Every C-suite executive is currently under pressure to do three things: Yusuf Tayob, Accenture Operations

Yusuf Tayob, group chief executive, Accenture Operations, recently spoke to Dataquest about the current enterprise environment, the company’s plans and what they have planned for the India market. Yusuf’s global team of 200,000 professionals deliver strategic managed services across enterprise functions such as procurement, supply chain, finance, HR, marketing, sales, and customer service as well as industries like banking, insurance, capital markets, telecom, utilities, health and life sciences.

DQ: As the world’s largest BPM company, what big shifts are you seeing in the current environment and where do you see the industry headed a decade from now?

Yusuf Tayob: We’ve reached an inflection point, post-COVID, where we see growing client demand for strategic managed services. My business (Accenture Operations) does this by helping clients change how companies work, how they engage with customers and the talent they need today and in the future. With more than 200,000 employees across the world, we enable companies to digitize faster, become data-led and bring resilience into their business. We believe the future of managed services is strategic, co-created with clients and ecosystem partners and additive to the top-line, not just the bottom. 

^DQ: When Accenture talks about enterprise reinvention, what are some of the common areas driving client demand?

Yusuf Tayob: Every CEO and C-suite executive is currently under pressure to do three things: rotate their business to post-pandemic norms, digitalize faster and create more resilience. All of this in the face of an unprecedented talent environment. We continue to see growing client demand for executing bold programs, across multiple parts of the enterprise at the same time —while, in the past, they would have taken a more sequential approach

DQ: Can you share examples of strategic managed services, how it differs from traditional BPM and examples of the impact being delivered? 

Yusuf Tayob: Our approach to strategic managed services differs from traditional outsourcing in three ways. First, where outsourcing was principally cost-focused, strategic managed services focuses on value creation for all stakeholders - from financial to outcomes across experience, sustainability and talent. Second, it’s not just about process efficiency, but also business transformation at speed. And third, rather than legacy processes and technology, making use of dynamic data and AI-driven ways of working.

DQ: India is a key talent hub for you. How have your BPM roles evolved – say from a decade ago?

Yusuf Tayob: India is a global innovation hub for Accenture. It is also where a significant part of our Accenture Operations people and global leadership are based out of. We continue to strengthen our local presence and build on our capabilities here to leverage the potential of the skills that India offers at scale. We have multiple centers of excellence (CoE) in India focusing on data, AI, actuarial, financial planning and analysis, and the development of SynOps - our AI and automation platform. Earlier this year, we set up a presence in Jaipur, Rajasthan to provide our people with location flexibility and expand our local talent pool.

Our clients are looking for talent to leverage data-backed insights and digital technologies to make their processes future ready. Even as creating efficiency and cost competitiveness remain an imperative, our people are focused on driving value. As a result, BPM roles have increased in complexity and require specialised domain and functional skills as well as advisory capabilities. For instance, we have campaign management specialists, social media community managers and analytics modelling experts as part of our growth services. As part of our industry services, we provide actuarial services and underwriting for insurance companies and pharmacovigilance.

DQ: Accenture has talked a lot about how digital capabilities, such as AI, data and cloud, play a big role in achieving operational maturity. Can you give an example of how ways of working advance for the better as a result?

Yusuf Tayob: Let’s take the example of the finance function. Today’s CFO has to respond quickly to change and having strategic insights to manage the future is as critical as driving the current business. You could say finance itself has been evolving from safeguarding financial health to also managing the future – the job as much about business strategy as it is closing the books. This means adding new skills while progressing digital capabilities (e.g., AI, data, cloud). 

When a global logistics client asked for our help with transforming into a forward-looking finance function, this is exactly what happened.  With less than a year to do so, the client’s ask was to build a team of 250+ highly skilled finance professionals while simultaneously advancing its digital capabilities, such as working with AI and data.

We brought together a mix of expertise spanning data science, platforms (core ERP and specialized planning tools), finance (analysis, planning, forecasting) and industry knowledge industry (logistics, transportation). These skills working as an extension of the client’s finance business teams to optimize efficiency, drive agility and enhance insights and accuracy across planning, budgeting, and forecasting – helping the organization make the pivot to focusing on the future (vs. traditional reporting with a focus on the past).