I saw that you are number nine
on Forbes' list of the world's most powerful women.
I think that puts you above Beyoncé.
It does!
Hi, everyone.
Welcome to Sidekicks Conversations.
Today, I'm joined by someone
the New York Times has called
one of the most powerful women
in corporate America.
Julie Sweet has been the CEO of Accenture since 2019
and the chair since 2021.
At Accenture, Julie leads
a global team of more than 700,000 employees,
serving more than 9000 clients in 120 countries
around the world
with strategy and management, digital technology
and operations consulting,
including for us right here at T-Mobile.
Julie also serves on the World Economic Forum's
Board of Trustees,
and she's a founding co-chair of
Welcome.US's CEO Council,
which I'm also a member of,
and we'll get a chance to talk about.
But first, Julie, welcome to T-Mobile.
Thank you so much, Mike.
It's great to be here.
Well, let's start by talking
about Accenture's business.
First of all, I love Accenture's purpose.
I looked it up
and it says to deliver
on the promise of technology and human ingenuity.
And it kind of struck me
that with the rate of pace of change
in technology,
you're helping companies
with their most exciting opportunities.
But also their most stressful problems.
So how does that go
and what do you see
happening in technology
that really inspires people at Accenture?
Well, probably the first thing is the focus
on the human part,
because with so much change in technology,
actually most of the conversations
that I have with clients start with, you know,
how do I change?
And that always starts with our people.
And so we spend a lot of time thinking about
how do you upskill talent,
How do you see the opportunities
and using technology
to get rid of things that are,
you know,
automate things that are boring
and allow people to do things
that are more interesting because ultimately,
if technology is all about a PowerPoint
and an idea
that doesn't work very well
and it really does come down to people first.
And so that second part of the
the purpose statement,
human ingenuity is really important
and there's so many things to be excited about.
So many of your clients,
obviously they see upside from the changes
happening in the technology space.
But aren't they also weary of the pace of change
and the expense of change?
And how do you help them
navigate through the difficulties?
Well, the first thing is my first
job is to be a straight shooter.
And so, I first start by saying
that there is no end to change.
Technology is going to continue to change.
The possibilities are going to continue to change.
And so organizations
have to have change as a muscle.
And so if you think about things
like the metaverse
I recently got,
I was on a
television show
where the guy was giving me a hard time.
These like,
everything can be done in the metaverse.
And I said, Yes,
that is the answer.
So today, for example,
we're helping a state with social workers.
We built a metaverse
to help train
social workers who are going in
for at risk children
to identify whether their homes are at risk,
the kids are at risk, and we're actually using it
to have people decide
whether they really want to do this job,
which is super hard.
And they had 50% turnover
because people would come in and say,
I can't do this.
We reduced it by 30%
just by training them
and having them interview in the metaverse.
And then now they're going
they're better able to identify at risk children
and be able to handle sort of the,
you know,
the difficulties of dealing with
sometimes violence in the home.
Those are things that couldn’t
that no one could even imagine doing before.
And that's just a single use case.
And so when you start to look forward,
it is why you have to learn
to have a culture that embraces change.
I've heard you talk about learning agility
and how important it is
that people at Accenture
demonstrate learning agility.
What does that mean?
And also
how do you figure that out when you're meeting
somebody or interviewing them or developing them,
whether they've got it or not?
Okay, so let me ask you a question.
Outside of work,
because I know you learn a lot here.
What have you learned in the last six months?
So I'm a pilot of sea planes and I'm constantly
taking training to try to figure out
how you can do that, but also stay safe.
So Mike, you are qualified to work at Accenture.
All right, yeah!
I know that is really exciting for you.
So we asked...
Don’t put me on the spot there!
Exactly.
I'm glad you passed. So we ask everyone
whether you're really senior
or just coming out of school.
Now, if you're on campus still
we say, other than in your classroom.
The reason is
that we believe that
if someone can actually answer
that they've learned something
in the last six months, we don't care what it is
making paella, whatever it is,
it means that they are curious,
that they like to learn.
And it's a huge indicator of success
because at Accenture,
you constantly have to learn.
We actually spend over $1,000,000,000
a year on training and development,
which is a reflection of how important it is.
And actually all of our 700,000
more people have to pass 11 assessments
on technology.
We call it TQ,
because it's so important to be doing their job
and that will be evergreen all change over time.
And so that very simple question
helps us understand is someone able to learn?
Do they like to learn?
And it’s a really, really good way
of training for
or assessing for learning agility.
I guess that's unsurprising
because you're in the business of change,
but it is kind of inspiring that you make that
so important
with every employee
that they're able to help clients
and help each other at the firm
navigate this ongoing onslaught of change
that's facing us.
You have also been all about change
through your career.
Can we talk about your career for a minute
because you've faced a lot of change?
You started out as a lawyer, right,
at a big law firm
and then made your way to general counsel
and then ultimately of the corner office.
I mean, did you have inspirations
along the way
to make that kind of change
or role models or mentors, or
how did you navigate that
significant a change in your career?
Well, actually, I go back to my mom.
So my mom was a housewife
and she was married to my dad
who painted cars for a living.
And about the time I was in sixth grade,
neither of them had gone to college.
They said to create a better life for themselves,
at least one of them had to get a college degree.
And my dad was working
and my mom wasn't working at the time.
And so they said, Look, my mom would be the one.
So here she was.
And this is not common back then,
she was in her late thirties
and she started working part time
because they needed more income.
