Accenture is interviewing me ... but not for a job.
February 23, 2012 5:49 PM Subscribe
What should I expect from an Accenture review/interview of my branch office?
This is NOT a question about "what is it like to work or get a job at Accenture?" which is ALL I can find online.
I am scared out of my mind because my parent company has asked Accenture to review my small branch office to see how we can make more money.
What will they ask me? What kind of information is an Accenture consultant trying to gather in a one-on-one. How can I prepare for my interview?
This is NOT a question about "what is it like to work or get a job at Accenture?" which is ALL I can find online.
I am scared out of my mind because my parent company has asked Accenture to review my small branch office to see how we can make more money.
What will they ask me? What kind of information is an Accenture consultant trying to gather in a one-on-one. How can I prepare for my interview?
I used to do this sort of stuff for a living (and still do for an internal audit function), but in the information security area. Mostly, just remember that the Accenture guy you're talking to is a person, not some sort of omniscient god. His manager gave him a checklist of things to gather information about, and his manager gave him a set of objectives, and the partner probably negotiated the scope to include whatever your company's contact thought was needed. Consultants get paid to be polished and well-informed, but really he's probably just going to be a kid trying to document something so he can go drink after work. Seriously.
So don't worry about it. Yes, this might result in the whole office getting fired. But it could result in you getting a team of 10 people and your own marketing consultant to define your go-to-market strategies. Or it could have nothing to do with such things at all, and instead be about whether the network firewall is set up to prevent hackers from stealing information off your laptop. There's literally no way to know unless someone tells you, and "what they're looking for" vs "what they recommend" could be completely unpredictable.
There's also a chance that some director hired Accenture and the CFO is going to throw out the recommendations wholesale because he's former KPMG and screw those Accenture idiots.
Be straightforward, and don't be afraid to say "I have no idea." Seriously. They're very likely not there to test your knowledge. Like anyone who wants some of your time to get their project done, offer your assistance as much as you feel is appropriate.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 6:31 PM on February 23, 2012 [8 favorites]
So don't worry about it. Yes, this might result in the whole office getting fired. But it could result in you getting a team of 10 people and your own marketing consultant to define your go-to-market strategies. Or it could have nothing to do with such things at all, and instead be about whether the network firewall is set up to prevent hackers from stealing information off your laptop. There's literally no way to know unless someone tells you, and "what they're looking for" vs "what they recommend" could be completely unpredictable.
There's also a chance that some director hired Accenture and the CFO is going to throw out the recommendations wholesale because he's former KPMG and screw those Accenture idiots.
Be straightforward, and don't be afraid to say "I have no idea." Seriously. They're very likely not there to test your knowledge. Like anyone who wants some of your time to get their project done, offer your assistance as much as you feel is appropriate.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 6:31 PM on February 23, 2012 [8 favorites]
You can prepare for your interview by making sure the bulk of all that fiddling, fooling, time wasting, pointless procedural documentation (you know, the stuff they tell you you're supposed to maintain but which nobody ever reads ever) is at least reasonably up to date.
The Accenture guy isn't going to know anything at all about how your business actually works, and nor is he going to be interested. He won't even be interested in reading any of the pointless documentation. All he's going to do is work through a checklist and make sure every. tiny. bit. of that ridiculous bumff exists, because if it does, then you're clearly following ISO 9001 quality guidelines and that gets you your gold star and your elephant stamp.
If it doesn't exist, he's not going to be the slightest bit interested in why not. He doesn't care. Improving your business is not his job. His job is filling in pre-canned checklists for Accenture, which they can then charge megabucks to summarize as a report full of cheesy little traffic lights for whichever three-letter drone in the upper reaches of your org chart got schmoozed into thinking that hiring them was a good idea.
That report, by the way, will come to nothing unless the three-letter drone concerned is already giving your office the stink-eye. So if you're not hearing troubling rumours through your usual political channels, I wouldn't worry too much.
posted by flabdablet at 7:22 PM on February 23, 2012
The Accenture guy isn't going to know anything at all about how your business actually works, and nor is he going to be interested. He won't even be interested in reading any of the pointless documentation. All he's going to do is work through a checklist and make sure every. tiny. bit. of that ridiculous bumff exists, because if it does, then you're clearly following ISO 9001 quality guidelines and that gets you your gold star and your elephant stamp.
