case study prep accenture

• Hacking the Case Interview

Accenture interviews are comprised of case interviews and behavioral or fit interview questions. If you are interviewing for Accenture’s Strategy group, you will also be given a special type of interview called the Accenture Potentia Interview.

If you have an upcoming Accenture interview, we have you covered. We’ll cover in detail:  

• The Accenture interview process
• What is an Accenture case interview?
• What does an Accenture case interview assess?
• How to solve Accenture case interviews
• The common types of Accenture case interviews
• Accenture case interview examples
• Accenture case interview tips
• How to prepare for Accenture case interviews
• How to ace the Accenture Potentia Interview
• Accenture behavioral and fit interview questions
• Recommended Accenture case interview resources

The Accenture Interview Process

Accenture is a massive professional services firm that provides management consulting, IT consulting, and back office outsourcing. Within management consulting, Accenture is broken down into three groups: Strategy, Operations, and Digital.

Accenture Strategy is the group that is most similar to McKinsey, BCG, and Bain in the type of work that they do. The Operations and Digital group is focused more on implementation rather than on pure strategy.

Depending on the office and group that you are applying for, there will be two to three rounds of interviews. Each round will have anywhere from one to three 1-hour interviews. Your interviews will be a mix of case interviews and behavioral or fit interview questions.

Below is an example of what your interview process could look like:

• Accenture first round interview : Two 40-minute interviews. The first 10 minutes will be spent on behavioral or fit interview questions and the remaining 30 minutes will be spent on an Accenture case interview.
• Accenture final round interview : Three 1-hour interviews. One interview will be focused on behavioral or fit interview questions. The other two interviews will be focused on Accenture case interviews.

One important thing to note is that if you are applying for a role in Accenture Strategy, one of your interviews will be a special type of interview called the Potentia interview.

You’ll be interviewed by more senior people as you go through the different rounds of interviews. In the first round, you’ll be interviewed by consultants or managers. In the final round, you’ll be interviewed by managing directors and senior managing directors.

We’ll cover all of the different types of interview questions in detail in the next few sections.

What is an Accenture Case Interview

An Accenture case interview, also known as a “case” for short, is a 30 to 60-minute exercise in which you and the interviewer work together to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem.

These business problems can be anything that real companies face:

• How can Amazon increase its profitability?
• What can Apple do to increase customer retention?
• How should Tesla price its new electric vehicle?
• Where should Disney open another Disneyland theme park?

Accenture case interviews simulate what the consulting job will be like by placing you in a hypothetical business situation. Cases simulate real business problems that consulting firms solve for their clients. Many Accenture case interviews are based on actual projects that interviewers have worked on.

While consulting projects typically last between 3 to 9 months, case interviews condense solving the business problem into just 30 to 45 minutes.

Accenture case interviews can cover any industry, including retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, energy, education, healthcare, government, and technology.

They can also cover a wide range of business situations, including entering a new market, launching a new product, acquiring a company, improving profitability, and growing revenues.

Although Accenture case interviews cover a wide range of industries and business situations, no technical or specialized knowledge is needed.

Unless you are interviewing for a consulting firm that specializes in a particular industry or function, cases are designed to be solved by someone that has general business knowledge.

Nailing your Accenture case interviews is critical to get a job at Accenture. There is no way to get a Accenture job offer without passing your case interviews.

What Does an Accenture Case Interview Assess?

Accenture case interviews assess five different qualities or characteristics: logical and structured thinking, analytical problem solving, business acumen, communication skills, and personality and cultural fit.

1. Logical and structured thinking : Consultants need to be organized and methodical in order to work efficiently.

• Can you structure complex problems in a clear, simple way?
• Can you take tremendous amounts of information and data and identify the most important points?
• Can you use logic and reason to make appropriate conclusions?

2. Analytical problem solving : Consultants work with a tremendous amount of data and information in order to develop recommendations to complex problems.

• Can you read and interpret data well?
• Can you perform math computations smoothly and accurately?
• Can you conduct the right analyses to draw the right conclusions?

3. Business acumen : A strong business instinct helps consultants make the right decisions and develop the right recommendations.

• Do you have a basic understanding of fundamental business concepts?
• Do your conclusions and recommendations make sense from a business perspective?

4. Communication skills : Consultants need strong communication skills to collaborate with teammates and clients effectively.

• Can you communicate in a clear, concise way?
• Are you articulate in what you are saying?

5. Personality and cultural fit : Consultants spend a lot of time working closely in small teams. Having a personality and attitude that fits with the team makes the whole team work better together.

• Are you coachable and easy to work with?
• Are you pleasant to be around?

All of these five qualities can be assessed in just a 30 to 60-minute Accenture case interview. This is what makes case interviews so effective in assessing consulting candidates.

How to Solve Accenture Case Interviews

Accenture case interviews, also known as case study interviews, are candidate-led. This means that you will be expected to drive the case. You will be suggesting what areas to explore, what analyses to do, and what next steps should be.

Accenture cases last between 30 to 45 minutes. They tend to be based on real business situations, often drawn from an actual project that your interviewer worked on.

In  Accenture’s case interview workbook , they state that success in their case interviews does not depend on finding the correct answer. Instead, you are assessed on:

• How clearly you define the problem
• How logically you structure the analysis
• How strong your quantitative analysis skills are
• How well you communicate your thoughts to the interviewer

In addition to these hard skills, there are also soft skills that you will be assessed on. These are:

• Poise : your confidence, ability to perform well under pressure, and how you handle making mistakes
• Communication : your listening skills and how articulate you are in presenting your process and conclusions
• Flexibility : how well you can adapt your thinking to changing circumstances
• Other  intangibles : your energy and drive, initiative, time management, decisiveness, and genuine interest in consulting and the firm

Accenture suggests following six different steps to solve an Accenture case interview.

(Source: Accenture Case Interview Workbook)  

1. Listen to the case

In this step, the interviewer will give you a description of the case problem. This description can be as short as a few sentences or as long as a full page of detailed information.

During this step, make sure you are taking notes on the most important pieces of information. You should focus on understanding the context, company, and the objective.

2. Clarify the problem

Understanding the business problem and objective is imperative to successfully solving the case. Answering or addressing the wrong business problem is the quickest way to fail a case interview.

Therefore, ask clarifying questions to better understand the business situation and issue. Afterwards, make sure that you confirm or verify the objective of the case with the interviewer. This ensures that you will start the case on the right track.

3. Decompose the problem

Next, you’ll need to break down the problem in an exhaustive and logical way. You can do this by creating an issue tree or framework.

A framework is a tool that helps you structure and break down complex problems into simpler, smaller components. Think of a framework as brainstorming different ideas and organizing them neatly into different categories.

Accenture provides a few examples of frameworks that you can use to get you started thinking about how to solve different types of cases.

  (Source: Accenture Case Interview Workbook)  

We recommend that you do not just memorize these frameworks and use them in your interviews. Instead, use these frameworks as background knowledge to help you make your own frameworks that are tailored to the specific case that you are solving for.

For a complete guide on how to create tailored and unique frameworks for each case, check out our article on case interview frameworks .

4. State your hypotheses

After decomposing the problem, you should list out potential hypotheses that answer or address the business problem. A hypothesis is an educated guess on the answer based on the data and information that you have so far.

A hypothesis helps guide your analysis and keeps you on track. It ensures that you are spending your time answering the right questions and conducting the right analyses.

5. Test your hypotheses

Once you have a hypothesis, you’ll answer questions or conduct analyses to refine your hypothesis.

Sometimes, your hypothesis will be completely wrong and you’ll need to develop another hypothesis to test. Other times, your hypothesis will be generally right and you’ll need to refine and narrow down your hypothesis further.

This is an iterative process. Your hypothesis should be constantly changing and becoming more refined as you progress through the case. Once you have developed meaningful support for your hypothesis, you will move onto the final step.

6. Summarize your findings

In this step, you’ll present your recommendation and provide the major reasons that support it. It is also good to include potential next steps that you would take if you had more time or data.

Afterwards, the interviewer may tell you what actually happened with the case or project that they worked on. Don’t worry if your methodology or answer does not match what actually happened. Remember, you are not assessed on your answer, but the overall process.

