42歲時(shí),朱莉?斯威特(Julie Sweet )從紐約一家精英律所的合伙人一躍成為埃森哲(Accenture)的總法律顧問(wèn)。十年后的今天,她掌管著這家營(yíng)收430億美元的專業(yè)服務(wù)公司。1 我們采訪了這位新任首席執(zhí)行官,聊一聊她對(duì)今天全球經(jīng)濟(jì)的所見(jiàn)所聞。
以下問(wèn)答經(jīng)過(guò)縮減與編輯。
數(shù)字時(shí)代開(kāi)始了
《財(cái)富》:在9月份被任命為埃森哲首席執(zhí)行官之前,你是公司北美業(yè)務(wù)的首席執(zhí)行官。2 你的日常工作發(fā)生了什么變化?
斯威特:過(guò)去六個(gè)月,我不斷在全球各地出差,見(jiàn)了70多名首席執(zhí)行官、100多名高管,以及我們?cè)跉W洲、亞洲和北美的客戶。行程強(qiáng)度非常高,但也讓人興奮,因?yàn)樵谶@么緊湊的時(shí)間里,你會(huì)在世界各地、在整個(gè)業(yè)內(nèi)不斷聽(tīng)到相同的看法。其中一個(gè)看法是,我們正處在一個(gè)拐點(diǎn),對(duì)大公司而言,2020年代是實(shí)現(xiàn)數(shù)字和技術(shù)承諾的十年。過(guò)去五六年,我們?cè)谧鰧?shí)驗(yàn),做商業(yè)案例,現(xiàn)在,則是時(shí)候要迅速把愿景轉(zhuǎn)化為執(zhí)行力,再轉(zhuǎn)化為物質(zhì)價(jià)值了。
這是一種非常不同的心態(tài)。首席執(zhí)行官們說(shuō):“我們相信還會(huì)有更多的數(shù)字業(yè)務(wù),我們也相信技術(shù)可以改變我們,但是,我們的投資需要得到回報(bào)?!?/p>
《財(cái)富》:首席執(zhí)行官和商業(yè)記者不斷談到“數(shù)字化顛覆”(“digital disruption”),你如何定義這個(gè)詞?
斯威特:我首先談?wù)劇皵?shù)字化”的含義,因?yàn)楹芏嗳税选皵?shù)字”等同于“技術(shù)”,它其實(shí)包含兩層意思。一方面,它指的是從人工智能到電子商務(wù)等一系列的技術(shù),另一方面,“數(shù)字化”實(shí)際上也意味著一種全新的工作方式、決策方式、合作方式以及接觸客戶的方式,所以數(shù)字化真正影響的是如何做事情。最成功的公司都明白,數(shù)字化意味著他們?cè)诠ぷ鳌⑴c和決策方式上都要有所改變。
《財(cái)富》:但令許多人感到害怕的是這個(gè)詞的另外一半——“顛覆”,因?yàn)檫@很可能意味著他們將在5年內(nèi)失業(yè)。你會(huì)如何幫助客戶,讓客戶和他們的員工順利開(kāi)展相關(guān)對(duì)話呢?
斯威特:無(wú)論是對(duì)客戶,我們公司內(nèi)部,還是對(duì)整個(gè)社會(huì),我們講的都是要如何實(shí)現(xiàn)共同成功。所以當(dāng)我們建議CEO要采用新技術(shù),但這些技術(shù)會(huì)減少工作崗位時(shí),3 我們會(huì)支持他們和員工開(kāi)誠(chéng)布公地談一談,哪些人可以轉(zhuǎn)學(xué)新技能,那些無(wú)法獲得新技能的,怎么能幫他們找到新工作?我們認(rèn)為,在為客戶咨詢的一開(kāi)始就要給出這樣的建議。在過(guò)去兩周,我已經(jīng)五名高管談過(guò)這個(gè)問(wèn)題了。
《財(cái)富》:當(dāng)然,埃森哲本身在過(guò)去10年里顛覆了自我,你們現(xiàn)在超過(guò)65%的業(yè)務(wù)都是數(shù)字化、云計(jì)算和安全服務(wù)。? 你們從這次“數(shù)字技術(shù)復(fù)興”中學(xué)到了什么?
斯威特:我認(rèn)為我們的“復(fù)興”首先得益于兩方面:一是我們改變了為客戶提供的服務(wù),二是我們也改變了自身內(nèi)部的運(yùn)作方式。我們現(xiàn)在99%的工作都是在云端完成的,客戶和我們用的是同樣的平臺(tái),我們已經(jīng)徹底實(shí)現(xiàn)了自我數(shù)字化。
《財(cái)富》:冠狀病毒的爆發(fā)給全球商業(yè)帶來(lái)了什么啟示?
