Accenture: An insider guide - Gymkhana

Culture
Accenture is a company on the move, one that’s engaged in a wide variety of
projects in a bunch of different locations. As such, Accenture’s culture can vary
from one extreme to another depending on the client you are working for and
the office in which you reside. Employees who work at the client site, especially
for extended periods, will find themselves interacting with the client’s culture as
much as Accenture’s. “On average, we aspire to blend in with our clients. In my
projects, I want client people on our team, I want them to be integrated,” said
one insider. “We go to lunch together, go out after work. That’s probably very
typical except on the large tech projects, where you have a pod of people in the
back room.”
The Workplace
Says another, “We spend 85 to 95 percent of our time at the client site. It may
be a little less true these days, because we actually have offices, where we can
work for clients at an Accenture office. But most of the time, it’s at the client site.”
Two recent events—the downturn in the economy and the transformation of
the firm from one owned and run by partners to a publicly owned firm—have
left their mark.
“Because we’re now a public company and our finances are subject to analyst
scrutiny, there’s more focus on financials and profit margins than there was
before. That has a trickle-down effect—there may be less money for someone
to put in a training budget, for instance.” The insider adds, “If there were
changes, it’s hard to say if they were due to strictly economic factors or going
public and needing to be more investor-friendly.”
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