Learn case interviews in 30 minutes

We've compiled all of the different steps of solving an Accenture case interview into a more easily digestible 30-minute video. We highly recommend watching the video below in its entirety.

The Common Types of Accenture Case Interviews

Accenture states that there are three types of cases you may see in your interviews:

• The “Great Unknown”
• The “Parade of Facts”
• The “Back of the Envelope”

The “Great Unknown” and “Back of the Envelope” are the most common types of cases.

The “Great Unknown” Case

For this type of case, very little information will be provided to you on the case background. For “Great Unknown” cases, you’ll be tested on your ability to probe for details, which requires having a structured framework.

Examples of cases:  

• Your client is a leading manufacturer of prefabricated kitchen furnishings. They have been steadily losing market share over the past two years. You have been hired to help them understand why this is happening and what they can do to improve their market standing.
• A major furniture retailer has experienced declining profits for four quarters, but has experienced a 25% growth in sales and has opened many new stores during this time. Why are profits declining?
• A fast food company is thinking about putting a franchise in an airport. Should they do this?
• A bread division of a large food company is facing increasing competition in the market. Should they exit the market?
• A car company is interested in developing a new car. What marketing related issues should it consider before making the investment?
• What factors influence the revenue potential of a new pharmaceutical product?
• Citibank is considering purchasing another credit card company, which would give them access to 100,000 new card holders. What is the estimated value of this acquisition?
• A commercial bank is re-evaluating the number of branches it operates and whether they should increase the number of branches or close some down. How should they make this decision?
• A large conglomerate company is facing declining profits in its railroad company division and is considering shutting it down. Is this the right course of action? What are potential alternatives?
• New York City has hired you to determine what optimal route or what destination taxi drivers should go to when they do not have a customer.

The “Parade of Facts” Case

For this type of case, a significant amount of details on the case background will be provided to you, some of them unnecessary. For “Parade of Facts” cases, you’ll be tested on the ability to synthesize and identify key issues.

Example of a case:

• Your client is a food company that wants to develop a freshly prepared meal business
• There is a trend among customers towards fresher foods with no artificial preservatives or coloring
• Consumers are currently purchasing $5B of frozen meals and there is a trend towards more upscale products
• A fresh meal plate combines a protein, vegetable, and starch and is delicately arranged in a sealed plastic dome package
• Nitrogen gas flushing is used to extend shelf life
• Product is currently in limited consumer testing at $5.50 to $8.50 per meal
• Shelf life of product is 14 days
• Product will spoil in 21 days, potentially causing food poisoning
• Client wants to know if they can make money in this business
• Client wants to know if the market is big and how will they keep competition out
• Client wants a consultant to assist in building a business case for them

The “Back of the Envelope” Case

This type of case asks a market sizing or estimation question. Very little information will be provided, but a clear question will be asked.

“Back of the Envelope” cases primarily test your analytic abilities. It requires a structured, logical thought process and competency in working with numbers and making calculations.

Examples of cases:

• Estimate the total number of dry cleaners in Philadelphia
• How much money could Continental Airlines save by giving customers half a can instead of a whole can of Sprite?
• What is the estimated value of a taxi medallion in New York City?
• Discuss what is wrong with the following statistic: The Volvo is the safest car on the road because a recent study has shown that Volvos have the fewest number of accident deaths per mile driven
• Estimate the change in the price of oil in the year 2000 from today’s price. Will it increase or will it decrease?
• Estimate the number of attendees for a free concert for U2 in Central Park in New York City

Accenture Case Interview Examples

We've compiled additional examples of Accenture case interviews below. These case interviews were actual cases given in previous Accenture interviews.

Example #1 : A consumer electronics company is looking to introduce a new smartwatch to the market. How should they launch this new product?

Example #2 : A global logistics company wants to streamline its supply chain operations. How can they lower their costs?

Example #3 : A pharmaceutical company is considering discontinuing a particular drug from its portfolio. Evaluate the reasons behind the decision and assess the financial implications.

Example #4 : A non-profit organization focusing on wildlife conservation is facing funding challenges. Recommend initiatives to enhance long-term sustainability of fundraising.

Example #5 : A financial services firm is considering adopting blockchain technology for its operations. What are some considerations that they should think through?

Example #6 : A leading e-commerce platform wants to enhance its customer experience. How can they improve customer satisfaction and loyalty?

Example #7 : A software company that currently serves small and medium-sized businesses wants to expand into the enterprise market. Should they enter this new market?

For more practice, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases .

Accenture Case Interview Tips

Below are six of the most useful Accenture case interview tips for acing your case interviews.

Tip #1: Take your time and don’t rush into speaking

Structure your ideas and thinking before you start talking. If needed, talk through the problem out loud so that the interviewer can follow your thought process.

Tip #2: Be flexible

There may be times when the case will take a different direction than anticipated. You may also need to completely change your approach or hypothesis. It is important that you are open-minded and adaptable throughout the case.

Tip #3: Use visual aids

To make your communication even more clear and easy to follow, use visual aids to your advantage. When presenting your framework, turn your paper around so that it faces the interviewer. When outlining a process, use a whiteboard if there is one available.

Tip #4: Be 80/20

The 80/20 principle states that 80% of the results comes from 20% of your effort. You will not have the time to answer every single question in a case interview. Therefore, take an inventory of all of the information that you have and focus on diving deeper into the areas that will have the greatest impact.

Tip #5: Pay attention to cues from the interviewer

Remember that case interviewers are meant to be collaborative. You should listen closely to what the interviewer has to say. They may provide you with hints to help you out. They may also give you feedback on your approach or structure to help steer you in the right direction. Don’t dismiss what interviewers have to say.

Tip #6: Showcase your individuality

A case interview is an opportunity to showcase your personality and experiences. If you have unique insights based on your previous work experiences, make sure that you bring it up. This can help separate your answer from other candidates.

How to Prepare for Accenture Case Interviews

There are seven steps to preparing for Accenture case interviews.

1. Understand what a case interview is

The first step in preparing for Accenture case interviews is to understand exactly what case interviews are.

When you are familiar with what case interviews are, it is important to know what a great Accenture case interview performance looks like.

Knowing what a great Accenture case interview performance looks like will facilitate how quickly you learn case interview strategies in the next step.

Before continuing onto the next step, you should be familiar with:

• The overall objective of a case interview
• The structure and flow of a case interview
• The types of questions you could get asked
• What a great case interview performance looks like

2. Learn the right strategies

Now that you have sufficient background knowledge, the next step in preparing for Accenture case interviews is to learn the right strategies to build good case interview habits.

It is much more effective to learn the right case strategies the first time than to learn poor strategies and try to correct them later.

The quickest, most efficient way to learn these strategies is to go through our Comprehensive Case Interview Course .

If you prefer reading case interview prep books instead, the three I recommend are:

• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook
• Case Interview Secrets

Hacking the Case Interview provides strategies on exactly what to do and what to say in every step of the case interview. It is a concise and straight to the point guide. I recommend this book as the first book to read for beginners.

Case Interview Secrets teaches core concepts such as the issue tree , drill-down analysis, and a hypothesis driven approach. It illustrates these concepts through stories and anecdotes. If you have read Hacking the Case Interview, I recommend also reading this book to get perspectives from a second author. Check out our full review of Case Interview Secrets .

Case in Point provides a ton of specific and complex frameworks. However, you likely won’t be using many of these in an actual case interview because many of them are overly complex and specific. If you have time, it may be useful to skim through this book. Check out our full review of Case in Point .

At the bare minimum, read either the first or second book. If you have the time, read the first two books so that you can get strategies from two different authors.

Make sure to spend sufficient time learning the right strategies before starting to practice cases. It is ineffective to practice cases if you have no idea what strategies to practice and refine.

Before moving onto the next step, you should at least have strategies for the following parts of a case interview:

• Developing unique and tailored frameworks
• Solving quantitative problems
• Answering qualitative questions
• Delivering a recommendation

3. Practice 3-5 cases by yourself

Once you have learned the right strategies, the next step in Accenture case interview prep is to practice.

