As Accenture tries to shed its image of an American company and positions itself as a fully global corporation, one of the explicit steps that it took last year was to promote Pierre Nanterme-a Frenchman based in France, to the top job. One of the first things the new CEO explicitly pointed out soon after taking over was that the top management in the company was still not as globalized and one of his agenda items was to change that. He has explicitly stated that within his term he wants to see some Indians in the top positions globally.

That is probably why Accenture is proud (and upfront) about its India capability unlike many other firms who do significant delivery out if India but are defensive about it. In fact, most of its contract win announcements made last year mentioned that the services would be delivered out of India and India is now no more Bengaluru for Accenture. It now has a good geographic spread within the country, with many Centers of Excellence (CoEs) spread over Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, apart from Bengaluru.

However it still struggles when it comes to Indian market with IT services revenue being about $40 mn last year-a minute fraction of its global revenue and less than half of its overall India revenue. However it made some headway in the government sector. The key wins last year included one from Uinique Identifaction Authority of India for implementing the core biometric identification system as part of a consortium and a 42-month contract from Nagaland government for implementing state service delivery portal as part of NeGP.

Last year saw Accenture appointing Avinash Vashishtha as the chairman and MD for Accenture India, who replaced Harsh Manglik, though this did raise a few eyebrows, as Vashishtha, respected as an offshore consultant, has very little exposure to the Indian market, Accenture's stated thrust. It also made some other key appointments including that of marketing lead Samira Kohli whose major mandate is to elevate Accenture's image as a top employer.