ACCENTURE:

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services

and outsourcing company, with approximately 259,000 people

serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining

unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all

industries and business functions, and extensive research on the

world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with

clients to help them become high-performance businesses and

governments.

Accenture with other Companies:

Comcast cable has teamed with Accenture to help it sustain

its market leadership by making its growing workforce of

100,000 employees more effective.

Accenture worked with the Queensland Government (comprising

28 agencies and more than 180,000 employees) to create a

complete HR solution that will be among the biggest SAP

government implementations in the Southern Hemisphere.

Accenture’s Vision:

Accenture’s annual technology vision provides a perspective on

the future of technology beyond the current conversations about

cloud, mobility, and Big Data. This year’s vision outlines the

technology trends that forward-thinking CIOs will use to position

their organizations for growth, rather than just focusing on

cost-cutting and efficiency improvements. And, it provides

practical approaches CIOs can take to address these trends today

and in the future.

Why Accenture?

Accenture bring global coverage and a dedicated, 2500-member

application and implementation team in centers in Europe, India

and the United States. Their deep understanding of how to apply

emerging technologies and their longstanding relationships with

all major software vendors-helps deliver solutions across many

technologies and platforms. Accenture also boasts more than

10,000 experienced human capital practitioners who operate as a

global expert network, with practices in 35 countries.

With a focus on analytics, Accenture can improve the

effectiveness of client’s strategic, operational and tactical

decision making by helping turn information into insights,

insights into actions and actions into outcomes. Accenture

design, build and run the underpinning information strategy,

architecture and governance that enable a “single source of the

truth” for all data, wherever it resides.

PESTEL ANALYSIS OF ACCENTURE

There are many factors in the macro-environment that will affect

the decisions of the managers of any organization. Tax changes,

new laws, trade barriers, demographic change and government

policy changes are all examples of macro change. To help analyze

these factors, managers can categorize them using the PESTLE

model.

PESTLE stands for Political, Economical, Social, Technical,

Legislative and Environmental. It is a strategic planning

technique that provides a useful framework for analyzing the

environmental pressures on a team or an organization. It

describes a framework of macro environmental factors used in the

environmental scanning component of strategic management. It is a

part of the external analysis when conducting a strategic

analysis or doing market research and gives a certain overview of

the different macro environmental factors that the company has to

take into consideration. It is a useful strategic tool for

understanding market growth or decline, business position,

potential and direction for operations. PESTLE factors play an

important role in the value creation opportunities of a strategy.

However they are usually outside the control of the corporation

and must normally be considered as either threats or

opportunities.

Kotler (1998) claimed that PESTLE analysis is a useful strategic

tool for understanding market growth or decline, business

position, potential and direction for operations. The headings of

PESTLE are a framework for reviewing a situation, and can in

addition to SWOT and Porter's Five Forces models, be applied by

companies to review strategic directions, including marketing

proposition.

Political:

Political Stability: Australian political structure is

considered as stable enough

U.S. Government has declared that U.S. companies that

outsource IT work other than US will not get tax benefit.

Government owned companies has decided to give more projects

to Australian companies.

Economic:

The overall economy of Australia is booming right now, apart

from the biggest threat from China, most of the factors in

its economy support IT related businesses and therefore

attracts the investors from other countries as well.

The demand for IT is increasing globally as well as in

Australia.

Domestic IT spending (demand): Domestic market to grow by

20% in the next five years.

Currency fluctuation

Real estate prices: Decline in real estate prices has

resulted reducing rental expenditures.

Attrition: Due to recession, layoffs and job cuts have

resulted in low attrition rate.

Social:

Education: A number of technical institutes and universities

over the country offer IT education.

Working age population.

Technological:

Telephony:

o Expected number of total subscribers of about 500

million by 2014.

o Enterprise telephone services 3G, Wi-max and VPN are

poised to grow.

New IT Technologies:

o Technologies like SOA, web 2.0, High definition

content, grid computing etc. and innovation in low cost

technologies is presenting new challenges and

opportunities for Australian IT industry.

Internet Backbone:

o Due to advanced economy and higher rates of literacy,

Australia is well connected with undersea optical

cables thus making internet as the backbone of

country’s organizations. This provides a whole lot of

opportunities for the firms providing IT services.

Legal:

IT SEZ requirement: IT companies can set up SEZ with minimum

area of 10 hectares and enjoy a host of tax benefits and

fiscal benefits.

Contract / Bond requirements: Huge debates surrounding the

bonds under which the employees are required to work, which

is not legally required.