When practicing case interviews, it is usually better to practice with a case interview partner than to practice by yourself . Casing with a partner better simulates the real case interview experience.

However, when you are just starting to practice, I recommend doing the first 3 – 5 cases by yourself.

There are three reasons for this:

• You can get the hang of the case interview structure and format much more quickly working by yourself rather than having to wait to schedule a time with a partner
• There are many aspects of case interviews that you can practice without a partner, such as structuring a framework and solving quantitative problems. You can get much more practice working through these parts by yourself
• You may have difficulty finding a case interview partner if you are a complete beginner. Without having done any cases, you likely won’t know how to properly give a case or provide good feedback

4. Practice 5-10 cases with a partner

The next step in preparing for Accenture case interviews is to case with a partner.

Casing with a partner is the best way to simulate a real case interview. There are many aspects of case interviews that you won’t be able to improve on unless you practice live with a partner.

When practicing cases with a partner, ensure you are spending enough time after cases to deliver feedback.

For a case that takes around 30 – 40 minutes, spend at least 15 – 20 minutes for feedback. Much of your learning and improvement will come from these feedback sessions.

Do not move onto the next step until you have done at least 5 – 10 cases and are beginning to feel comfortable with case interviews.

5. Practice with a former or current consultant

At this point, I highly recommend asking former or current consultants to give you a practice case. This will significantly help you prepare for case interviews.

Doing a mock case with a former or current consultant is highly advantageous because they know exactly how to run cases and give feedback. You’ll receive incredibly helpful feedback that your previous case partners likely missed.

If you feel that you are plateauing with your case partner, that is a sign you should do a mock case interview with a former or current consultant.

You can find former or current consultants among:

• People you met during the consulting recruiting process
• Your broader LinkedIn network

I would not ask a consultant that is involved with the consulting recruiting process for a case too prematurely. Although these practice cases are not evaluative, some firms will actually make note of how well you perform during the practice case.

At this point, you will have accumulated a long list of improvement areas from all of the different people you have cased with.

6. Work on your improvement areas

In this step of preparing for Accenture case interviews, you will work on strengthening and fine-tuning your improvement areas. Examples of common improvement areas include:

• Creating a more complete and mutually exclusive framework
• Performing math calculations quicker or more smoothly
• Providing more structure to your qualitative answers
• Leading the case more proactively
• Delivering a more succinct recommendation

Try to focus on improving one thing at a time. This is much more effective than trying to improve everything at once.

For some areas, such as math, it will be better to work independently. For other areas, such as learning to proactively lead the case, it will be better to work with a case partner.

If you are looking for more cases, look at the resources listed in step four. If you are looking for specific drills or practice problems for a particular part of a case interview, check out The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook .

Do not move onto the next step until you have finished working on all of your improvement areas.

7. Stay sharp

If you have progressed this far, congratulations! You have almost finished preparing for Accenture case interviews.

Once you feel that you have no more improvement areas to work on, the key is to not burn yourself out by doing too many unnecessary cases.

While each case that you do makes you slightly better, there is a point when doing too many cases can create case fatigue right before your interview. Case fatigue can negatively impact your interview performance.

On the other hand, you also don’t want to go weeks without having done a case. You may end up forgetting strategies or become rusty and slow.

Once you have achieved case mastery, I recommend doing no more than 2 cases per week in the weeks leading up to your interview. This ensures that you remain sharp for case interviews, but don’t have case fatigue.

How to Ace the Accenture Potentia Interview

The Accenture Potentia interview is a 1-hour interview given to candidates that are applying for a role in Accenture Strategy. Here is the structure of the Accenture Potentia Interview:

• You’ll be given a short paragraph of text about a business topic with a problem statement. Topics are diverse and may not be work-related. Examples of topics include blood diamonds in Africa or intellectual property on the Internet
• You’ll have 5 minutes to prepare and think through the problem statement
• You’ll have a 45 to 60-minute conversation with the interviewer in which you’ll present your thoughts and the interviewer will ask follow-up questions

The purpose of the Potentia interview is to challenge your strategic thinking. There is no right or wrong answer. There are also no calculations or math involved.

Instead, the interviewer is assessing you on the structure and organization of your answer and your creativity.

Tips for the Accenture Potentia Interview:  

• Use a framework or structure for your answer : Remember that you are being assessed on how you structure and organize your answer. Therefore, instead of listing random ideas that come to mind, develop a framework to structure your ideas.
• Brainstorm as many ideas as you can : Use your framework to help you brainstorm effectively. Your framework should have three to five different areas. Meticulously think through each area and try to generate at least three ideas in each.
• Have a mix of practical and ambitious ideas : You are being assessed on creativity, so make sure you include ideas that are ambitious and impactful. However, you also want to show sound business judgment, so you will need to include ideas that are practical and easier to implement. You should have a mix of these two types of ideas.
• Bring in ideas that you learned from your prior work experience : One way to demonstrate creativity is to take ideas or solutions in one industry and apply them to another. Therefore, if there is an opportunity to leverage learnings from your prior work experience, you should definitely bring it up.
• Make it a conversation : Remember that the Accenture Potentia interview is meant to be a two-way conversation. Make sure you are listening to the feedback or questions that the interviewer has and responding accordingly.

Accenture Behavioral and Fit Interview Questions

In addition to case interviews, you will likely be asked a few behavioral or fit interview questions. There are ten questions that are most commonly asked.

1. Why are you interested in working at Accenture?

How to answer: Have at least three reasons why you’re interested in working at Accenture. You could mention that you loved the people that you have met from Accenture so far. You can talk about Accenture’s massive global presence and expertise in nearly any industry or function. You can speak to how Accenture provides strategy and implementation, so you can see the impact of your work.

2. Why do you want to work in consulting?

How to answer: Again, have three reasons why you’re interested in consulting. You could mention the fast career growth opportunity, the opportunity to develop soft and hard skills, or the level of impact that you can make by working with large companies on their most challenging issues.

3. Walk me through your resume.

How to answer: Provide a concise summary of your work experience, starting with the most recent. Focus on emphasizing your most impressive and unique accomplishments. At the end, tie your experiences to why you are interested in consulting.

4. What is your proudest achievement?

How to answer: Choose your most impressive, unique, or memorable accomplishment. Structure your answer by providing information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work.

5. What is something that you are proud of that is not on your resume?

How to answer: This is a great opportunity to highlight an accomplishment that is not related to your professional work experience. Perhaps there is a non-profit that you volunteer at, a side project or business that you work on, or a hobby that you have won awards or recognition for. Choose something that is impressive and interesting.

6. Tell me about a time when you led a team.

How to answer: If possible, choose a time when you directly managed a person or a team. For this question and the following questions, make sure that you structure your answer. Structure your answer by providing information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work. This is known as the STAR method and is commonly used to answer behavioral or fit interview questions.

7. Give an example of a time when you faced conflict or a disagreement.

How to answer: When answering this question, focus on emphasizing the steps you took to resolve the conflict or disagreement. Speak to the interpersonal skills you had to use in order to mediate the situation. Interviewers want to know that you are a great mediator and that you can handle conflict in a constructive way.

8. Tell me about a time when you had to persuade someone.

How to answer: Choose a time when you were able to change someone’s mind. Focus on emphasizing the steps that you took to persuade that person and what impact and results this had. Interviewers want to know that you are a great communicator and a good people person.

9. Describe a time when you failed.

How to answer: Choose a time when you failed to meet a deadline or did not meet expectations. Focus on emphasizing what you learned from the experience and how you used that experience to deliver even better results in the next opportunity that you got. Interviewers want to see that you don’t get discouraged from failure and that you treat those experiences as learning opportunities.

10. What questions do you have for me?

How to answer: This is a great opportunity to get to know the interviewer on a more personal level. Ask them questions about their experience in consulting or their career. Express genuine interest in what they have to show and ask follow-up questions. The more you can get the interviewer talking about themself, the more likely they will have a positive impression of you.

For a step-by-step guide on how to best answer all of these questions and more, check out our complete guide on consulting behavioral interview questions .