斯威特:它凸顯了全球供應(yīng)鏈的一體化和相互依賴。我們花了很多功夫和客戶一起思考他們的供應(yīng)鏈戰(zhàn)略,提高他們的適應(yīng)性。讓人驚訝的是,許多大公司仍然沒(méi)用協(xié)作工具,內(nèi)部也沒(méi)有使用數(shù)字技術(shù),他們和顧客建立了聯(lián)系,但卻沒(méi)有投資去做讓員工遠(yuǎn)程辦公的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施。這將是我們幫助客戶的一個(gè)重大機(jī)遇。
收購(gòu)并非公司增長(zhǎng)主力
《財(cái)富》:你們一直在瘋狂收購(gòu)企業(yè)。? 公司有多少增長(zhǎng)來(lái)自于收購(gòu)?
斯威特:我們的重點(diǎn)始終是內(nèi)生增長(zhǎng),資本配置的策略也是始終如一的。回顧過(guò)去幾年,公司的年復(fù)合增長(zhǎng)率是9%,其中7個(gè)百分點(diǎn)來(lái)自內(nèi)生增長(zhǎng),來(lái)自收購(gòu)的收入增長(zhǎng)只有兩個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。
我們收購(gòu)公司的初衷主要有三個(gè),有時(shí)它們相互關(guān)聯(lián)。一是擴(kuò)大熱門(mén)領(lǐng)域市場(chǎng)占有率,幾個(gè)月前,我們收購(gòu)了芝加哥一家迅速發(fā)展的公司,他們專做數(shù)據(jù)科學(xué)和分析,這是一個(gè)非常熱門(mén)的領(lǐng)域。二是建立產(chǎn)業(yè)深度,強(qiáng)化功能性技能,在這塊,我們收購(gòu)的公司主要集中在金融服務(wù)和醫(yī)療保健領(lǐng)域。三是為了技能互補(bǔ),所以去年我們收購(gòu)了Droga5?,這家公司剛剛被評(píng)為十年最佳廣告公司。
困難之處在于,我們不光要擁有這些技能本身,而且要擁有為大企業(yè)提供服務(wù)的技術(shù)規(guī)模。
自動(dòng)化同時(shí),員工持續(xù)增長(zhǎng)
《財(cái)富》:說(shuō)到規(guī)模,你們?cè)谌蛴?0多萬(wàn)名員工。? 你們正在持續(xù)進(jìn)行數(shù)字化運(yùn)營(yíng),那10年后你們公司的員工規(guī)模還會(huì)有這么大嗎?
斯威特:事實(shí)上,我們的員工隊(duì)伍在不斷變化,因?yàn)槲覀冊(cè)谧龅拿恳豁?xiàng)工作都在經(jīng)歷自動(dòng)化。員工數(shù)量增長(zhǎng)是因?yàn)榭蛻糇兌嗔耍ぷ鲀r(jià)值提高了。所以情況并不是一拍腦袋:“哦,等等,現(xiàn)在我們?cè)撨M(jìn)行自動(dòng)化了。”
所以我并不關(guān)注公司有多少人。我關(guān)注的是,這些人在做什么?我們?cè)谧龅氖潞臀覀兏嬖V客戶要做的事是一樣的:持續(xù)不斷地關(guān)注新技術(shù),確保公司使用最先進(jìn)的技術(shù),確保員工學(xué)會(huì)使用新技術(shù)的技能。我們?cè)跇I(yè)務(wù)流程外包服務(wù)中,有40000個(gè)工作崗位實(shí)現(xiàn)自動(dòng)化,但我們將前期節(jié)省下來(lái)的費(fèi)用中的60%進(jìn)行再投資,用于提高原來(lái)這些崗位上的員工的技能。我們每年在學(xué)習(xí)技能、重新學(xué)習(xí)技能和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力發(fā)展等領(lǐng)域的投資為10億美元,僅過(guò)去三年就培訓(xùn)了30多萬(wàn)人。
而且我們的業(yè)務(wù)在不斷增長(zhǎng),這也是我們能夠做到這一點(diǎn)的原因。
最重要的是,我們從一開(kāi)始就保持透明。我們對(duì)員工說(shuō),幫助公司完成對(duì)你現(xiàn)在工作崗位的自動(dòng)化,之后我們會(huì)進(jìn)行投資,提升你的技能。這就是為什么過(guò)去10年里,公司的平均人員流失率沒(méi)什么變化。
“不再讓其他女性遭受偏見(jiàn)”
《財(cái)富》:你是《財(cái)富》世界500強(qiáng)公司僅有的14位女性CEO之一。在你三十出頭的時(shí)候,有一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折時(shí)刻,讓你此后開(kāi)始幫助其他女性事業(yè)成長(zhǎng)。當(dāng)時(shí)你即將成為老牌精英律所Cravath, Swaine & Moore的合伙人,公司開(kāi)了一個(gè)關(guān)于無(wú)意識(shí)偏見(jiàn)的會(huì)議,可否講一下那次經(jīng)歷。
斯威特:那是1999年,我仍然記得自己怎么走到了會(huì)議室的樓層的。那是個(gè)老式會(huì)議室,有張大桌子,我清清楚楚記得自己坐在哪里。實(shí)際上,再過(guò)兩周他們就要提升我為合伙人了。一切都很好。我走了進(jìn)去,坐下來(lái),開(kāi)會(huì)中間,會(huì)議主持人轉(zhuǎn)向我問(wèn),“朱莉,你在全球都算得上是一位高層女性。你有沒(méi)有經(jīng)歷過(guò)這種無(wú)意識(shí)的偏見(jiàn)?”