IT Act: Indian government is strengthening the IT act, 2000

to provide a sound legal environment for companies to

operate esp. related to security of data in transmission and

storage, etc.

Environment:

Energy efficient processes & equipments: Companies are

focusing on reducing the carbon footprints, energy

utilization, water consumption etc.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT Matrix) is a structured

planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business

venture. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place,

industry or person. It involves specifying the objective of the

business venture or project and identifying the internal and

external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving

that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who

led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s

and 1970s.

Setting the objective should be done after the SWOT analysis has

been performed. This would allow achievable goals or objectives

to be set for the organization.

Strengths: characteristics of the business or project that

give it an advantage over others

Weaknesses: are characteristics that place the team at a

disadvantage relative to others

Opportunities: elements that the project could exploit to

its advantage

Threats: elements in the environment that could cause

trouble for the business or project

Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform

later steps in planning to achieve the objective.

Strengths:

Broad offerings

Global reach & scale

Strong financials

Weaknesses

emerging mid-market offerings

Opportunities

Steady growth in IT outsourcing

Growing demand for new media technologies

Positive outlook f health care IT spending

Threats

Economic Slowdown

Increasing regulation in government contractors.

Problems with subcontractors

Accenture – Porter Five Forces Analysis

Porter five forces analysis is a framework for industry analysis

and business strategy development formed by Michael E. Porter of

Harvard Business School in 1979. It draws upon industrial

organization economics to derive five forces that determine the

competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market.

Attractiveness in this context refers to the overall industry

profitability. An "unattractive" industry is one in which the

combination of these five forces acts to drive down overall

profitability. A very unattractive industry would be one

approaching "pure competition", in which available profits for

all firms are driven to normal profit. Three of Porter's five

forces refer to competition from external sources. The remainders

are internal threats.

Porter referred to these forces as the micro environment, to

contrast it with the more general term macro environment. They

consist of those forces close to a company that affect its

ability to serve its customers and make a profit. A change in any

of the forces normally requires a business unit to re-assess the

marketplace given the overall change in industry information. The

overall industry attractiveness does not imply that every firm in

the industry will return the same profitability. Firms are able

to apply their core competencies, business model or network to

achieve a profit above the industry average. A lear example of

this is the airline industry. As an industry, profitability is

low and yet individual companies, by applying unique business

models, have been able to make a return in excess of the industry

average. This five forces analysis, is just one part of the

complete Porter strategic models. The other elements are the

value chain and the generic strategies.

Porter developed his Five Forces analysis in reaction to the

then-popular SWOT analysis, which he found unrigorous and ad hoc.

Porter's five forces is based on the Structure-Conduct-

Performance paradigm in industrial organizational economics. It

has been applied to a diverse range of problems, from helping

businesses become more profitable to helping governments

stabilize industries.

Porter's five forces include - three forces from 'horizontal'

competition: the threat of substitute products or services, the

threat of established rivals, and the threat of new entrants; and

two forces from 'vertical' competition: the bargaining power of

suppliers and the bargaining power of customers.

Intensity of Existing Rivalry

1.long descriptionAccenture have a significant long description impact in

Australian market.

2.Large industry size Large industries allow multiple firms and produces to prosper

without having to steal market share from each other. Large

industry size is a positive for Accenture

3.Exit barriers are low When exit barriers are low, weak firms are more likely to leave

the market, which will increase the profits for the remaining

firms. As Accenture is a well known and strong position in

Australian market therefore exit barriers are low in there.

4.Relatively few competitorsFew competitors mean fewer firms are competing for the same

customers and resources, Accenture have few competitors in

Australia.

5.Low storage costs

When storage costs are low, competitors as well as for Accenture

have a lower risk of having to unload their inventory all at

once. In Australia there are low storage costs which are

beneficial for Accenture. As in US it is quite high for private

companies.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Bargaining power

Bargaining power of suppliers moderately low at Accenture.

Threat of Substitutes

Threats from competitors

Threat of substitutes is high. The main variables are

Cost of switching

Price performance tradeoff.

Bargaining Power of Customers

1. Buyers require special customization

When customers require special customizations, they are less

likely to switch to producers who have difficulty meeting their

demands. Buyer customization positively affects Accenture as

bargaining power of buyers is low

2. Limited buyer information availability

When buyers have limited information, they are at a disadvantage

in negotiations with sellers. Accenture provide limited

information to buyers on their websites so that buyers will meet

them in person to get detailed information and to talk business

with them.

3. Low dependency on distributors

When producers have low dependence, distributors have less

bargaining power. There is low dependency of Accenture on

distributers.