Recommended Accenture Case Interview Resources

Here are the resources we recommend to learn the most robust, effective case interview strategies in the least time-consuming way:

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with former consulting interviewers
• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer
• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple interviews

Land Multiple Consulting Offers

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Accenture case interview (questions, process, prep)

Accenture interviews are pretty challenging compared to regular interviews at large corporations. The questions are difficult and the interview format is specific to Accenture.

But the good news is that, with the right preparation, it can actually become relatively straightforward to succeed at an Accenture interview. We've put together this ultimate guide to maximise your chances of success.

Here's an overview of what we'll cover.

• Accenture overview
• Accenture interview process
• Accenture case interviews
• Accenture Potentia interview
• Accenture Fit / PEI interviews
• How to prepare

Click here to practise 1-on-1 with Accenture ex-interviewers

1. accenture overview.

Accenture is a consulting giant, with more than 500,000 employees across 120 countries.  It can roughly be broken into three parts; management consulting, IT consulting, and what is often called 'Back office', which includes accounting services, sales, customer support, etc.

This interview guide is for candidates applying for management consulting roles at Accenture (if you're applying for another tech role, such as software engineering, we recommend you use the prep articles on our engineering blog ).

Management consulting is further divided into three groups:

1) Accenture Strategy (focused on strategy,competes with McKinsey , BCG , etc) 2) Operations (focused on implementation of business initiatives) 3) Digital (focused on implementation of digital business initiatives)

Next, let's outline the different stages of your interview process with Accenture.

2. Accenture interview process

The exact Accenture interview process will depend on which of the management consulting areas you're applying for, but generally there are three of four stages:

• Resume and cover letter screening
• First round of interviews
• Second round of interviews
• Accenture Potentia (Strategy roles only)

2.1 Resume and cover letter screening

First, recruiters will look at your resume and assess if your experience matches the open position. This is the most competitive step in the process—we’ve found that 90% of candidates don’t make it past this stage.

You can use  this free resume guide  and this  free cover letter guide  to help tailor your application to the position you’re targeting. 

And if you’re looking for expert feedback, you can also get input from our  team of  ex-MBB recruiters and interviewers , who will  cover what achievements to focus on (or ignore), how to fine tune your bullet points, and more.

2.2 Interview rounds

After sending your resume and cover letter you should prepare yourself for two to three rounds of interviews with Accenture Consultants, Managers and Managing Directors (equivalent to partner).

As a general rule of thumb, your interviewers will be more and more senior as you progress through the different rounds. Your last interview will generally be with a Senior Managing Director (equivalent to Senior Partner) who will make a final decision on whether the firm should give you an offer or not.

During each round you can expect between one and three interviews which are usually a mix of fit / behavioural questions (e.g. Why consulting? ) as well as case interview questions.

If you are applying for Accenture Strategy, one of your interviews will be a 1-hour assessment called the Potentia Interview. We'll go into more detail on that in section 4 below.

3. Accenture case interviews

Accenture uses candidate-led case interviews similar to  BCG  and  Bain . As the candidate, this means that you should be prepared to lead the conversation and suggest next steps for how to analyse and solve the case.

Accenture divides its case interviews into three types.

1. "The Great Unknown" questions

Don't be confused by the name, these are your typical case interview questions used by all consulting companies. You'll receive one or two sentences with a case problem. You'll need to ask the right questions to establish further facts and construct a solution.

Example: " The client, a leading manufacturer of prefabricated kitchen furnishings, has been steadily losing market share over the last two years. The senior executive team would like you to help them understand why and what they can do to improve their market standing ."

To prepare for these types of questions, use our case case interview prep guide.

2. "Parade of facts" questions

These case problems are a little bit different to the usual ones.. You will be given a deluge of facts in the case description, and one of your key tasks is determining which facts are relevant to the client’s business problem.

Accenture doesn't use these questions as often as the others, but you'll still need to prepare properly.

2. "Back of the envelope" questions.

These are typical market sizing questions, such as "Estimate the total number of dry cleaners in Philadelphia."

Accenture uses these a lot and you should be well prepared. Use our market sizing questions guide to learn how best to answer these, and then use our market sizing questions article to practise with.

4. Accenture Potentia interview

As we mentioned above, if you're an Accenture Strategy candidate, you'll face a 1-hour "Potentia" interview. You will be given a short paragraph of text about a broad business topic (e.g. how to manage intellectual property in the age of Chat GPT). You will then have 5 minutes to analyse the text and the question it raises.

After this, you will need to present your initial thoughts to your interviewer and they will then follow up with a series of questions. The whole interview will last 45-60 minutes and should feel like a conversation. Its main objective is to test your creativity and it therefore won't involve any calculations.

As we have previously mentioned, creativity questions are frequent in case interviews . This type of question can be a little tricky to answer. The most common mistake candidates make with creativity questions (and the Potentia Interview) is to brainstorm ideas in an unstructured way. Jumping from one idea to another without any overarching structure makes it really hard for your interviewer to follow your thoughts.

Instead, we suggest that you use the following two-step approach to impress your interviewer:

• Use a framework. At the beginning of your Potentia Interview, you should lay out a high-level framework to structure the different types of ideas you have to answer the question you are asked.
• Brainstorm within each branch. Once you have established a framework, you can then brainstorm ideas within each branch of your framework. As a rule of thumb, you should aim to generate 2 to 5 ideas per branch.

Using a framework and brainstorming within branches will go a long way in ensuring you do well at your Potentia Interview. But, it’s also helpful to think about how your interviewer will assess your answers. In short, they will look at two criteria:

• Range of thought. You interviewer wants you to demonstrate that you can generate a broad range of ideas. You can achieve this by both going wide in your framework (e.g. having 4 or 5 branches). But also by going deep in each branch (e.g. having 4 or 5 ideas per branch).
• Practicality. Your interviewer will also assess how practical your ideas are.  In practice, that means you should aim to have a mix of ambitious long-term ideas but also shorter-term ones which you feel can be implemented relatively easily.

5. Accenture Fit / PEI interviews

You can expect to face typical fit or "personal experience" questions at the end or beginning of each Accenture case interview:

Top 5 Accenture fit questions:

• Why Accenture?
• Why consulting?
• Walk me through your resume
• Tell me about something not on your resume
• Tell me about your greatest accomplishment

Top 5 PEI questions. Tell me about a time when ...

• You led a team through a difficult situation
• You worked in a team and had to manage a conflict
• You had a disagreement with a colleague / boss
• You had to change someone's / a group's mind
• You overcame a really difficult challenge

Don't fall into the trap of under-preparing for these types of questions. While they may seem easier than the case interviews, they are extremely important to get right.

You’ll need to prepare several ”stories” or “examples” from your personal and professional experience to demonstrate that you have the traits that Accenture is looking for.

To learn more, check out our guide to consulting fit / PEI questions .

6. How to prepare for your Accenture case interviews

Now you've seen the different types of questions in the Accenture interview process, let's look at the steps you need to take to make sure you ace your Accenture interview.

6.1 Learn the case interview essentials

For your case interviews, Accenture provide a very useful case workbook which you should definitely read though as part of your preparation.

However, while the workbook is a great starting point, you'll need to use much more detailed prep materials. For example, it lists 5 key frameworks that you'll need to be very familiar with, but we recommend you learn seven and combine them to create your own.

A great starting point for your case interview prep is our case interview prep guide . You can also watch the example video below. Although the video is labeled for BCG and Bain, the interviews you will come across at Accenture will be similar.

6.2 Become really confident at maths

You don't have to have a perfect GPA or GMAT score to succeed at case interview maths. However, during your Accenture  interviews, you will be expected to quickly perform accurate mental maths. 

In order to do this, it’s essential to know the formulas for common metrics, like return on investment or breakeven point. And it’s also helpful to know a few maths shortcuts to help you solve problems more quickly. To learn more about these topics, check out our free guide to case interview maths . 

In our experience, the most successful applicants start their interview preparation by practising maths skills, so make sure you prioritise this step. 

6.3 Research the company

Accenture interviewers want to hire candidates who are deeply motivated to work for their firm. Make sure you're up to date in the latest developments in the area of the company you're applying to join. Here are some useful links to get you started:

• Accenture Strategy page
• Accenture YouTube channel
• Accenture Insights blog

In addition, do some networking so that you can show you've made the effort to reach out to current staff.