She started going to school,
and she was raising three kids
and because we didn't have a lot of money,
she would stay until midnight sewing our clothes.
And she's like, amazing, right?
And I saw her go through that transformation.
She actually graduated from college
my freshman year in college.
And so when I think about, you know,
can you transform?
I saw I lived that
and I also saw my dad
go from being the husband
of someone who was staying home
and doing all these things to learning to cook,
which, by the way, was a rough transition.
But, you know, but we all survived.
And that's where I really started.
And they taught me that you can do anything.
And believe me, going from being a lawyer
who was very paper
focused and didn't know anything about technology
to running a technology company,
that was
definitely one of those things
where you can do anything is the right answer.
But it started when I was a kid.
That's amazing.
Can you talk for a minute
about leading as a woman?
I mentioned in the opening
that New York Times
recognizes you
as one of the most powerful women
in corporate America.
You are leading one of the world's
largest organizations.
How does that inform your leadership style
and also the space
that Accenture makes for women as leaders?
For me, diversity, it's more about
not so much being a woman,
but understanding diversity
sort of writ large and how important it is.
I feel like my journey as a leader
has been to take my own experiences and recognize
that I don't know what I don't know.
And so when I became the CEO of North America,
moving from general counsel,
I had that experience with my African-American
and black employees
who one of the senior leaders
came to speak to me.
And, you know, he looked at me and he said,
what I'm explaining
to have explained it to the last three CEOs,
I hope you're the last.
And what I recognized was
I did not understand those experiences
and I needed to invest in that
so that I would be the last.
Because only as a leader
can you set an example and really change.
And so I feel like I'm still learning.
And as I move across the world
and you think about diversity
from a geographic perspective
or religious perspective,
and we know at Accenture
that it is been our commitment to diversity
that made us so successful.
You have been a leader
on the issue of helping refugees
and other people new to the US,
find economic opportunity here
you're co-chair with Sundar
of the Welcome.US CEO Council,
which the two of you invited me to join.
It's really important work,
but it's also work that helps American companies
land great talent.
Can you talk about the work
of especially this last year
with Ukranian refugees
as well as Afghan refugees
and what the organization's doing to try
to help people who arrive here,
sometimes under the toughest of circumstances?
Well, I first want to thank you, though,
and because you not only answered the call,
but you gave us more than we asked for.
I remember they were like,
well, T-Mobile is going to give, you know,
thousands and thousands of phones and plans.
And the team had started with a very small ask.
And you said there is so much need.
And that's amazing, right?
And I've seen it through the families
that I've personally helped
and Accenture has helped
is proudly standing with their T-Mobile phone and plan.
And it opens up two things.
Jobs, because if you do not have a device,
you cannot apply.
You just simply can't apply anymore.
Everything is online,
but it also opens up
training for English language.
So a lot of the women
and the families who we found a lot
of the Afghan families, the men speak English,
but the women don't.
They have to do online training.
They cannot attend classes
because they have children and they can't leave.
And they often would have a device
that was very old and couldn't support it.
So hugely transformative for these families.
So thank you.
Really excited about one of the insights
you're saying is that we've found
in working with refugees
that as soon as you land,
obviously you need immediate needs.
people need a place to sleep
and they need food, etc..
But in order to create economic opportunity
for themselves,
almost like the very next
thing they need is a mobile phone
and a mobile phone connection
because that's what allows them
to secure long term rent,
it’s what allows them to go look for a job,
to get some of the skills that they need, etc.
So we're trying to see
if we can figure out
how to get these first 200,000 phones and lines
landed with people,
and then we'll see
what the opportunity is from there.
But you're also working with
CEOs across the board in various industries
who are finding there's a win-win here, right?
This is more than just helping people in need.
This is also great available labor
for certain categories of labor
that are very hard to fill with Americans.
Absolutely. We start with Accenture.
So we've hired about 100 refugees
over the last year who are fantastic employees
bringing really needed skills
at a time when it's a tight labor market.
Then you look at companies like Walmart
who've hired a lot of refugees,
you know, really across the board.
You have such a broad range of skills at a time
when labor is really, really tight.
So I really encourage companies, big and small,
to be checking out, Welcome.US
because we've got a portal there where
if you have jobs, you can list them and we help
match them to the refugees.
And that's really the magic of it, right?
Because you've got all these people with needs
and we also have companies with needs
and it's about getting everybody matched up.
So there's a win-win. I love it.
You said as long as there's a list,
it's good to be on it.
There's one more list I saw.
I saw that you are number nine on Forbes
list of the world's most powerful women.
I think that puts you above Beyoncé.
So my my last question for you is,
It does.
Does this give you any
credibility with your teenagers?
It does, and it's really because I was above Beyoncé.
My children do not care about these lists, in fact,
I one time had a newspaper with my picture.
It was huge and I laid it out,
it was the only time
I usually don't show my children and it was
I laid it out and they had
I came down to breakfast just.
Like leave it where they would find it.
Exactly like this.
They'd shoved it aside.
They were making slime.
And I was like, okay, I give up.
But when I was ranked above Beyoncé,
did they really add mamas do good. So.
So that's it. So.
Well, Julie, thanks for joining us to T-Mobile today.
Thanks for having me, Mike.
Thanks, everybody, for joining us
for another Sidekicks Conversation.
I'm Mike Sievert, and we'll see you next time.
Thanks for watching.