Accenture Case Study

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[pic 3]  BACKGROUND STUDY

History of Accenture

The company can trace its origins to 1950s with the first commercial installation of a computer system for GE in the United States. Accenture was born out of the consulting division of Arthur Andersen- Anderson Consulting. Anderson consulting was formed in 1989 when a group of partners from the consulting division of Arthur Anderson decided to separate from the parent company. The focus of the new organization was “consulting and technology services related to managing large-scale systems integration and enhancing business process”. In spite of the split, Arthur Consulting and Arthur Andersen units worldwide were still connected through their exclusive contractual agreement with Andersen Worldwide Société Coopérative (AWSC), a Swiss-based administrative entity tasked to coordinate the two separate companies. In December 1997, Accenture accused AWSC and Arthur Andersen of breach of contract and therefore sought to terminate all contractual ties with them. Anderson Consulting claimed that AWSC had improperly coordinated the practices and dealings between Arthur Andersen and Arthur Consulting units and accused them that Arthur Andersen firms were guilty of directly competing with the Arthur Consulting firms. Accenture finally ended all contractual obligations with AWSC and Arthur Andersen in August 2000 after the International Chamber of Commerce decided the verdict in their favour.

Company Overview

Arthur Consulting was renamed as Accenture in 2001 as it become a separate entity from Arthur Anderson. Accenture undertook massive rebranding to promote its new name and brand image. In order to stay competitive went for an IPO in 2001 and established a corporation after being listed in NYSE. Over the years, Accenture diversified its business units and in 2009 had 3 main components of business which were Technology Consulting, Business Consulting and BPO Operations. In 2009, Accenture went through a major restructuring as they streamlined their growth platforms and senior level managers for efficient utilization of resources. For financial and strategic purposes, it even shifted its headquarters from Bermuda to Ireland.

 Accenture today is a multinational company and an industry leader in consulting services with the largest revenue amongst its competitors. In 2015, Fortune magazine awarded it the world's most admired company in the Information Technology Services domain

Greiner’s Growth Model

To better understand the application of Greiner’s growth model on Accenture, it is imperative for us to divide the company into 3 main phases or eras and study the different phases of growth model prevalent at particular points of time. We have thus divided our study into 3 major eras