6.4 Practise cases out loud

How you solve each case is important, but your interviewers will also be evaluating how you COMMUNICATE your answers. It's important to speak in a structured way that makes it easy to clearly understand your points.

The best way to hone your communication skills is to practise interviewing out loud.

To help you with this process, here is a  broad  list   of consulting interview questions  you can practise with.  Practising by yourself is a great way to get started, and can help you get more comfortable with the flow of a case interview. However, this type of practice won’t prepare you for realistic interview conditions. 

After getting some practice on your own, you should find someone who can do a mock interview with you. You can ask a friend or family member to help you.

We’d also recommend that you practise with ex-interviewers from Accenture . This is the best way to replicate the conditions of a real interview, and to get feedback from someone who really understands what the interviewers will be looking for.

Meet our Accenture ex-interviewers who’d love to work with you.

The IGotAnOffer team

Top 33 Accenture Interview Questions to Prep For (+Answers)

April 24, 2023

Are you gearing up for the Accenture interview process? Accenture is a well-respected global consulting firm with over 500,000 employees worldwide. So, if they invited you to interview, you’ve already made quite an achievement. The next step will be prepping for the Accenture interview questions.

But, as you can expect, the interview process can be challenging. This is true, especially for those who are not used to the consulting industry’s demands.

In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about the interview process, from its difficulty level to common Accenture interview questions and how to practice for it.

Everything You Should Know About the Accenture Interview Process

We’ll answer these specific questions:

What percentage of Accenture applicants get interviews?

What are the steps in the accenture interview process.

• How many rounds are there?
• How long does the process take?

Are Accenture interviews difficult?

• What are some common Accenture interview questions?
• What are the best ways to prepare for an Accenture interview?

Here’s everything you should know about the Accenture interview process.

The exact percentage of Accenture applicants who receive interviews isn’t publicly available. However, according to Glassdoor, Accenture is a highly selective company with a low acceptance rate.

In 2020, the company received over one million applications. They hired around 60,000 people. That equates to an acceptance rate of around 6%.

The interview process consists of multiple rounds, each with a different focus. These include phone screens, video interviews, and in-person interviews. In some cases, candidates might be asked to complete a case study or a skills assessment.

How many interview rounds are there?

The number of rounds in the Accenture interview process can vary depending on the position being applied for, the location, and the experience of the candidate. However, in general, the interview process typically consists of three to four rounds.

The first round generally entails an HR interview. It’s usually a screening conducted over the phone or online. This is typically followed by a virtual or in-person interview with the recruiter or HR representative. This interview assesses the candidate’s background, skills, experience, and fit with the company’s culture and values.

The next round might include a case interview, where the candidate is given a business problem to solve, and a behavioral interview that focuses on the candidate’s experiences and behavior in certain situations.

The third round usually involves a technical interview with a subject matter expert or a panel of experts in the relevant field.

The final round could entail an interview with the hiring manager or a senior executive to further assess the candidate’s fit with Accenture’s culture.

How long does the Accenture interview process take?

The duration of the Accenture interview process can vary depending on the role, location, and the number of candidates they interview. However, the process typically takes two to four weeks from the initial application to the final decision.

The first round, which is usually a screening interview, may take 30 minutes to an hour. The second and third rounds, which often involve technical and behavioral interviews, might take one to two hours each.

In some cases, Accenture might also ask candidates to complete assessments or case studies as part of the interview process, which can add additional time to the process.

After the final round of interviews, it could take a few days to a week for Accenture to make a final decision. Of course, the overall duration of the interview process also depends on the availability of the interviewer and the candidate’s schedule for the interviews.

The Accenture interview process can be challenging, but it’s certainly not impossible to ace it. The case interview is perhaps the most challenging part of the Accenture interview process. The interviewer presents a business problem and asks the candidate to solve it. The goal is to assess the candidate’s analytical and problem-solving skills as well as their ability to communicate their thought process effectively. To prepare for the case interview, candidates must be familiar with common business frameworks and practice solving similar problems.

How to Use AI to Prepare for Accenture Interview Questions

As with any job interview, practice is key. The more you practice, the more comfortable you’ll be during the actual interview. One way to improve your interviewing skills is by using Yoodli , an AI-powered interview coach.

Yoodli helps you improve your interviewing skills in a comfortable environment. The platform provides AI-powered feedback on your key points, filler words, rambling, body language, and much more. You can use the Yoodli interview feature to practice ahead of time.

Using Yoodli’s interview simulator is one of the most realistic ways to practice Accenture interview questions. That’s because the experience is totally customizable.

You can choose the company, the position you’re applying for, which specific Accenture interview questions you’d like to practice, and even the tone of the interview. Just make sure when you’re practicing that you use the STAR method to make sure your answers are up to par. Then use Yoodli’s insightful, data-backed suggestions to take your abilities to the next level.

Yoodli is free, and you can get started at yoodli.ai .

Other ways to prep for the Accenture interview questions

Another way to practice for the Accenture interview is by researching the company and its values. Accenture is a global consulting firm that focuses on digital, technology, and operations services. They work with clients in a wide range of industries, from healthcare to finance to energy. Knowing this background information can help inform the way you answer Accenture interview questions.

When preparing for your interview, be sure to research the specific division or practice area you’re applying for. This will help you understand the types of projects you might be working on and the skills that are most relevant to the role.

Common Accenture Interview Questions

Here are some common Accenture interview questions that may come up during your interview:

• Tell me about yourself. This is a classic interview question that’s often used as an icebreaker. The interviewer wants to get to know you better and learn about your background and experience. When answering this question, focus on your relevant skills and experience that make you a good fit for the role.
• Why do you want to work for Accenture? This question is designed to test your knowledge of the company and your motivation for applying. When answering this question, be specific about the aspects of the company that appeal to you, such as the culture, the projects, or the opportunities for career growth.
• How do you handle conflict in the workplace? This question is designed to test your ability to work collaboratively and handle difficult situations. When answering this question, be sure to give a specific example of a conflict you have faced in the past and how you resolved it.
• What are your strengths and weaknesses? This question is designed to test your self-awareness and your ability to reflect on your own performance. When answering this question, be honest about your strengths and weaknesses and provide examples of how you’ve worked to overcome your weaknesses.

Other Accenture interview questions to practice

Here are a few more essential Accenture interview questions to practice:

• Talk to me about some Accenture services or solutions you’re familiar with.
• In your opinion, what are the most significant obstacles facing Accenture today?
• How would you go about managing a team?
• Why should we hire you over other Accenture applicants?
• How do you go about completing tasks under pressure or tight deadlines?
• Let’s say a brand is facing declining demand. How would you approach this situation?
• Give me a time where you overcame a significant obstacle. What was your process?
• What skills do you have that could benefit Accenture in the long run?
• Think about a time when you used your technical skills to solve a problem. What was the result?

Technical Accenture interview questions

Accenture has plenty of roles that cover a variety of topics, from cybersecurity to software development, cloud computing, and data science, among others.

If you plan to apply for a more technical role, check out these technical Accenture interview questions and make sure you’re ready to answer them:

• How do you approach cloud resource management and cost optimization?
• Have you ever worked on a cloud migration project? If so, walk me through your process and some of the obstacles you faced.
• Explain the key differences between platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
• In terms of cybersecurity, can you talk to me about why it’s so important to stay up-to-date on the latest cyber threats?
• What’s your experience with cybersecurity tech and tools? What can you tell me about subjects like intrusion detection systems, encryption, and firewalls?
• Considering bias and privacy, what are some ethical considerations when working with data to be aware of?
• What’s the difference between unsupervised and supervised learning? Can you give me a few examples of each?
• What’s your experience with data analysis methods and tools (for example, SQL, pandas, machine learning algorithms, Python, R, etc.)?
• How do you approach troubleshooting software issues and debugging?
• Tell me a little bit about your experience with specific programming languages and frameworks (for example, Java , Python, React, Spring, etc.).
• When working with cloud platforms, what are some of the most important security considerations?
• Tell me about your experience with specific cloud platforms (for example, Azure, GCP, AWS, etc.).
• What’s your approach with regard to incident response planning and cyber risk management?
• Think of a cybersecurity incident you helped mitigate and what the result was. Walk me through the steps you took and your thought process.
• What’s the difference between vulnerability assessments and penetration testing?
• How do you go about handling data quality issues and missing data?
• Think of a past data analysis project you worked on. How did you go about outlining the issue, using data sources and methodology, and comprehending resulting insights?
• What do you know about Agile methodologies? Do you have experience working in environments like that?
• Recall a complicated and involved software development project you worked on. What were your contributions and what was the outcome?
• What’s the difference between functional and object-oriented programming paradigms?

