, there's this incredible opportunity. And you see that in the way CEOs are talking about it, in the kinds of collaboration that's happening. And I think it's those three shifts that are profound, that are really what's going to change the trajectory as we look forward. ALAN MURRAY: So Julie, I hear the same things in the conversations I'm having with CEOs. But help me understand how they're connected. I mean, we all know that the pandemic shutdown led to an instant acceleration of technology, because we-- as you said, it was a lifeline. We needed it. We had to have it. And so the speed of change suddenly accelerated, and technology suddenly accelerated, but why has that led to this greater seriousness about purpose, about achieving the UN SDG goals, about making sure that companies are not just surviving, but improving their positive impact on society. JULIE SWEET: I think two things have happened. So first, take it from a business lens. Pre-COVID, there was lots of research. 60% of consumers cared about the company's brand and purpose and what they stood for. And there's lots and lots of statistics. We just did research that says that 70% of workers think that their companies will operate more sustainably, will be much more focused on purpose coming out of the pandemic than before. What we're seeing is the most successful brands now are connecting, in this COVID moment, their products to purpose and brand. And so we see that accelerating what was already a major trend pre-COVID. And we see that from our own perspective. We have Droga5 in our business of experience, Accenture interactive business, that is helping a lot of companies rethink the customer experience. It's very much tied to purpose. And in fact, we can talk about this later. We use Droga5 for our own new purpose. So from a business lens, it matters to talent. So it matters to your employees. And it matters to your consumers. The other thing that's really important, though, is that the pandemic, which was something that was always a possibility. Everyone knows about what Bill Gates was saying in 2012, right? But it has highlighted the interconnection of the globe. The risks around climate seem much more imminent. The risks of a pandemic being much worse in the future, and the very fact that everyone in the world could be touched and affected at this scale has really woken, I think, governments and not for profits and businesses up for the need to think differently. And it's happening. Look at supply chain. Lots and lots of discussion about how supply chain has to be disrupted. We're having to change the supply chain we're also having the discussion that when you do that investment, when you are getting that better analytic, let's build in, making sure the integrity of the supply chain, making sure that you're not using child labor. Instead of it being an add-on, it can be embedded in what you have to spend now in order to emerge stronger from the crisis. And that's a huge opportunity. ALAN MURRAY: Yes, it's so fascinating. I have to say, in March, when the pandemic first hit, and it became clear that we were going to head into the biggest recession we've had since the Great Depression, my first thought was, oh, all this stakeholder capitalism stuff is going to go away. Because everybody is going to be panicked and looking at the bottom line and trying to figure out how to shore up their finances. But as you say, the opposite has happened. Does that surprise you? JULIE SWEET: It doesn't, because I actually believe that pre-COVID, there was a genuine commitment. I mean, you and I have been at all the same forums, et cetera, and talking about it. And while at first everyone was like, well, look at how bad it was going to be for the financial crisis, it's something very different to have everyone affected this way. So I think that profound difference in what this crisis was made-- as you know-- pretty quickly, people and leaders turning to this. And I think about our own business. We're launching a strategy next week where we talk about the delivery of 360 degree value. And this was a strategy that we were developing pre-COVID that really said we had started with-- we serve the world's leading companies. We help them deliver incredible value. But one of the things that's most important that is as technology comes is the ability to reskill your workers. And we weren't seeing that happen at the scale it needed to happen for both employees, but also for the company's long-term success. And we've changed 300,000 people over the last two years alone at Accenture. And we said, we need to actually measure the value we bring to clients in a-- and we call it 360 degree value. Are we bringing them diverse teams? Are we helping upscale their people? Are we building in sustainability into things like the move to the cloud? And that is a reflection, pre-COVID, of the commitment and the interests of many, many companies, and post-COVID, it has just gotten so much traction with our clients to think holistically. ALAN MURRAY: Is it universal at this point? Are we talking about the vast majority of companies? A couple of years ago, I would have said it was a minority of companies that were on this stakeholder journey, but do you feel like we've passed the tipping point? JULIE SWEET: I think we definitely have passed the tipping point, in my view. But there is a difference as to how companies are really thriving at this point, and I would put them in three categories. You have the companies that have been investing over the last years, many of our clients who are digital leaders. Right? So when we went online, when we went contactless, the gap between them and those who haven't been investing at that scale widens, and they're just pushing ahead. But then you have two other categories. You have those that were behind and are now saying, we need to leapfrog, and we're going to work differently. And so they're institutionalizing speed. They're really reimagining how they're going to achieve their new strategies so they can not just catch up, but leapfrog the leaders. Then there's the third category. They understand the change. They're committed. But their strategy is more about trying harder. So when I ask questions like what have you changed in order to get your organization to actually go faster, how are you collaborating with partners to achieve greater speed and impact, and it is in that category where it's too internally focused or simply we're just going to work harder, as opposed to actually challenging how they operate. And so I think what you'll see is it's not so much that the commitment's different, but the ability to act on that commitment is going to be different. ALAN MURRAY: Yes. And so I know you spend a lot of your time advising the CEOs of companies that are trying to surf these three giant waves, right? The new technology, the speed of change, and the focus on stakeholders. I wonder if you could try and summarize, what's the main advice that you give to CEOs who are dealing with this extraordinary period in history? JULIE SWEET: Really it's, I'd say, three things. So the first is to think about serving stakeholders as something you need to do by design in the change that they're driving. And that is different, right? Because oftentimes, there is-- and we know it even from how we used to talk about it-- there'll be a panel about that, that sustainability, and then different panels about business. So we call it responsible business by design. So that's number one. The second is-- it may seem simple, but I think it's absolutely critical-- defining how they will emerge stronger from the crisis. Everyone talks about this, but the clarity in which you can actually say, these are the five things I'm going to achieve, one of which or more than one of which should be around these goals such as sustainability. But the five things or the three things or the 10 things that are measurable in order to get the organization focused and moving at speed. And then the third piece is the investment in their people. There's a tremendous amount of change that's happening right now. It's a huge opportunity. But the way to take advantage of that opportunity is to first say I'm going to take a bet on our people, to actually invest in their learning. And if you take those three things together, it is really a recipe for success. ALAN MURRAY: That's fascinating, Julie. It's really interesting to see that the business imperative and the social imperatives are merging here in the midst of this pandemic. You think that will last? JULIE SWEET: I do think it will last. And look, I just look at Accenture, right? We're launching our new purpose. And our purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity. A purpose lasts. Many, many of our clients are doing the same thing, and our new brand is let there be change. Because we have only one choice, one choice, to embrace change and make it for the benefit of all. And I believe that most companies and governments today are accepting that choice, accepting the challenge, and they're taking this on as a huge opportunity. ALAN MURRAY: Yeah. Very well put. Thank you so much for taking the time Julie great to talk to you about it it's an interesting moment in our history great thank you Alan. 

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet on how the events of 2020 have transformed business

Julie Sweet, Chief Executive Officer, Accenture