Accenture Interactive Case Study
Executive Summary
Accenture Company is an outsourcing company offering consultancy services. It is currently spread to over 120 countries, including Singapore. Its mission is to be a leading global consultancy agency with a huge reputation from clients. Despite its challenges, the company has laid strategies aimed at improving customer’s experience. Due to the changing customer’s needs, the company is also changing its strategy to meet these customer’s needs. The company faces huge competition, especially from Publicis Groupe of France. To determine which have a better future, the analysis below has presented the SWOT analysis of the two groups. Accenture has commanded a large customer base due to its competitive advantage that has been enhanced by a strong portfolio, strong financial base, and a huge workforce. Finally, the analysis has presented several recommendations essential for the company to realize its full potential, which include Improving business units, Creating a strong consultancy structure, and Creating a formidable relationship with executives, which is essential to expand digital agency.
Problem Statement
The marketing field has continued to experience huge dynamics that require companies to develop stronger brands than that of rivals in the market. Most companies suffer from poor strategies that are necessary for creating a better customer relationship (Bajic and Yurtoglu, 2018, pp117). These problems force most of these companies to seek assistance to help them create a leading-edge customer experience. In the wake of digitization and technological improvement, Accenture Interactive Company has expanded its operations to Singapore to help create a better customer experience. Marketers use different methods to reach their clients, which are linked to new innovation and ideas to advertise new products to the customers. Accenture Company offers these services, but faces continuously face challenges. The analysis below is to determine these challenges and offer the necessary recommendations.
Background Information.
External Factors
According to the Company’s managing director Antoly Roytman, the company aims at meeting all the client’s expectations. One of the internal challenges is continued change in customer’s needs and expectations. Therefore, the approaches used by the company should also change as well in regard to the customer needs. The company is also facing delays in its efforts to engage in any strategic partnerships that are essential in providing the necessary skills and resources required to improve customer’s experience (Grayson and Nelson, 2017, p. 17). To solve this problem, the company needs to treat digital customer’s experience by taking it as an ongoing initiative. Secondly, the company needs to be more data-driven and analytics that are focused on achieving the customer’s experience.
Internal Factors
The company is experiencing a predicted combination of consultancies and agencies that are moving rapidly in the Accenture’s space. Accenture has its operations extended to other countries other than Ireland, including Singapore. The company offers training to new recruits to offer the necessary skills related to their posts. Both job and operating managers are involved in every two jobs in the company (Duboff and Giulioni, 2017, p. 63). This means that while the authority of the functional manager flows vertically downward, that of the task manager flows sideward. Leadership in the company is varied, and it depends on the project and the project supervisor. The company gives it an employee’s good salary that increases their motivation. For every completed task, a report must be submitted for the same. In Singapore, assignments are randomly distributed to all employees.
SWOT Analysis of Accenture Company
| Strengths of Accenture Company · It’s the largest Consulting firm- focuses on business and IT consultancy. · Have a strong clientele- the company boast the largest customer base in the globe · It has customer-driven processes- the company has a strong client and business-related approach that creates sustainable and industry-based value for consulting partners (Serazio, 2018 pp.230). · Continuous improvement- the company is always looking for ways to improve its capabilities. · Expertise- the company has a huge experience and talent to get things done.
| Weaknesses of Accenture Company · Inadequate coordination- Accenture has over 19 business units. However, they are continuously faced by conflicts due to a lack of proper internal coordination (von Platen, 2018). · It depends largely on consulting business- although the company has other businesses like technology and BPO, it depends largely on consultancy services. |
| Opportunities of Accenture Company · Business expansion- Accenture is targeting both small and mid-sized companies, which is a good plan to increase revenue. · Acquisition-the company has continued to acquire new assets like “Gaspo’’ from Brazil and Agilex technologies from the U.S government. · It is extending to other businesses. It focuses on BPO and technology apart from consultancy, which is a business opportunity to increase revenue. | Threats for Accenture Company · High Competition- the company is facing severe competition from companies like IFM, Infosys, and Capgemeni (Bjørnson, 2018, p. 220). · Difficult financial times. The company faced difficult times, especially during the recession period leading to over-dependency on premium clients. |
SWOT Analysis for Publicis Groupe
| Strengths of Publicis Groupe Ø High global distribution of products. Ø Has a high reputation from clients due to quality work. Ø High acquisition and mergers to enhance expansion. Ø Increases interactive communication
| Weaknesses of Publicis Groupe Ø High competition leading to limited market share Ø Limited geographical penetration. Ø |
| Opportunities of Publicis Groupe Ø Increased revenue from online advertising. Ø Availability of new marketing strategies and research which increases the accumulation of revenue (Geary, Aguzzoli, and Lengler, 2017, p. 197). Ø A decentralized leadership making it easy for decision making for local marketing.
| Threats of Publicis Groupe Ø Increased number of lawsuits as a result of negligence when preparing ads. Ø Increased competition from other rival industries. Ø Possibility of being hit by the economic recession. |
Discussion of alternatives
Recruiting employees based in Singapore with a high level of creativity and skills. Creativity in these recruits can help the employee understand the needs of the clients. As a result, the cost of developing employees in the domestic market will be reduced (Bjørnson, 2018, p. 220). However, this can have a disadvantage as the employee feels misused, leading to decreased performance.
Employees should be assigned the project they prefer and have experience in. Employees feel comfortable when working on tasks that they like and working near their families. Acquiring employees from locality will eliminate relocation costs or moving away from their families (HACKLEY, 2017). However, this has a disadvantage as the employee may not be fully exploited.
The company should improve the customer/client relationship. Creating a long-term relationship with the client is not only good for increasing revenue but also to enhance the future growth of the company (Geary, Aguzzoli, and Lengler, 2017, p. 197). The demerit of this is that the prices of the product might increase, reducing the chances of convincing the customer.
Rationale
The goal of this company is to meet customers’ needs. These needs can be meet through;
- Improving business units.
- Creating a strong consultancy structure.
- Creating a formidable relationship with executives, which is essential to expand digital agency.
Action plan for implementing Recommendations.
| Key task | Responsibility | Timeline |
| Improving business units | Executives and managers | Planning period |
| Creating a strong consultancy structure.
| managers | Post-hiring |
| Creating a formidable relationship with executives which is essential to expand the digital agency | Executives | During team building |
Contingency Plan
The company will face the highest risk of obtaining the local workforce. This is because the local workforce does not understand the company goals or values (Geary, Aguzzoli, and Lengler, 2017, p. 197). This will call for recruiting employees outside the local community who understands the company values. Therefore, if the local community provides employees who underperform, the company will outsource workers with experience to educate them about company values as they try to meet the company’s target goal.
Market Analysis of Accenture Company
With over 4.2 million workforces globally, Accenture has been leading a company in consultancy services. Since its foundation in 1989, the company has grown to over 120 countries all over the world, aimed at giving consultancy solutions to the clients. The company has a strong competitive advantage through the development of a strong portfolio, a strong financial base, and a huge workforce. The company operates in five business segments, including finance, communication, health services, and media and technology (Geary, Aguzzoli and Lengler, 2017 pp.203). These are essential units, especially in Singapore, which makes the company’s market continue to improve. The company is also sourcing much of its resources from developed countries. On the other hand, Singapore is a developing economy that is offering operating costs.
References.
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