Don’t worry if you don’t think all the technical Accenture interview questions apply to your role — these are just some of the most common questions spread across multiple technical fields.

Wrapping Up

Of course, you’ll want to reach out directly to Accenture’s human resources department or recruitment team for more information on their hiring process and interview selection criteria. But, these tips should get you started on your way toward a confident interview process with Accenture. Good luck!

Note: This post was created in partnership with artificial intelligence.

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35 Case Interviews Examples from MBB / Big Four Firms

Studying case interview examples is one of the first steps in preparing for the  management consulting  recruitment process. If you don’t want to spend hours searching the web, this article presents a comprehensive and convenient list for you – with 35 example cases, 16 case books, along with a case video accompanied by detailed feedback on tips and techniques.

A clear understanding of “what is a case interview” is essential for effective use of these examples. I suggest reading our  Case Interview 101  guide, if you haven’t done so.

McKinsey case interview examples

Mckinsey practice cases.

• Diconsa Case
• Electro-Light Case
• GlobaPharm Case
• National Education Case

What should I know about McKinsey Case interviews?

At McKinsey, case interviews often follow the interviewer-led format , where the interviewer asks you multiple questions for you to answer with short pitches.

How do you nail these cases? Since the questions can be grouped into predictable types, an efficient approach is to master each question type. However, do that after you’ve mastered the case interview fundamentals!

For a detailed guide on interviewer-led cases, check out our article on McKinsey Case Interview .

BCG & Bain case interview examples

Bcg practice cases.

• BCG – Written Case – Chateau Boomerang

Bain practice cases

• Bain – Coffee Shop Co.
• Bain – Fashion Co.
• Bain – Mock Interview – Associate Consultant
• Bain – Mock Interview – Consultant

What should I know about BCG & Bain case interviews?

Unlike McKinsey, BCG and Bain case interviews typically follow the candidate-led format – which is the opposite of interviewer-led, with the candidate driving the case progress by actively breaking down problems in their own way.

The key to acing candidate-led cases is to master the case interview fundamental concepts as well as the frameworks.

Some BCG and Bain offices also utilize written case interviews – you have to go through a pile of data slides, select the most relevant ones to answer a set of interviewer questions, then deliver those answers in a presentation.

For a detailed guide on candidate-led cases, check out our article on BCG & Bain Case Interview .

Deloitte case interview examples

Deloitte practice cases.

Undergrad Cases

• Human Capital – Technology Institute
• Human Capital – Agency V
• Strategy – Federal Benefits Provider
• Strategy – Extreme Athletes
• Technology – Green Apron
• Technology – Big Bucks Bank
• Technology – Top Engine
• Technology – Finance Agency

Advanced Cases

• Human Capital – Civil Cargo Bureau
• Human Capital – Capital Airlines
• Strategy – Club Co
• Strategy – Health Agency
• Technology – Waste Management
• Technology – Bank of Zurich
• Technology – Galaxy Fitness

What should I know about Deloitte case interviews?

Case interviews at Deloitte also lean towards the candidate-led format like BCG and Bain.

The Deloitte consultant recruitment process also features group case interviews , which not only test analytical skills but also place a great deal on interpersonal handling.

Accenture case interview examples

Accenture divides its cases into three types with very cool-sounding names.

Sorted in descending order of popularity, they are:

These are similar to candidate-led cases at Bain and BCG. albeit shorter – the key is to develop a suitable framework and ask the right questions to extract data from the interviewer.

These are similar to the market-sizing and guesstimate questions asked in interviewer-led cases – demonstrate your calculations in structured, clear-cut, logical steps and you’ll nail the case.

These cases have you sort through a deluge of data to draw solutions; however, this type of case is rare.

Capital One case interview examples

Capital One is the odd one on this list – it is a bank-holding company. Nonetheless, this being one of the biggest banks in America, it’s interesting to see how its cases differ from the consulting ones.

Having gone through Capital One’s guide to its cases, I can’t help but notice the less-MECE structure of the sample answers. Additionally, there seems to be a greater focus on the numbers.

Nonetheless, having a solid knowledge of the basics of case interviews will not hurt you – if anything, your presentation will be much more in-depth, comprehensive, and understandable!

See Capital One Business Analyst Case Interview for an example case and answers.

Other firms case interview examples

Besides the leading ones, we have some examples from other major consulting firms as well.

• Oliver Wyman – Wumbleworld
• Oliver Wyman – Aqualine
• LEK – Cinema
• LEK – Market Sizing
• Kearney – Promotional Planning
• OC&C – Imported Spirits
• OC&C – Leisure Clubs

Consulting clubs case books

In addition to official cases, here are a few case books you can use as learning materials.

Do keep in mind: don’t base your study on frameworks and individual case types, but master the fundamentals so you can tackle any kind of case.

• Wharton Consulting Club Case Book
• Tuck Consulting Club Case Book
• MIT Sloan Consulting Club Case Book
• LBS Consulting Club Case Book
• Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book
• INSEAD Consulting Club Case Book
• Harvard Consulting Club Case Book
• ESADE Consulting Club Case Book
• Darden Consulting Club Case Book
• Berkeley Consulting Club Case Book
• Notre-Dame Consulting Club Case Book
• Illinois Consulting Club Case Book
• Columbia Consulting Club Case Book
• Duke Consulting Club Case Book
• Ross Consulting Club Case Book
• Kearney Case Book

Case interview example – Case video

The limitation of most official case interview examples is that they are either too short and vague, or in text format, or both.

To solve that problem for you, we’ve extracted a 30-minute-long, feedback-rich case sample from our Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program .

This is a candidate-led, profitability case on an internet music broadcasting company called Pandora.

In 30 minutes, this candidate demonstrates the exact kind of shortcoming that most candidates suffer during real case interviews – they come in with sharp business senses, then hurt their own chances with inadequate techniques.

Here are seven notable areas where the candidate (and you) can improve:

Thanking Throughout the case, as especially in the opening, he should have shown more appreciation for the time the interviewer spent with him.

Structured opening The candidate’s opening of the case feels unstructured. He could have improved it by not mixing the playback and clarification parts. You can learn to nail the case in a 3-minute start through this video on How to Open Any Case Perfectly .

Explicitness A lot of the candidate’s thought process remains in his head; in a case interview, it’s better to be as explicit as possible – draw your issue tree out and point to it as you speak; state your hypothesis when you move into a branch; when you receive data, acknowledge it out loud.

Avoiding silence The silence in his case performance is too long, including his timeout and various gaps in his speech; either ask for timeout (and keep it as short as possible) or think out loud to fill those gaps.

Proactivity The candidate relies too much on the interviewer (e.g: asking for data when it can easily be calculated); you don’t want to appear lazy before your interviewer, so avoid this.

Avoiding repeating mistakes Making one mistake twice is a big no-no in consulting interviews; one key part of the consulting skill set is the ability to learn, and repeating your mistakes (especially if the interviewer has pointed it out) makes you look like someone who doesn’t learn.

Note-taking Given the mistakes this candidate makes, he’s probably not taking his notes well. I can show you how to get it right if you watch this video on Case Interview Note-Taking .

Nonetheless, there are three good points you can learn from the candidate:

The candidate sums up what he’s covered and announces his upcoming approach at the start and at key points in the case – this is a very good habit that gives you a sense of direction and shows that you’re an organized person.

The candidate performs a “reality check” on whether his actions match the issue tree; in a case interview it’s easy to lose track of what you’re doing, so remember to do this every once in a while.