我張開(kāi)嘴想說(shuō)話,卻開(kāi)始抽泣。我大聲哭泣,無(wú)法自已。我起身回到辦公室,關(guān)上了門(mén)。大概半小時(shí)后,公司的第一個(gè)女性合伙人,她也是我的一個(gè)好朋友,走了進(jìn)來(lái)。
她說(shuō),“好吧,那些男人們碰過(guò)面了。他們讓我來(lái)看看你怎么樣。”
她看著我,什么都明白。她知道這并不是有什么大丑聞,而是在那一刻,當(dāng)那個(gè)女主持人問(wèn)我這個(gè)問(wèn)題的時(shí)候,似乎以前所有的經(jīng)歷,忍受的所有的偏見(jiàn)突然都向我壓了下來(lái)。
我現(xiàn)在能談這段經(jīng)歷,因?yàn)樗鼘?duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)是一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)。我當(dāng)時(shí)想,“既然我要成為合伙人了,那我就必須要讓其他女性不再遭受同樣的偏見(jiàn)。”
我在合伙人生涯中,一直為了這個(gè)目標(biāo)努力,這也塑造了今天的我。我不斷地成長(zhǎng)學(xué)習(xí),我現(xiàn)在努力推動(dòng)的方向不再僅僅圍繞性別,? 而是各個(gè)方面的多元化。
埃森哲公司簡(jiǎn)介:
埃森哲是全球最大的管理咨詢公司和技術(shù)服務(wù)供應(yīng)商,也是《財(cái)富》全球500強(qiáng)企業(yè)之一。其在全球有超過(guò)40萬(wàn)名員工,其2019財(cái)年全球凈收入達(dá)432億美元。埃森哲客戶包括了《財(cái)富》世界500強(qiáng)中超過(guò)八成的跨國(guó)公司、各國(guó)政府機(jī)構(gòu)以及軍隊(duì)。埃森哲在大中華區(qū)開(kāi)展業(yè)務(wù)逾30年,分布于北京、上海、大連、成都、廣州、深圳、香港和臺(tái)北多個(gè)城市。
字里行間
(1)年收入:埃森哲今年3月份因?yàn)樾鹿谝咔槎善贝蟮饲皫啄晔杖氤掷m(xù)激增,其市值2014年2月為560億美元,到今年2月19日則高達(dá)1370億美元。
(2)業(yè)內(nèi)領(lǐng)先:北美是埃森哲最大的市場(chǎng),占該公司2019年?duì)I收的46%。
(3)機(jī)器人革命?布魯金斯學(xué)會(huì)估計(jì),到2030年,美國(guó)將有3600萬(wàn)個(gè)工作崗位面臨自動(dòng)化挑戰(zhàn),其中約70%有被技術(shù)取代的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。
(4)數(shù)字化崛起:埃森哲數(shù)字化業(yè)務(wù)在2015年的份額僅為大約三分之一。
(5)熱衷收購(gòu):過(guò)去6個(gè)財(cái)年,埃森哲花了超過(guò)60億美元進(jìn)行了129項(xiàng)收購(gòu)。
(6)重金買廣告公司:據(jù)報(bào)道,埃森哲旗下的數(shù)字“體驗(yàn)”公司埃森哲互動(dòng)(Accenture Interactive)去年春天花了4.75億美元買下了位于紐約麥迪遜大道的Droga5廣告公司。過(guò)去兩年,埃森哲在巴西、中國(guó)、丹麥、法國(guó)、德國(guó)、墨西哥、荷蘭、西班牙、瑞典、英國(guó)和美國(guó)收購(gòu)了多家類似公司。
(7)全球員工:埃森哲在其財(cái)年結(jié)束后的2019年底,員工人數(shù)超過(guò)50萬(wàn)。根據(jù)彭博通訊社數(shù)據(jù),該公司2015財(cái)年的員工人數(shù)為358,498人,2019財(cái)年為492,000人。