4. Product is important to customer

When customers cherish particular products they end up paying

more for that one product this is the benefits of market so

Accenture make sure to fulfill all requirements of the client.

5. Large number of customers

When there are large numbers of customers, no one customer tends

to have bargaining leverage. Limited bargaining leverage helps

Accenture.

6. Limited buyer choice

When customers have limited choices they end up paying more for

the choices that are available. Limited buyer choices works in

favor of Accenture as there are few competitors who give as good

services as Accenture.

Threat of New Competitors

1. High sunk costs limit competition

High sunk costs make it difficult for a competitor to enter a new

market, because they have to commit money up front with no

guarantee of returns in the end. High sunk costs limit

competition for Accenture, it is an easily defendable qualitative

factor, so competing institutions will have a difficult time

overcoming it.

2. Geographic factors limit competition

If existing competitors have the best geographical locations, new

competitors will have a competitive disadvantage. Accenture have

good geographical location not only in Australia but also in

India, Middle East, China and US.

3. High switching costs for customers

High switching costs make it difficult for customers to change

which products they normally purchase in Australia, due to high

costs of switching. So there is less threat of customers

switching for Accenture.

4. High learning curve

When the learning curve is high, new competitors must spend time

and money studying the market before they can effectively

compete. At Accenture they make new strategies every year

according to market change and have organizational learning so

they spend less money as compared to new firms as they are

already established in market.

5. Entry barriers are high

When barriers are high, it is more difficult for new competitors

to enter the market. There is high entry barriers in Australian

market for new firms who provide same services as Accenture due

to which Accenture have less competitors in market.

Appraisal/Evaluation of Accenture’s current

strategies by taking in account its Environment:

The branch of Accenture we focus upon is in Australia.

Accenture in Australia is working in stable political

environment

Government owned companies are satisfied with their work and

due to which Accenture is getting more recognized projects

from government.

Overall Australian economy is booming and it is also

beneficial for Accenture as most factors support IT,

management and consulting related business.

Its beneficial for Accenture to operate in Australia due to

future references for example there is an increasing number

of IT students over the years and high literacy rate.

There are more people who are aware of IT services and there

is more working class in IT field as compared to UK.

Australia is well connected with undersea optical cables

thus making internet as the backbone of country’s

organizations. This provides a whole lot of opportunities

for the firms providing IT services.

Accenture is also aware of the threats of global warming and

increasing number of environmental threats due to which it

owns Energy efficient processes & equipments

As other Companies are focusing on reducing the carbon

footprints, energy utilization, water consumption etc.

Accenture is also following these above mentioned strategies

and criteria have to protect the environment.

Accenture is company which broadly offers it services due to

which it has global reach & scale and Strong financials.

Accenture is expanding its business due to steady growth in

IT outsourcing and growing demand for new media technologies

There is Positive outlook of health care IT spending in

Australia which works well for the future of Accenture in

Australia.

Accenture main priority is there customers and their main

job is to identify new business and technology trends and

develops solutions to help clients around the world.

Accenture help its client to enter new markets and Increase

their revenues in existing markets.

It helps its clients to improve operational performance and

to Deliver their products and services more effectively and

efficiently.

Accenture helps its client to sustain themselves by

providing opportunities that cater to value creation and

reduction in service costs

Accenture provide deliver global HR systems of record. It

reduce HR operating costs through increased automation and

improved end-user solutions

Boost workforce productivity by providing easy-to-use HR

tools for employees

In Accenture HR department helps to Reduce HR operating

expenses and Improve the quality and availability of data

for HR analytics and talent management

Accenture help increasing flexibility to address business

changes such as growth and acquisitions and decreasing

process non-compliance

In Accenture employees they drive change in the

organization. To create value, company innovate or enhance

their practices as well as business overall.

When Accenture is adopting any new strategy they communicate

it first with senior management which in turn delivers it to

the middle management and at the last the strategy is

communicated to whole of the organization before it is

implemented.

Business strategy

Our "high performance business" strategy builds on our expertise

in consulting, technology and outsourcing to help clients perform

at the highest levels so they can create sustainable value for

their customers and shareholders. Using our industry knowledge,

service-offering expertise and technology capabilities, we

identify new business and technology trends and develop solutions

to help clients around the world:

Enter new markets.

Increase revenues in existing markets.

Improve operational performance.

Deliver their products and services more effectively

and efficiently.

Other strategic opinions

Build external relationships with diverse businesses.

Sustaining clients and helping clients sustain themselves by

providing opportunities that cater to value creation and

reduction in service costs

Build external relationships with diverse businesses.