If it doesn't exist, he's not going to be the slightest bit interested in why not. He doesn't care. Improving your business is not his job. His job is filling in pre-canned checklists for Accenture, which they can then charge megabucks to summarize as a report full of cheesy little traffic lights for whichever three-letter drone in the upper reaches of your org chart got schmoozed into thinking that hiring them was a good idea.
That report, by the way, will come to nothing unless the three-letter drone concerned is already giving your office the stink-eye. So if you're not hearing troubling rumours through your usual political channels, I wouldn't worry too much.
posted by flabdablet at 7:22 PM on February 23, 2012
You're assuming an awful lot, flabdablet, and your axe grinding isn't sharpening anything. There's a good chance the scope of the project doesn't include process review at all. It could literally be anything, given the lack of specificity in the OP's post. If it is a process review, uniform documentation time stamps from two days before the review starts will generate just as much interest as missing documentation.
"How we can make more money" is pretty broad, but here'd be my approach to preparation:
1) Know your financials, insofar as your job requires it. Are you a cost center? What's your annual cost to the business? Is revenue increasing? What are your margins?
2) Know your market. You should know this anyway. Who are your competitors? Is your market growing or contracting? What is your market differentiator?
3) Know your metrics. How are your people measured? Widgets produced per hour? Support cases closed? Customer satisfaction? Do those metrics make sense? This is your chance to speak up and change them.
4) Know your job. What do you do, and can you describe it to someone? How do you do it? How much of what you do is overhead, and how much is productive?
I'm not saying you have to be able to write a book on these things. That's your CFO/CIO/CTO/CEO's job. In fact, you might not get asked about anything but item #4. I'd bet a shiny nickel that you don't. But knowing these things can allow the consultant to ask you about them, which can beneficial in-and-of itself.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 8:44 PM on February 23, 2012
"How we can make more money" is pretty broad, but here'd be my approach to preparation:
1) Know your financials, insofar as your job requires it. Are you a cost center? What's your annual cost to the business? Is revenue increasing? What are your margins?
2) Know your market. You should know this anyway. Who are your competitors? Is your market growing or contracting? What is your market differentiator?
3) Know your metrics. How are your people measured? Widgets produced per hour? Support cases closed? Customer satisfaction? Do those metrics make sense? This is your chance to speak up and change them.
4) Know your job. What do you do, and can you describe it to someone? How do you do it? How much of what you do is overhead, and how much is productive?
I'm not saying you have to be able to write a book on these things. That's your CFO/CIO/CTO/CEO's job. In fact, you might not get asked about anything but item #4. I'd bet a shiny nickel that you don't. But knowing these things can allow the consultant to ask you about them, which can beneficial in-and-of itself.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 8:44 PM on February 23, 2012
Oh, and one last point before I stop camping the thread. Don't be afraid to ask things of the consultant. Put off meetings until you get sufficient answers about the nature and objective of the review. Your time is valuable and you've got shit to do, and you don't want to waste your time or the consultant's in meetings you aren't properly prepared for. Nobody will think less of you for wanting to prepare.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 8:47 PM on February 23, 2012
posted by TheNewWazoo at 8:47 PM on February 23, 2012
Be prepared to realize that the consultants are coming in to give an external report which will recommend some unpopular-but-perhaps-necessary ideas that have been floating around at a higher level of the company. It's always easier to blame the consultants!
posted by whatzit at 3:21 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by whatzit at 3:21 AM on February 24, 2012
I used to be a consultant and did these interviews all the time. You have nothing to worry about at all. He's not there to have some sort of "gotcha!" moment, he's just there to learn more about your business and get some additional information. You probably don't need to prepare anything in advance, unless you're told otherwise - and if so, they will tell you.
He will come in prepared. Your company has asked him to learn more about the company - use the interview to help him out.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:00 AM on February 24, 2012
He will come in prepared. Your company has asked him to learn more about the company - use the interview to help him out.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:00 AM on February 24, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
If you have contact information for the consultant who's going to interview you, it wouldn't hurt to email them asking what material they want to cover in the interview and if there's any data you should have ready to review with them - what they ask for will give you a better idea of what they want to do. Of course, it's fairly common in these situations that the broad outlines of what they're going to find has already been decided by your management and they're just there to provide outside political cover, but it still doesn't hurt to try to make a good impression.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 6:06 PM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]