Accenture: An insider guide - Gymkhana

Overview
The Company
Accenture has made a name for itself as one of the world’s leading management
consulting and technology services companies. Formally established in 1989 by a
group of partners from the consulting division of the various Arthur Andersen
firms around the world, Accenture began life as Andersen Consulting. From its
establishment until its incorporation in 2001, the company operated as a group
of more than 40 locally owned partnerships in 40-plus countries. Some things
have certainly changed since 1989: Arthur Andersen is no more, the Internet boom
has come and gone, and Andersen Consulting became Accenture and went public.
But there’s one thing that’s stayed the same: The company is still focused on
delivering top-notch consulting and technology services to organizations all
over the world.
Today, Accenture is a consulting behemoth with 95,000 employees toiling away
in 110 offices in 48 countries. The company’s traditional stronghold is systems
integration, but it also lays claim to formidable strategy, technology consulting,
human resources, and outsourcing practices. Accenture’s deep client roster is a
veritable who’s who list, one that straddles a multitude of industries; in addition
to a sizeable percentage of Fortune 500 companies, Accenture also consults to
a wide range of governmental and nonprofit organizations. Scoring massive projects
with high-profile organizations is the name of the game at Accenture. It made
headlines in June 2004 when an alliance led by Accenture won a Homeland Security
Department contract worth up to $10 billion.
Of course, the sputtering economy hit consulting companies hard, and Accenture
was no exception. In fact, as one of the few public consulting firms, it is
particularly sensitive to trends in the economy. For the first few years of this
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