(8)加大多樣性投入:2018年和2019年,埃森哲在“路孚特全球多樣性與包容性指數(shù)”上均排名第一。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:Agatha
42歲時(shí),朱莉?斯威特(Julie Sweet )從紐約一家精英律所的合伙人一躍成為埃森哲(Accenture)的總法律顧問(wèn)。十年后的今天,她掌管著這家營(yíng)收430億美元的專業(yè)服務(wù)公司。1 我們采訪了這位新任首席執(zhí)行官,聊一聊她對(duì)今天全球經(jīng)濟(jì)的所見(jiàn)所聞。
以下問(wèn)答經(jīng)過(guò)縮減與編輯。
數(shù)字時(shí)代開(kāi)始了
《財(cái)富》:在9月份被任命為埃森哲首席執(zhí)行官之前,你是公司北美業(yè)務(wù)的首席執(zhí)行官。2 你的日常工作發(fā)生了什么變化?
斯威特:過(guò)去六個(gè)月,我不斷在全球各地出差,見(jiàn)了70多名首席執(zhí)行官、100多名高管,以及我們?cè)跉W洲、亞洲和北美的客戶。行程強(qiáng)度非常高,但也讓人興奮,因?yàn)樵谶@么緊湊的時(shí)間里,你會(huì)在世界各地、在整個(gè)業(yè)內(nèi)不斷聽(tīng)到相同的看法。其中一個(gè)看法是,我們正處在一個(gè)拐點(diǎn),對(duì)大公司而言,2020年代是實(shí)現(xiàn)數(shù)字和技術(shù)承諾的十年。過(guò)去五六年,我們?cè)谧鰧?shí)驗(yàn),做商業(yè)案例,現(xiàn)在,則是時(shí)候要迅速把愿景轉(zhuǎn)化為執(zhí)行力,再轉(zhuǎn)化為物質(zhì)價(jià)值了。
這是一種非常不同的心態(tài)。首席執(zhí)行官們說(shuō):“我們相信還會(huì)有更多的數(shù)字業(yè)務(wù),我們也相信技術(shù)可以改變我們,但是,我們的投資需要得到回報(bào)。”
《財(cái)富》:首席執(zhí)行官和商業(yè)記者不斷談到“數(shù)字化顛覆”(“digital disruption”),你如何定義這個(gè)詞?
斯威特:我首先談?wù)劇皵?shù)字化”的含義,因?yàn)楹芏嗳税选皵?shù)字”等同于“技術(shù)”,它其實(shí)包含兩層意思。一方面,它指的是從人工智能到電子商務(wù)等一系列的技術(shù),另一方面,“數(shù)字化”實(shí)際上也意味著一種全新的工作方式、決策方式、合作方式以及接觸客戶的方式,所以數(shù)字化真正影響的是如何做事情。最成功的公司都明白,數(shù)字化意味著他們?cè)诠ぷ?、參與和決策方式上都要有所改變。
《財(cái)富》:但令許多人感到害怕的是這個(gè)詞的另外一半——“顛覆”,因?yàn)檫@很可能意味著他們將在5年內(nèi)失業(yè)。你會(huì)如何幫助客戶,讓客戶和他們的員工順利開(kāi)展相關(guān)對(duì)話呢?
斯威特:無(wú)論是對(duì)客戶,我們公司內(nèi)部,還是對(duì)整個(gè)社會(huì),我們講的都是要如何實(shí)現(xiàn)共同成功。所以當(dāng)我們建議CEO要采用新技術(shù),但這些技術(shù)會(huì)減少工作崗位時(shí),3 我們會(huì)支持他們和員工開(kāi)誠(chéng)布公地談一談,哪些人可以轉(zhuǎn)學(xué)新技能,那些無(wú)法獲得新技能的,怎么能幫他們找到新工作?我們認(rèn)為,在為客戶咨詢的一開(kāi)始就要給出這樣的建議。在過(guò)去兩周,我已經(jīng)五名高管談過(guò)這個(gè)問(wèn)題了。
《財(cái)富》:當(dāng)然,埃森哲本身在過(guò)去10年里顛覆了自我,你們現(xiàn)在超過(guò)65%的業(yè)務(wù)都是數(shù)字化、云計(jì)算和安全服務(wù)。? 你們從這次“數(shù)字技術(shù)復(fù)興”中學(xué)到了什么?