The candidate prompts the interviewer to give out more data than he asked for; if anything, this actually matches a habit of real consultants, and if you’re lucky, your interviewer may actually give out important pieces you haven’t thought of.

These are only part of the “ninja tips” taught In our Case Interview E2E Secrets Program – besides the math and business intuition for long-term development, a key feature is the instant-result tips and techniques for case interviews.

Once you’ve mastered them, you can nail any case they throw at you!

For more “quality” practice, let’s have a mock case interview with former consultants from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Oliver Wyman, Strategy& and many other consulting firms. They will help you identify your problem areas and give you actionable feedback, making your preparation much easier and faster.

Hi! This is Kim and welcome to another performance in the Tips & Techniques part of our amazing End-to-end program. You are about to hear a really interesting performance.

There is a common Myth that Profitability cases are easier. Well, for beginners, that’s may make sense, but I would argue that Profitability cases can be really tricky and candidates without good foundation will make about the same level of mistakes regardless of type of cases given.

The profitability case we are about to watch will show that. It’s a very unconventional

Profitability. It started out like a typical one but getting more and more tricky toward the end.

The candidate is fairly good in term of business intuition, but the Tips & Techniques aspect needs a lot of fine tune! Now let’s go ahead and get started! 

It’s actually a little better to playback the case information and ask clarifications. The candidate does not distinguish between the two and do both at a same time. Also, the candidate was asking these clarifications in an unorganized and unstructured fashion. This is not something terrible, but could have been better, especially when this is the very first part of the case, where the crucial first impression is being formed.

My pitch would sound like this:

“That’s a very interesting problem and I am happy to get the chance to solve it. First of all let me tell you my understanding of the case context and key objectives. Then I would like to ask a few clarifying questions regarding a few terminology and concepts. Both of these are to make sure that I will be solving the right problem.

So here is my understanding of the case: The client is ABC. Here are some DEF facts about the situation we just talked about. And the key case question is XYZ.

Does that correctly and adequately summarize the case?”

Once the interviewer confirms, I would move to the clarification part as follows: “Now I would like to ask a few clarification questions. There are three of them: No 1, … No 2, … and No 3, …”

You may see above pitch as obvious but that’s a perfect example of how you should open any cases. Every details matters. We will point out those details in just a second. But before we do that, it’s actually very helpful if you can go back, listen carefully to the above pitch, and try to point out the great components yourselves. Only after that, go back to this point and learn it all together.

Alright, let’s break down the perfect opening.

First of all, you hear me say: “That’s a very interesting problem and I am happy to get a chance to solve it”. This seems trivial but very beneficial in multiple ways:

1. I bought myself a couple of seconds to calm down and get focused. 2. By nature, we as human unconsciously like those who give us compliments. Nothing better than opening the case with a modest compliment to the interviewer.

And (c) I showed my great attitude towards the case, which the interviewer would assume is the same for real future consulting business problems.

You should do that in your interviews too. Say it and accompany it with the best smile you can give. It shows that you are not afraid of any problems. In fact, you love them and you are always ready for them.

Secondly, I did what I refer to as the “map habit”, which is to always say what you are about to do and then do it. Just like somebody in the car showing the drivers the route before cruising on the road. The driver would love it. This is where I said: “Let me tell you my understanding of the case context and key objectives. Then ABC…”.

Third, right at the beginning of the case, I try to be crystal clear and easy to follow. I don’t let the interviewer confused between playing the case vs. asking clarification questions. I distinguish between the two really carefully. This habit probably doesn’t change the outcome of how the case goes that much, but it certainly significantly changes the impression the interviewer has of me.

Fourth, in playing back the case, each person would have a different way to re-phrase. But there are three buckets to always include:

1. Who is the client 2. The facts regarding the client and the situation and (c) The key question and the objective of the case.

Fifth, after playing the case context and objectives, I pause for a second and ALIGN with the interviewer: “Does it correctly and adequately summarize the case?”. This is a habit that every consulting manager loves for young consultants to do. Nobody wants first-year folks to spend weeks of passion and hard-work building an excel model that the team can’t use. This habit is extensively taught at McKinsey, Bain and BCG, so therefore interviewers would love somebody that exhibits this habit often in case interview.

Lastly, when asking clarification questions, you hear me number them very carefully to create the strong impression that I am very organized and structured. I said I have three clarifying questions. Then I number them as I go through each. No.1, No.2, and No.3.

Sometimes, during interviews it’s hard to know exactly how many items you are going to get. One way is to take timeout often to carefully plan your pitch. If this is not possible in certain situations, you may skip telling how many items you have; but you should definitely still number your question: No.1, No.2; and so on. 

Just a moment ago, the candidate actually exhibited a good habit. After going through his clarification questions, the candidate ended by asking the “is there anything else” question. In this case, I actually give out an important piece of data.

Though this is not very common as not every interviewer is that generous in giving out data. But this is a habit management consultants have to have every day when talking to experts, clients, or key stakeholders. The key is to get the most data and insights out of every interview and this is the type of open-ended question every consultant asks several times a day.

To show of this habit in a case interview is very good!

There are three things I would like you to pay attention to:

First, it took the candidate up to 72 seconds to “gather his thoughts”. This is a little too long in a case interview. I intentionally leave the 72 seconds of silence in the recording so you get an idea of how long that is in real situations. But it’s worth-noting here is not only that. While in some very complicated and weird cases, it’s ok to take that long to really think and gather ideas. In this case, the approach as proposed by the candidate is very simple. For this very approach, I think no more than 15 to 20 seconds should be used.

No.2, with that said, I have told I really like the fact that this candidate exhibits the “map” habit. Before going straight to the approach he draws the overall approach first.

No.3. You also see here that the candidate tried to align the approach with me by asking my thoughts on it. As I just said on the previous comment, this is a great habit to have. Not only does it help reduce chance of going into the wrong direction in case interviews, but it also creates a good impression. Consulting interviewers love people doing it often!

Here we see a not-really-bad response that for sure could be much better. The candidate was going into the first branch of the analysis which is Revenue. I would fix this in 3 aspects:

First, even though we just talked about the overall approach, it’s still better to briefly set up the issue tree first then clearly note that you are going into one branch.

Second, this is not a must, but I always try to make my hypothesis as explicitly clear as possible. Here the candidate just implicitly made a hypothesis that the problem is on the revenue side. The best way to show our hypothesis-driven mindset is to explicitly say it.

Third, you hear this a ton of times in our End-to-End program but I am going to repeat it again and again. It is better to show the habit of aligning here too. Don’t just go into revenue, before doing that, give the interviewer a chance to agree or to actually guide you to Cost.

So, summarizing the above insights, my pitch would sound something like this:

“So as we just discussed, a profit problem is either caused by revenue or by cost. Unless you would like to go into cost first, let’s hypothesize that the problem is on revenue side. I would like to look deeper into Revenue. Do we have any data on the revenue?”

And while saying this, you should literally draw an issue tree and point to each as you speak.

There is an interesting case interview tip I want to point out here. Notice how the candidate responds after receiving two data points from me. He went straight into the next question without at least acknowledging the data received and also without briefly analyzing it.

I am glad that the candidate makes this mistakes… well, not glad for him but for the greater audience of this program. I would like to introduce to you the perfect habit of what you should react and do every time you have any piece of data during case interviews. So three things you need to do:

Step 1: Say … that’s an interesting piece of data. This helps the interviewer acknowledge that you have received and understand the data. This also buys you a little time. And furthermore, it’s always a good thing to give out modest compliments to the interviewer.

Step 2: Describe the data, how it looks, is there any special noteworthy trend? In this case, we should point out that revenue actually grew by more than 50%.

Also notice here that I immediately quantified the difference in specific quantitative measurement (in this case, percentage). Saying revenue went up is good, but it’s great to be able to say revenue went up by more than 50%.

Step 3: Link the trend identified back to the original case question and the hypothesis you have. Does it prove, disprove, or open up new investigation to really test the hypothesis? In this case, this data piece actually opened up new investigating areas to test the hypothesis that the bottleneck is within revenue.

My sample pitch for this step 3 would sound like this: “It’s interesting that revenue went up quite a bit. However, to be able to fully reject our hypothesis on the revenue, I would like to compare our revenue to that of the competitors as well.”