Accenture should expands its business circle and build external

relationships with businesses which present diverse and unique

options or opportunities for better and improves outsourcing,

enhancing and develop the customer base for Accenture.

Sustaining clients and helping clients sustain themselves by

providing opportunities that cater to value creation and

reduction in service costs

With major changes taking place in the economic scenario in the

market place this strategy will enable the clients to keep

performing at their best without taking much losses and Accenture

will in turn be in good shape to manage its enterprise and

internal operations.

Human Resource Strategy

Accenture transforms their HR technology landscape into a user-

and-business-driven solution. By using right HR applications,

they can spend less time on transactional HR services and more

time supporting their business’s success.

Deliver global HR systems of record

Reduce HR operating costs through increased automation and

improved end-user solutions

Boost workforce productivity by providing easy-to-use HR

tools for employees

Accenture helps employees to move away from back-office tasks by

embracing new, automated solutions. Employees will manage more on

their own and collaborate effectively from the office, the home

or even via their mobile devices. This focuses on supporting

company’s strategy.

Accenture’s HR strategies implementation

Accenture HR application implementation services help in:

Reducing HR operating expenses

Improving the quality and availability of data for HR

analytics and talent management

Increasing flexibility to address business changes such as

growth and acquisitions

Decreasing process non-compliance

Adoption of new strategy and its challenges

The first and foremost challenge the Accenture face while

adopting any new strategy is change management. However Accenture

is already able enough to cope, manage and implement change in

such a way so as to make it work in its favor.

It is not difficult to manage change because the employees

themselves drive change in the organization. To create value,

company innovate or enhance their practices as well as business

overall.

Another challenge that the employees and management face when a

new strategy is implemented is to accommodate its work pattern

and environment to best suit the current state of plan. In this

case change management is essential for Accenture’s survival. The

ability to sense and react to a change has put Accenture at the

forefront of the global business. While others are being hit by

change, Accenture is already gliding the new wave of change;

while others are recovering from the impact, Accenture is already

implementing strategies to conquer new face of world economics.

But Accenture has effective strategies to cope up with

unanticipated change. They communicate the change to their

employees prior to the actual stage of implementation so that the

management can plan ahead of time to come up with strategies to

cope with the pressures of change. When Accenture is adopting any

new strategy they communicate the strategy to the senior

management first, then senior management deliver it to the middle

management and at the last the strategy is communicated to whole

of the organization before it is implemented.

Questionnaire

1. What are the basic key strategies that Accenture follows?

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services

and outsourcing company, with approximately 259,000 people

serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining

unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all

industries and business functions, and extensive research on the

world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with

clients to help them become high-performance businesses and

governments. Accenture offers a compelling set of practical

insights for organizations that aspire high performance. The

company generated net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the fiscal

year ended Aug. 31, 2012.

Our "high performance business" strategy builds on our expertise

in consulting, technology and outsourcing to help clients perform

at the highest levels so they can create sustainable value for

their customers and shareholders. Using our industry knowledge,

service-offering expertise and technology capabilities, we

identify new business and technology trends and develop solutions

to help clients around the world:

Enter new markets.

Increase revenues in existing markets.

Improve operational performance.

Deliver their products and services more effectively

and efficiently.

2. Do all employees willingly participate in change?

Yes, infact employees drive the change in the organization. This

is because the first and foremost Accenture Core Value is Client

Value Creation. To create value, companies innovate or enhance

their practices as well as business overall i.e. Enabling clients

to become high-performance businesses and creating long-term

relationships by being responsive and relevant and by

consistently delivering value.

3. Is your organization socially Responsible?

Yes, Corporate citizenship is fundamental to Accenture’s

character and the way Accenture run its company as a high-

performance business. It is anchored in its core values, its Code

of Business Ethics and, ultimately, reflected by its people who

live and work in communities around the world. From Skills to

Succeed to the environment, Accenture and its people work to make

a sustainable, measurable difference to the communities in which

Accenture work and live.

Accenture Exceeds Goal of Equipping 250,000 People by 2015

with the Skills to Get a Job or Build a Business

Accenture Grants Quest Alliance India an Additional

US$623,000 to Equip Disadvantaged Young People with Career

Readiness Skills

Accenture Grants the Association for Aid and Relief, Japan

US $1.15M to Equip Persons with Disabilities with Employment

Skills

Accenture Awards KIPP – Knowledge Is Power Program – an

Additional US $3.3 Million to Equip Young People with Career

Readiness Skills

Accenture Grants $750,000 to Train New Patient Navigators in

35 Locations Across the US

Our environmental footprint consists primarily of carbon

emissions generated from business travel and office energy

use, and we are committed to addressing both of these as we

work to improve our environmental performance. We achieved

our fiscal 2009 target of a 25 percent reduction of per

employee emissions over fiscal 2007 baseline and continue to

make significant strides.

