The Business Marketing Strategy Of Accenture

Accenture’s brand line is “High Performance Delivered”. This alone shows that it is a company that is focused on performance and turnover and hence, the strategy it follows is to increase them both – directly or indirectly.

Accenture is also a research and analysis company. Its strategy is founded after years of study of those of similar businesses.

Accenture is following the global trend of establishing itself in growing economies. Also, Accenture is volume and efficiency focused. As a result of this, the number of employees in Accenture has increased a lot and is increasing largely too.

The strategy of Accenture as regards employees is that if more of them are recruited annually, then the turn-over would be more.

Advertising Strategy:

Tiger Woods – the professional golfer and billionaire sportsman – was the Brand Ambassador of Accenture for the past six years. Accenture related his golf course successes with those in Accenture’s business, thereby running an excellent campaign.

However, on 13th December, 2009, Accenture declared that it would not continue with its sponsorship agreement with Tiger Woods. The bad publicity associated with Tiger Woods over his fidelity and extra-marital affairs made the company decide that he was not the right ambassador any longer.

This move from Accenture shows its strategy behind advertising – the company wants to retain its squeaky-clean image. Hence, this was an effective way of sending out a message to the public that Accenture associates itself with those institutions and people alone whose reputations are unblemished like that of the company’s. The credibility rating of the company then soars.

Accenture will continue its “High Performance Business” strategy and “High Performance Delivered” positioning in the market. On rebound from Tiger Woods, Accenture will launch a new advertising campaign later in 2010.

Corporate Strategy:

Accenture adheres to the following as its corporate strategy to deliver high performance:

Look forward, not backward: To make new corporate decisions, rely on the predictions for future based on the present. Do not assume that the scenario of yesterday stands so today as well since it is a very dynamic domain.

Focus relentlessly on key value levers:The ability to deliver future value depends on performance drivers. High-quality due diligence identifies the key drivers of competitive success. Correlations with past performance, market insights, known competitor actions and operational context provide a reality check on management forecasts.

Stay scrupulously objective: High-quality advice should be free from commercial interests.

Insist on deep industry, technical and operational expertise: Experts in the process should always be employed/recruited to scrutinize the process.

Incorporate post-deal improvements: Maintenance services build trust and credibility

IT Strategy and Transformation:

IT is a strategic asset at Accenture – it is a source of operational excellence and competitive advantage.

Operational excellence means that an organization is doing more with less – from supply chain to customer relationships – and beating the competition with superior operations using its people, assets and technology to compete more effectively in the marketplace.

During the recent recession, Accenture addressed the question: “It’s not just how you survive, but how you position yourself for the rebound.”

Accenture divides responses to the recession into three categories, or journeys:

Continuous improvement:Companies with a federated model respond this way. The company has overall guidelines, with local decision-making. Locally, there is a lot of decision-making power.

Targeted intervention: Here, a big change in just one area of a company’s business is made. This can improve the overall performance.

Transformation: It is an all-out business overhaul, usually driven from the top down.

The best approach is not related to the financial condition of the company but rather its culture.

“Any of the journeys can get you there. The most important thing is to choose one and not try to do them all simultaneously.”

Accenture followed the strategy of continuous improvement all throughout the recession.

Growth Strategy and Operating Model:

A global operating model enables a company to execute its business model and international growth strategy. It allows multinational executives to coordinate operations between the corporate center and the geographic business units and to form an end-to-end strategic value chain. Accenture employs the following elements to make it growth strategy and operating model effective:

1. Leadership and people;

2. Organizational structure;

3. Processes:Some examples of processes are strategic planning, resource allocation, knowledge management, innovation management, customer relationship management and supply chain management.

4. Technologies: This includes the physical equipment, software and tools that underpin the processes.

Taken together, the content and the relative importance given to each organizational element characterize the global operating model configuration. To achieve high performance, the organizational elements need to work together in a good internal fit.

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Pricing Strategy and Profit Optimization:

Accenture builds, implements and sustains advanced pricing capabilities through a closed-loop approach that includes strategy, analytics, price setting and execution to enable high performance.

Sustainability:

Accenture seeks to maximize the influence it has on the world around it and minimize its detrimental effects on it. This concern about economic and environmental conditions demonstrates its commitment to sustainability. This, in turn, leads to high performance and long-term success. Sustainability is both an outcome and a driver.

Organizational Strategy:

Accenture aligns the organizational strategy with business strategy to enable high performance.

Accenture in India:

When Accenture entered into the Indian market, it was an instant success. This was because of its well-developed expansion and settlement strategy. Accenture combined the best aspects of the Indian off-shoring approach with business consulting.

This was achieved by a thorough study of the circumstances in India and a strategy for venturing into a newer territory.

CONCLUSION

Strategy of Accenture:

From the observations under the “Strategy” section, we know that Accenture is a performance-oriented, volume/efficiency-focused company. Since the number of employees in Accenture is increasing largely, the turn-over is also increasing but at a price – the knowledge productivity is decreasing.

The points of focus of Accenture should now be to keep increasing its points of sales and performance while stabilizing its knowledge productivity. Accenture should continue its expansion in the growing nations. The efficiency-driven strategy along with the image-conscious advertising would go a long way towards higher performances and credibility in the market.

Also, because of the large number of competitors in the market, Accenture should use its Research and Analysis wing to evaluate their strategies and themselves develop other innovative strategies. Acquisition/merger of these companies into Accenture would enable it to utilize their knowledge as well.