斯威特:我認(rèn)為我們的“復(fù)興”首先得益于兩方面:一是我們改變了為客戶提供的服務(wù),二是我們也改變了自身內(nèi)部的運(yùn)作方式。我們現(xiàn)在99%的工作都是在云端完成的,客戶和我們用的是同樣的平臺(tái),我們已經(jīng)徹底實(shí)現(xiàn)了自我數(shù)字化。
《財(cái)富》:冠狀病毒的爆發(fā)給全球商業(yè)帶來(lái)了什么啟示?
斯威特:它凸顯了全球供應(yīng)鏈的一體化和相互依賴。我們花了很多功夫和客戶一起思考他們的供應(yīng)鏈戰(zhàn)略,提高他們的適應(yīng)性。讓人驚訝的是,許多大公司仍然沒(méi)用協(xié)作工具,內(nèi)部也沒(méi)有使用數(shù)字技術(shù),他們和顧客建立了聯(lián)系,但卻沒(méi)有投資去做讓員工遠(yuǎn)程辦公的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施。這將是我們幫助客戶的一個(gè)重大機(jī)遇。
收購(gòu)并非公司增長(zhǎng)主力
《財(cái)富》:你們一直在瘋狂收購(gòu)企業(yè)。? 公司有多少增長(zhǎng)來(lái)自于收購(gòu)?
斯威特:我們的重點(diǎn)始終是內(nèi)生增長(zhǎng),資本配置的策略也是始終如一的。回顧過(guò)去幾年,公司的年復(fù)合增長(zhǎng)率是9%,其中7個(gè)百分點(diǎn)來(lái)自內(nèi)生增長(zhǎng),來(lái)自收購(gòu)的收入增長(zhǎng)只有兩個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。
我們收購(gòu)公司的初衷主要有三個(gè),有時(shí)它們相互關(guān)聯(lián)。一是擴(kuò)大熱門(mén)領(lǐng)域市場(chǎng)占有率,幾個(gè)月前,我們收購(gòu)了芝加哥一家迅速發(fā)展的公司,他們專做數(shù)據(jù)科學(xué)和分析,這是一個(gè)非常熱門(mén)的領(lǐng)域。二是建立產(chǎn)業(yè)深度,強(qiáng)化功能性技能,在這塊,我們收購(gòu)的公司主要集中在金融服務(wù)和醫(yī)療保健領(lǐng)域。三是為了技能互補(bǔ),所以去年我們收購(gòu)了Droga5?,這家公司剛剛被評(píng)為十年最佳廣告公司。
困難之處在于,我們不光要擁有這些技能本身,而且要擁有為大企業(yè)提供服務(wù)的技術(shù)規(guī)模。
自動(dòng)化同時(shí),員工持續(xù)增長(zhǎng)
《財(cái)富》:說(shuō)到規(guī)模,你們?cè)谌蛴?0多萬(wàn)名員工。? 你們正在持續(xù)進(jìn)行數(shù)字化運(yùn)營(yíng),那10年后你們公司的員工規(guī)模還會(huì)有這么大嗎?
