| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NYSE: ACN |
| Industry | IT services, IT consulting |
| Founded | 1989 as Andersen Consulting 2001 as Accenture |
| Headquarters | Dublin, Leinster, Republic of Ireland |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | William D. Green (Chairman) Pierre Nanterme (CEO) |
| Services | IT, business consulting and outsourcing services |
| Revenue | US$ 25.55 billion (2011)[1] |
| Operating income | US$ 3.47 billion (2011)[1] |
| Net income | US$ 2.55 billion (2011)[1] |
| Total assets | US$ 15.731 billion (2011)[1] |
| Total equity | US$ 3.878 billion (2011)[1] |
| Employees | 247,600 (January 2011) |
| Parent | Arthur Andersen (until 2001) |
| Website | www.accenture.com |
Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company headquartered in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. It is the largest consulting firm in the world[2] and is a Fortune Global 500 company.[3] As of September 2011, the company had more than 236,000 employees across 120 countries.[2][4] Accenture's current clients include 96 of the Fortune Global 100 and more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500. Previously incorporated in the USA, then in Bermuda, since September 1, 2009 the company has been incorporated in Ireland.[5]
For the fiscal year ended August 31, 2011, the company generated net revenues of US$25.55 billion.[1][4] The operating profit of the company was $3.47 billion in FY2011, an increase of 18.2% over FY2010. Its net profit was $2.58 billion in FY2011, an increase of 12% over FY2010.
Accenture is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the S&P 500.
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Accenture originated as the business and technology consulting division of accounting firm Arthur Andersen. The division's origins are in a 1953 feasibility study for General Electric. GE asked Arthur Andersen to automate payroll processing and manufacturing at GE's Appliance Park facility near Louisville, Kentucky. Arthur Andersen recommended installation of a UNIVAC I computer and printer, which resulted in the first commercially owned computer installation in the United States in 1954. Joe Glickauf was Arthur Andersen's project leader responsible for the payroll processing automation project. Now considered to be the father of computer consulting, Glickauf headed Arthur Andersen's Administrative Services division for 10 years.
Through the 1990s, there was increasing tension between Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen. Andersen Consulting was upset that it was paying Arthur Andersen up to 15% of its profits each year (a condition of the 1989 split was that the more profitable unit – AA or AC – paid the other this sum), while at the same time Arthur Andersen was competing with Andersen Consulting through its own newly established business consulting service line called Arthur Andersen Business Consulting. This dispute came to a head in 1998 when Andersen Consulting claimed breach of contract against AWSC and Arthur Andersen. Andersen Consulting put the 15% transfer payment for that year and future years into escrow and issued a claim for breach of contract. In August 2000, as a result of the conclusion of arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce, Andersen Consulting broke all contractual ties with AWSC and Arthur Andersen. As part of the arbitration settlement, Andersen Consulting paid the sum held in escrow (then $1.2 billion) to Arthur Andersen, and was required to change its name, resulting in the entity being renamed Accenture.
Perhaps most telling about who had "won" the decision was that four hours after the arbitrator made his ruling, Arthur Andersen CEO Jim Wadia suddenly resigned. Industry analysts and business school professors alike viewed the event as a complete victory for Andersen Consulting.[6] Jim Wadia would provide insight on his resignation years later at a Harvard Business school case activity about the split. It turned out that the Arthur Andersen board passed a resolution saying he had to resign if he didn't get at least an incremental $4 billion (either through negotiation or via the arbitrator decision) for the consulting practice to split off; hence his quick resignation once the decision was announced.
Accounts vary on why the split occurred – executives on both sides of the split cite greed and arrogance on the part of the other side, and executives on the Andersen Consulting side maintained breach of contract when Arthur Andersen created a second consulting group, AABC (Arthur Andersen Business Consulting) which began to compete directly with Andersen Consulting in the marketplace. Many of the AABC firms were bought out by other consulting companies in 2002, most notably, Hitachi Consulting and KPMG Consulting, which later changed its name to BearingPoint.