Environmental stewardship is ingrained in our Code of

Business Ethics and our core values, specifically

Stewardship. These inform our Environmental Responsibility

Policy, which we established in 2007 and updated in 2009.

4. How important is change for Accenture’s survival?

Change is a major factor in survival of Accenture. The ability

to sense and react to a change has put Accenture at the

forefront of the global business. While others are being hit

by change, Accenture is already gliding the new wave of

change; while others are recovering from the impact, Accenture

is already implementing strategies to conquer new face of

world economics.

We have extensive relationships with the world's leading

companies and governments and work with organizations of all

sizes—including 89 of the Fortune Global 100 and more than

three quarters of the Fortune Global 500. Our commitment to

client satisfaction strengthens and extends our relationships.

For example, 99 of our top 100 clients in fiscal year 2012,

based on revenue, have been clients for at least five years,

and 92 have been clients for at least 10 years.

Among the many strengths that distinguish Accenture in the

marketplace are our:

Extensive industry expertise.

Broad and evolving service offerings.

Expertise in business transformation outsourcing.

History of technology innovation and implementation,

including our research and development capabilities,

on which we spend approximately $300 million annually.

Commitment to the long-term development of our

employees.

Proven and experienced management team.

5. How does global change affect the strategies at Accenture?

Especially regarding change.

Global changes greatly affect Accenture as Accenture is a global

company with approximately 259,000 people serving clients in more

than 120 countries. Accenture core value ‘Best People’ plays a

vital role in Accenture’s success i.e. Leveraging the power of

global insight, relationships, collaboration and learning to

deliver exceptional service to clients wherever they do business.

Another Accenture core value ‘Integrity’ pushes its people to

achieve excellence i.e. Being ethically unyielding and honest and

inspiring trust by saying what we mean, matching our behaviors to

our words and taking responsibility for our actions.

6. How does Accenture deal with the demands of a more health

conscious organization?

Accenture offers work0life balance to all its employees and

provides healthy work environment to them. It promotes healthy

living and participates in local sports and have arrangements

with health service providers for subsidized membership. It also

offers yearly free checkups for eligible employees.

7. How does Accenture deal with changing work place and pressures

such as skills shortage?

One of the core values of Accenture is Attracting, developing and

retaining the best talent for our business, challenging our

people, demonstrating a “can-do” attitude and fostering a

collaborative and mutually supportive environment. This ensures

Accenture is never behind when it comes to work place pressures.

There are employee groups which provide a support structure to

employees at an individual level.

Another core value is Respect for Individual which is Valuing

diversity and unique contributions, fostering a trusting, open

and inclusive environment and treating each person in a manner

that reflects Accenture’s values.

Together with above two core values, Stewardship is the third

core value which helps Accenture cope with work place pressures

i.e. Fulfilling our obligation of building a better, stronger and

more durable company for future generations, protecting the

Accenture brand, meeting our commitments to stakeholders, acting

with an owner mentality, developing our people and helping

improve communities and the global environment.

8. What are your HR strategies?

I do not know…

9. And can you give an example of a major change that took place

at Accenture and how the employees and managers dealt with it?

A Major change that took place at Accenture is the economic down

turn in 2007-2008 which lasted almost a year. Senior management

with the help of its managers were able to sense the recession

and diverted most of its investment into India, China and South

Korea region. While at the same time, the strategy division

started working on sustaining its clients and helps the clients

sustain themselves by providing strategies around value creation

and reduction in cost to serve. This enabled the clients to keep

performing without taking much loses. Since the clients’ were

managing well, Accenture itself was in a good shape to manage its

enterprise (internal operations).

Internally Accenture asked its employees who were not busy on

client projects to take their holidays thereby reducing the drain

on expenses related to getting to work or working at the office.

While the world was experiencing the impact of the economic

slump, Accenture strategy division was working on strategies for

its client to implement and start producing positive results i.e.

helping identify loop holes in client’s businesses and turning

them as advantages for them or bridging the gaps by employing

organizational changes.

Kinnaird College for women

Department of Business Administration

M.phill (HRM)

Assignment

Submitted to

Mrs Sara Aslam

Group Members

Syeda Zofishan Khurshid

Afaf khan

Khushboo Rana

Rizwana Khan

Anum Zubair

Title

Accenture’s Business strategy, HR strategy,

PESTLE, Poter & SWOT analysis

Dated

15th march 2013