斯威特:事實(shí)上,我們的員工隊(duì)伍在不斷變化,因?yàn)槲覀冊(cè)谧龅拿恳豁?xiàng)工作都在經(jīng)歷自動(dòng)化。員工數(shù)量增長(zhǎng)是因?yàn)榭蛻糇兌嗔耍ぷ鲀r(jià)值提高了。所以情況并不是一拍腦袋:“哦,等等,現(xiàn)在我們?cè)撨M(jìn)行自動(dòng)化了?!?/p>
所以我并不關(guān)注公司有多少人。我關(guān)注的是,這些人在做什么?我們?cè)谧龅氖潞臀覀兏嬖V客戶要做的事是一樣的:持續(xù)不斷地關(guān)注新技術(shù),確保公司使用最先進(jìn)的技術(shù),確保員工學(xué)會(huì)使用新技術(shù)的技能。我們?cè)跇I(yè)務(wù)流程外包服務(wù)中,有40000個(gè)工作崗位實(shí)現(xiàn)自動(dòng)化,但我們將前期節(jié)省下來(lái)的費(fèi)用中的60%進(jìn)行再投資,用于提高原來(lái)這些崗位上的員工的技能。我們每年在學(xué)習(xí)技能、重新學(xué)習(xí)技能和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力發(fā)展等領(lǐng)域的投資為10億美元,僅過(guò)去三年就培訓(xùn)了30多萬(wàn)人。
而且我們的業(yè)務(wù)在不斷增長(zhǎng),這也是我們能夠做到這一點(diǎn)的原因。
最重要的是,我們從一開(kāi)始就保持透明。我們對(duì)員工說(shuō),幫助公司完成對(duì)你現(xiàn)在工作崗位的自動(dòng)化,之后我們會(huì)進(jìn)行投資,提升你的技能。這就是為什么過(guò)去10年里,公司的平均人員流失率沒(méi)什么變化。
“不再讓其他女性遭受偏見(jiàn)”
《財(cái)富》:你是《財(cái)富》世界500強(qiáng)公司僅有的14位女性CEO之一。在你三十出頭的時(shí)候,有一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折時(shí)刻,讓你此后開(kāi)始幫助其他女性事業(yè)成長(zhǎng)。當(dāng)時(shí)你即將成為老牌精英律所Cravath, Swaine & Moore的合伙人,公司開(kāi)了一個(gè)關(guān)于無(wú)意識(shí)偏見(jiàn)的會(huì)議,可否講一下那次經(jīng)歷。
斯威特:那是1999年,我仍然記得自己怎么走到了會(huì)議室的樓層的。那是個(gè)老式會(huì)議室,有張大桌子,我清清楚楚記得自己坐在哪里。實(shí)際上,再過(guò)兩周他們就要提升我為合伙人了。一切都很好。我走了進(jìn)去,坐下來(lái),開(kāi)會(huì)中間,會(huì)議主持人轉(zhuǎn)向我問(wèn),“朱莉,你在全球都算得上是一位高層女性。你有沒(méi)有經(jīng)歷過(guò)這種無(wú)意識(shí)的偏見(jiàn)?”
我張開(kāi)嘴想說(shuō)話,卻開(kāi)始抽泣。我大聲哭泣,無(wú)法自已。我起身回到辦公室,關(guān)上了門(mén)。大概半小時(shí)后,公司的第一個(gè)女性合伙人,她也是我的一個(gè)好朋友,走了進(jìn)來(lái)。
她說(shuō),“好吧,那些男人們碰過(guò)面了。他們讓我來(lái)看看你怎么樣?!?/p>
她看著我,什么都明白。她知道這并不是有什么大丑聞,而是在那一刻,當(dāng)那個(gè)女主持人問(wèn)我這個(gè)問(wèn)題的時(shí)候,似乎以前所有的經(jīng)歷,忍受的所有的偏見(jiàn)突然都向我壓了下來(lái)。
我現(xiàn)在能談這段經(jīng)歷,因?yàn)樗鼘?duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)是一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)。我當(dāng)時(shí)想,“既然我要成為合伙人了,那我就必須要讓其他女性不再遭受同樣的偏見(jiàn)?!?/p>
我在合伙人生涯中,一直為了這個(gè)目標(biāo)努力,這也塑造了今天的我。我不斷地成長(zhǎng)學(xué)習(xí),我現(xiàn)在努力推動(dòng)的方向不再僅僅圍繞性別,? 而是各個(gè)方面的多元化。
埃森哲公司簡(jiǎn)介:
埃森哲是全球最大的管理咨詢公司和技術(shù)服務(wù)供應(yīng)商,也是《財(cái)富》全球500強(qiáng)企業(yè)之一。其在全球有超過(guò)40萬(wàn)名員工,其2019財(cái)年全球凈收入達(dá)432億美元。埃森哲客戶包括了《財(cái)富》世界500強(qiáng)中超過(guò)八成的跨國(guó)公司、各國(guó)政府機(jī)構(gòu)以及軍隊(duì)。埃森哲在大中華區(qū)開(kāi)展業(yè)務(wù)逾30年,分布于北京、上海、大連、成都、廣州、深圳、香港和臺(tái)北多個(gè)城市。
字里行間
(1)年收入:埃森哲今年3月份因?yàn)樾鹿谝咔槎善贝蟮?,但此前幾年收入持續(xù)激增,其市值2014年2月為560億美元,到今年2月19日則高達(dá)1370億美元。
(2)業(yè)內(nèi)領(lǐng)先:北美是埃森哲最大的市場(chǎng),占該公司2019年?duì)I收的46%。
(3)機(jī)器人革命?布魯金斯學(xué)會(huì)估計(jì),到2030年,美國(guó)將有3600萬(wàn)個(gè)工作崗位面臨自動(dòng)化挑戰(zhàn),其中約70%有被技術(shù)取代的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。
(4)數(shù)字化崛起:埃森哲數(shù)字化業(yè)務(wù)在2015年的份額僅為大約三分之一。
(5)熱衷收購(gòu):過(guò)去6個(gè)財(cái)年,埃森哲花了超過(guò)60億美元進(jìn)行了129項(xiàng)收購(gòu)。
(6)重金買廣告公司:據(jù)報(bào)道,埃森哲旗下的數(shù)字“體驗(yàn)”公司埃森哲互動(dòng)(Accenture Interactive)去年春天花了4.75億美元買下了位于紐約麥迪遜大道的Droga5廣告公司。過(guò)去兩年,埃森哲在巴西、中國(guó)、丹麥、法國(guó)、德國(guó)、墨西哥、荷蘭、西班牙、瑞典、英國(guó)和美國(guó)收購(gòu)了多家類似公司。
(7)全球員工:埃森哲在其財(cái)年結(jié)束后的2019年底,員工人數(shù)超過(guò)50萬(wàn)。根據(jù)彭博通訊社數(shù)據(jù),該公司2015財(cái)年的員工人數(shù)為358,498人,2019財(cái)年為492,000人。
(8)加大多樣性投入:2018年和2019年,埃森哲在“路孚特全球多樣性與包容性指數(shù)”上均排名第一。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:Agatha
At age 42, Julie Sweet jumped from being a partner at an elite New York City law firm to becoming general counsel at Accenture. Now, a decade later, she’s running the place. We sat down with the new CEO of the $43-billion-in-revenue professional services firm1 to learn what she’s seeing—and hearing—about the global economy today.
This edited Q&A has been condensed for space and clarity.
The digital decade