Andersen Consulting's change of name proved to be fortuitous as it avoided the taint when Arthur Andersen was effectively dissolved as a result of its role in the later Enron scandal.
On January 1, 2001 Andersen Consulting adopted its current name, "Accenture". The word "Accenture" is supposedly derived from "Accent on the future". Although a marketing consultancy was tasked with finding a new name for the company, the name "Accenture" was submitted by Ken Petersen, a Danish employee from the company's Oslo, Norway office, as a result of an internal competition. Accenture felt that the name should represent its will to be a global consulting leader and high performer, and also intended that the name should not be offensive in any country in which Accenture operates.
On July 19, 2001, Accenture offered initial public offering (IPO) at the price of $14.50 per share in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE); Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley served as its lead underwriters. Accenture stock closed the day at $15.17, with the day's high at $15.25. On the first day of the IPO, Accenture raised nearly $1.7 billion.[7]
In October 2002, the Congressional General Accounting Office (GAO) identified Accenture as one of four publicly-traded federal contractors that were incorporated in a tax haven country.[8] The other three, unlike Accenture, were incorporated in the United States before they re-incorporated in a tax haven country, thereby lowering their U.S. taxes. Critics, most notably former CNN journalist Lou Dobbs,[9] have panned Accenture's incorporation in Bermuda because they viewed Accenture as having been a U.S.-based company trying to avoid U.S. taxes.[10] The GAO itself did not characterize Accenture as having been a U.S.-based company; it stated that "prior to incorporating in Bermuda, Accenture was operating as a series of related partnerships and corporations under the control of its partners through the mechanism of contracts with a Swiss coordinating entity."
Accenture announced on May 26, 2009 that its Board of Directors unanimously approved changing the company’s place of incorporation to Ireland from Bermuda and would become Accenture plc.[11]
The company cited several reasons for the change:
The change was approved and became effective on September 1, 2009, the beginning of the company's 2010 fiscal year.
While Ireland is the company's headquarters for tax and legal purposes, much of the clerical administration occurs in the United States, mainly New York City and Chicago.
Accenture advertises in television, print, and in public places, such as airports, around the world. Previous marketing campaigns have featured slogans such as "Now it gets interesting.", replaced in 2002, and "Innovation delivered.", replaced in 2004. The current slogan is "High performance. Delivered."
Accenture has sponsored an international event called the Accenture Match Play Championship, part of the World Golf Championships, every year since 1999.[12]
Until December 2009, Tiger Woods had been a celebrity spokesperson for the company, whose advertising used the service mark "Go on, be a Tiger" and the ancillary statement "We know what it takes to be a Tiger." The company terminated Tiger Woods' six-year sponsorship deal on December 13, 2009 and removed references to Woods from its website, after details of Woods's extra-marital affairs exploded in the media .[13][14]
The current advertising campaign features client success stories and the slogan "High performance. Delivered."
The typeface used in the Accenture wordmark is Rotis Semi-sans. The right-pointing caret character over the t is intended to indicate the company's orientation to the future. The character is similar to an accent mark in music.
Accenture employees are organized in one of four "workforces", each of which serves clients and the company in different ways. The specifics differ by workforce but it is commonplace for Accenture employees to work in blended teams for a variety of reasons.
As most consulting firms, Accenture operates in a matrix structure. The first axis is dedicated to the operating groups, or industries of its clients. The second axis is the growth platforms, which broadly refers to the functional or technical domains in which Accenture specializes. Client engagement teams typically consist of a combination of industry experts, capability specialists and professionals with local market knowledge.
The five Operating Groups comprise 19 industry groups which focus on industry evolution, business issues, and applicable technologies.[15]
The Growth Platforms comprise the domain-specific workgroups in which most of Accenture's client-facing people specialize their skills, develop and use Accenture's methodology, and create and deliver solutions to clients. Most people in the Services and Solutions workforces are aligned under the Technology growth platform.[15]
Chairman of the Board:
Chief executive officer:
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