As discussed in “Three ways Accenture cheats on its clients, just like Tiger Woods” Accenture systematically overcharges clients. One of many scandals that became public was the overcharging at the Inland Revenue (UK). When appearing before the Commons Public Accounts Committee to answer cost questions, Accenture executives blamed salaries of their own personnel.
Accenture Senior Executives claimed that they have the best staff and therefore have high salary costs.
"Best staff" is a joke at Accenture. Accenture is a firm that is all about quantity, not quality work. They simply don't need the best staff, nor is it their strategy to get them. They push their personnel to get as much done as possible (filling Excel sheets, doing audits, etc), NOT to think. They have 200.000 consultants, it is not an exclusive crowd hard to get into.
They are also known to hire people at too low level, e.g. someone who was a Senior Manager before gets an offer for a consultant level. (Source: Wetfeet.com)
Regarding the price for their supposed "best staff", Accenture pays about half the salaries of what other management consulting firms do. An analyst would enter at about EUR 24K per year and a consultant at about EUR 42k (source: Accenture). Average management consulting firms pay 80-90k to consultants (Source: Wetfeet.com), and of course I'm not even going to compare to the top firms because Accenture doesn't come close to competing with them. I would say Accenture is not even a management consulting firm, it's more a secretary consulting firm
Not all 200K employees are in the Consulting workforce. You should research things more before writing about them.
ReplyDeleteWow that was a lot of bull shit in a very short space!
ReplyDeleteEven if they did have 200,000 consultants, which they don't, a large number doesn't mean they have low standards - I've seen the recruitment figures for Accenture and they get a lot of quality applicants and so can be very selective.
RE. "They are also known to hire people at too low level, e.g. someone who was a Senior Manager before gets an offer for a consultant level." How does this support your claim that they don't have good staff? Getting someone two grades lower than they should be sounds like a great deal for a client. It's also not true, while most if not all consultancies will be cautious when bringing in experienced hires (and often put them at a level below they deserve) I never met a consultant who was an ex senior manager.
Analysts at Accenture do not get paid £24,000. I STARTED on a salary of £31,500 three years ago...
Consultant at Accenture is a rank (second from bottom). The £80-90,000 quotes is for consultants meaning all level of management consultant, so you're comparing apples with pears.
Regarding competing with the best firms, actually Accenture's doing rather well. if by "best" you mean the strat houses who pay the highest wages then you really don't know anything about consulting as they largely operate in different areas of the consulting market - Accenture is not a strat house or advisory firm, it is primarily a systems integrator.
Now stop writing crap!
P.S. I'm ex Accenture and left because I didn't like them, but I still object to straight out lies.
>> I never met a consultant who was an ex senior manager
ReplyDeleteAnd that proves that it doesn't happen? Sorry to burst your bubble in the space of the 'people you have met in your life', but I have experienced this first hand and know at least two more people who have been brought in 3 levels below what they were doing. The ambiguity between 'role' and 'designation' is what HR uses to trap people into these situations where people think they are applying for 'project manager' while they are brought in as team leads.
>> Consultant at Accenture is a rank (second from bottom)
Really? What about the ASE, SE, SSE and Team leads who are below the consultant level?
Although some facts in the original article seem region based (Euros, etc), I think the general gist is true in all Accenture locations.
As for 'best staff', I definitely agree that is a complete joke. They utilize 10 times the staff and 50 times the budget to complete below average work with loads and loads of delay and shockingly substandard quality.
Very well explained. I would like to say that it is very interesting to read your blog.
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