Prior to being named CEO of Accenture in September, you were CEO of the firm’s North American business.2 How have your daily conversations changed?
Sweet: I’ve spent the last six months traveling the globe, meeting with over 70 CEOs and 100 other C-suite leaders and our clients in Europe, Asia, and North America. It’s been an incredibly intense time but exciting because when you do that in such a compressed time period, you hear consistent themes around the globe and across industry. One theme is that we are at an inflection point. For large companies, they are looking at 2020 as the decade of delivery on the promise of digital and technology. We spent the last five to six years experimenting, doing business cases, and now it’s about going quickly from vision to execution to material value.
It’s a very different mindset. CEOs are saying, “We’re not questioning more digital business. We’re not questioning that technology can transform us. But we need to get return on our investment.”
CEOs and business journalists talk endlessly about “digital disruption.” How do you define the term?
I’ll first talk about what “digital” means because a lot of people equate “digital” with “technology.” Digital is really two things. It refers to a set of technologies, everything from artificial intelligence to the use of e-commerce. But digital is really about a different way of working, of making decisions, of partnering and reaching your clients, and so it’s also about how you do things. And the most successful companies really understand that going digital means changing how they work, how they engage, and how they make decisions.
But it’s the other half of the term—”disruption”—that frightens many: It may well mean they’ll be out of a job in five years. What do you say to clients to help them have that conversation with their workers?
What we say to our clients, what we do internally, and what we should all be doing with our communities is speak in terms of shared success. So when we have the conversation with the CEO that says, “Here’s how you need to use technology. It’s going to take away jobs,”3 we advise them to talk upfront with their employees about how many can be reskilled—and for those who likely can’t be reskilled, we need to ask, How can we help them get their new job? We believe that part of our responsibility is to have that conversation from day one. In client conversations, I’ve had over the last two weeks, it has been on the agenda with probably five of them.
Accenture has, of course, disrupted itself over the past decade. Over 65% of your business is now in digital, cloud computing, and security services.?What did you learn from that renaissance?
Well, I think first of all, our renaissance, as you call it, is really two things: It’s shifting the services we offer clients, but it’s also how we operate ourselves. So 99% of what we do is now done in the cloud; we’re using the same platforms that we’re implementing with clients. We digitized ourselves.
What has the coronavirus outbreak taught us about global business?
It highlights the integration of the supply chain around the world and the dependencies. We’re spending a lot of time with clients thinking about their supply-chain strategy and helping them become more resilient. One of the big aha moments is how many large companies still don’t use collaboration tools and aren’t using digital technologies internally. They’re engaging with their customers, but they haven’t invested in the infrastructure that allows their employees to telecommute. That’s going to be a big area of opportunity to help clients.
Inside the M&A playbook
You’ve also been on a buying spree.? How much of your growth is coming from that?
We will always focus most on organic growth, and we’ve been very consistent in terms of our capital allocation. If you look back over the last few years, around two percentage points of our revenue growth every year is from acquisitions. So we’re growing at a 9% compound annual growth rate. Seven of those percentage points are from organic growth; two from inorganic.
We acquire companies for one of three reasons, though sometimes all three are relevant. The first is to scale hot areas of the market. So a couple of months ago, we bought a fast-growing Chicago company specializing in data science and analytics, a very hot area. The second reason is to build our deep industry and functional skills. So we’ve made acquisitions focused on financial services and health care. And the third reason is to acquire complementary skills. So last year we bought Droga5?, which was just named the ad agency of the decade.
The hard part is not just having those capabilities but also the scale behind them in terms of technology to serve major enterprises.
The people business
Speaking of scale, you’ve got more than half-a-million employees across the world.? Will your workforce a decade from now be anywhere near as big, particularly as you continue to digitize operations?
We actually have constant change in our workforce because we build automation into everything we’re doing. We’re growing because we’re serving more clients, doing higher-value things. So it isn’t, like, “Oh, wait a minute, now we need to automate.”
So I don’t focus too much on how many people I have. I focus on, What are those people doing? And we do what we tell our clients to do: focus relentlessly on making sure that we’re using the most advanced technologies and reskill our people to use them. When we automated 40,000 jobs in our business-process outsourcing business, we reinvested 60% of the upfront savings to upskill those who had those roles. We invest $1 billion a year in training, reskilling, and leadership development—training over 300,000 people in the last three years alone.
And we have a growing business, which is why we’re able to do it.
Most important is that we’re transparent from the start. In this case, we said to our people, Help us automate what you’re doing now, and then we’re going to invest to upskill you. That’s why we have no change in our average 10-year attrition.
You’re one of just 14 women CEOs at a Fortune Global 500 company. There was a moment, when you were in your early thirties, that became a turning point for you in your mission to help other women navigate their careers. You were about to make partner at white-shoe law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore—and there was a meeting at the firm about unconscious bias.
It was in 1999, and I can still see myself walking up to our conference-room floor. We had an old-fashioned conference room, big table. I know exactly where I sat. It was literally two weeks before they were going to make the partnership decision. Everything was fine. I go in, I sit down, and they have this facilitator who turns to me at one point and says, “Julie, you’re a senior woman in the world. Have you ever experienced any of these things, unconscious biases?”
I opened my mouth to speak?…? and I started sobbing. Big loud sobs, and I could not get myself under control. I got up, went back to my office, and shut the door. Maybe half an hour later, the first woman corporate partner, a good friend of mine, came in.
And she said, “Okay, the men have met. They asked me to come see if you’re okay.”
And she looked at me, and she knew. She knew there wasn’t some big scandal. Because at that very moment, when that woman asked me that, it was like everything kind of came crushing down: All the things that I had endured at that time to get to where I was.
And I do talk about it now because it was a turning point for me. And I thought, “Now that I’m going to be a partner, I have to make it so it’s not the same for other women.”
And it was something that I worked hard on as a partner, and it shaped who I am today. And as I’ve grown and learned, it became not just around gender? but around all kinds of diversity.
Between the lines
(1) Annual revenues: Prior to the market’s dramatic March slide, surging revenues pushed Accenture’s market cap to a high of $137 billion on Feb. 19, up from around $56 billion in February 2014.
(2) First among equals: North America is Accenture’s largest market, accounting for 46% of the company’s 2019 revenues.
(3) Robot revolution? The Brookings Institution estimates that 36 million U.S. jobs will face “exposure to automation” by 2030, with about 70% of those at risk of being replaced by technology.
(4) The rise of digital: The share is up from around a third in 2015.
(5) Getting acquisitive: Accenture spent more than $6 billion on 129 acquisitions in its past six fiscal years.
(6) An ad, ad, ad, ad world: Accenture Interactive, the firm’s digital
“experience” agency, paid a reported $475 million for the Madison Avenue shop last spring. In the past two years, Accenture has purchased similar firms in Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S.
(7) Global workforce: Accenture passed half-a-million employees in late 2019, after its fiscal year ended. The company had 358,498 employees in fiscal year 2015 and 492,000 in 2019, according to Bloomberg.
(8) Doubling down on diversity: Accenture was ranked No. 1 on Refinitiv’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Index in both 2018 and 2019.