Then only at this point, after going through 3 steps above, I ask for the competitors’ revenue like the candidate did.

Notice here that I ended up asking the same question the candidate did. This shows that the candidate does have a good intuition and thought process. It’s just that he did all of these implicitly on his head.

In consulting case interview, it’s always good to do everything as explicitly as possible. Not only is it easier to follow but it helps show your great thought process.

… the rest of the transcript is available in our End To End Case Interview

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Scoring in the McKinsey PSG/Digital Assessment

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The Accenture Digital Assessment: What You Need to Know to Pass

• Last Updated January, 2022

Rachael Troughton

Former Accenture

If you’re applying to Accenture, you may be asked to take the Accenture digital assessment. It’s a multiple-choice test that walks you through a simulated consulting project, giving you insight into what the work of a consultant is like.

If you’re just beginning your research on careers in consulting, you may not know much about consulting cases. But by reading this article you’ll get an overview of what to expect on Accenture’s test, as well as links to further resources to help you prepare.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• Why management consulting firms use digital tests,
• What the Accenture digital assessment looks like,
• An example question and the skills being tested,
• Tips to help you pass the digital assessment and,
• What you can expect in the Accenture recruiting process after you pass the digital assessment.

Let’s get started!

Why Management Consulting Firms Are Using Digital Tests

What the accenture discovery portal digital assessment looks like.

Example Questions on the Accenture Digital Assessment & What Skills Are Tested

6 Tips For Dealing With the Accenture Digital Assessment

What you can expect in the accenture recruiting process after you pass the digital assessment.

Help with Case Study Interview Prep

Getting a job at one of the top consultancy firms has always been tough but, with firms reaching beyond a core set of schools to find candidates, it’s more competitive than ever.  

It’s extremely time consuming to read through all the applications the firms receive, so their recruiting teams are moving to a more automated process to help.

They’re turning to:

• Applicant tracking systems .  These systems search for keywords in your application that match the competencies desired by the hiring firm and acts as an initial filter.
• Pre-screening assessments. These are tests with digital or virtual reality components that assess candidates on key skills.
• Gamified assessments. These are games that assess candidates for key skills, and hopefully, make the recruitment process more fun. 

These tracking systems and digital assessments don’t just make the recruiting process more efficient for consulting companies. They also help combat one of the main challenges with human recruitment: unconscious bias.  Unconscious bias is an attitude we hold that unconsciously affects our decision-making.  

In recruitment, unconscious bias can result in lower diversity of applicants making it through the process.

Candidates applying for one of Accenture’s entry-level opportunities will apply through the Accenture Discovery Portal online.  Once your application is processed you’ll receive an email saying the next step is to complete the “Accenture Discovery Portal Digital Assessment.”

The assessment has 2 sections:

• The Situational Judgment Test &
• The Numeracy Test.

The Accenture Situational Judgment Test

This part of the Accenture digital assessment is run through a platform that simulates a typical consulting project with a client, a business problem, and a goal the client wants to achieve.  You’ll be given a number of different pieces of information: 

• Images, 
• Texts, 
• Charts, and 

During the assessment, you’ll be taken through several interactive scenarios: email exchanges, informational videos, and a simulated Skype call. 

The majority of questions ask candidates to rank the answers (which are various courses of action) from 1 to 5, with 1 being the action that you would most likely take, and 5 being the least likely.

The Accenture Numeracy Test

This test uses traditional multiple-choice questions. Candidates are asked to calculate answers based on information on the graphs and charts.  There are 5 options presented and you must select one of the 5. 

The full Accenture digital assessment is expected to take around 1.5 hours to complete.

Who Is Asked to Take the Accenture Digital Assessment?

The Accenture digital assessment is currently being used for full-time hires and will likely be expanded to other recruiting processes such as summer internships.

Nail the case & fit interview with strategies from former MBB Interviewers that have helped 89.6% of our clients pass the case interview.

Example Questions on the Accenture Digital Assessment & What Skills Are Tested

The digital test assesses your situational judgment which is your ability to choose the most appropriate action when faced with a workplace problem. Situational judgment tests can be challenging as a number of the options may seem suitable. 

For example:

“You are tasked with selling a new product that doesn’t fit the target market of your company.  Sales are continuing to decrease every month.  Do you….?”

a. Report the issue to your sales manager

b. Keep trying to sell the product

c. Look for innovative ways to approach prospective customers

d. Educate yourself on the latest sales tactics and strategies

e. Stop selling the product, research better options, and present your findings to senior stakeholders

While there is no wrong answer,  there are some answers which are better than others. Accenture will consider your choice in the context of its workplace culture.  If you’re struggling, use what you know about Accenture to guide you.  

Accenture has six core values:

• Client value creation
• Best people
• One global network
• Respect for the individual
• Stewardship

Looking at our example, here is how we’d think about the answers from best to worst:

Best answer : (e) Stop selling the product, research better options, and present your findings to senior stakeholders. This answer shows you’re focused on creating value for the client and researching better options does that.  You’ve also shown integrity in not trying to continue to sell a product that isn’t suited to the market.

Next-best answers : (a), (c), or (d). These answers all show you are taking some action. (a) Report the issue to your sales manager isn’t the best answer because it’s always better to provide a potential solution than to just report a problem. (c) and (d) aren’t the best answers because the sales approach and tactics aren’t the heart of the problem. They’ll probably only improve results slightly, not dramatically.

Worst answer : (b) Keep trying to sell the product. Since Accenture values client value creation, you shouldn’t just continue to do what you’re doing when that strategy is failing.

If you get stuck, focus on answers where you act with a high level of integrity and create value and you should be good to go!

Through asking you to interpret data from charts and graphs, the digital assessment also tests math ability and cognitive function. Accenture is an insight-powered business so the ability to understand, interpret, and extract value from data is a key skill for entry-level business analysts.

1. Set yourself up for success .

Make sure that any tech you are using is fully charged and you have a good internet connection.  Take the test in an environment that feels comfortable and clear away anything that might distract you.

2. Find your focus .

Most of us know at what time of day we are most alert and able to focus.  If you can, schedule your digital assessment for a time when you know you’re most likely to perform at your best.

3. Read the information carefully.

The math required for the calculations isn’t complicated (mostly arithmetic and algebra) but make sure you have all the required information from the various charts and graphs before coming up with your answer. See our article on consulting math for more help.

4. Go with your instinct .

With situational judgment tests there are no ‘wrong’ answers, so don’t spend too long worrying over the different options.  Pick the answer that feels the best to you and move on. That said……

5. Learn about Accenture before taking the test .

While there are no wrong answers to situational judgment questions, you’ll be compared to the traits of successful Accenture consultants.  Understanding what Accenture values in its people might help you choose between 2 similar answers.

6. Don’t forget to breathe!

Your brain needs oxygen to function and taking a few deep breaths can calm any nerves you might be feeling about the test.  Take a moment before the test to breathe and give yourself a few moments between different sections to take a breath before re-focusing on the next task.

At this point, digital assessment and virtual or augmented reality platforms act as complements to the traditional recruitment process.  They provide extra information about a candidate to better predict performance on the job. So you’ll still need to prepare for the Accenture assessment day. 

At the Accenture assessment day, there will be a number of both individual and group activities as well as a final behavioral interview. Depending on where in the world you’re applying from there may be virtual reality elements as part of the assessment day.

Accenture’s Group Case Interview

Unlike other consulting firms, Accenture assesses your consultant potential in a group case study environment rather than an individual case interview.  The recruiting team is still assessing your quantitative skills, business logic, and strategic thinking but they are also able to observe how you work within a team to influence others and solve problems collaboratively.

Accenture’s Behavioral Interview

The behavioral interview explores your personal qualities, matching them against those required of a successful Accenture consultant. Be prepared to answer questions about your experience with teamwork, conflict resolution, and leadership.  Accenture values innovation so focus your examples on times where you solved problems in a creative or interesting way.

To find out more about how to prepare strong answers for these interview questions, see our article on behavioral interviews . 

After successfully navigating the assessment day, you’ll finally receive the coveted letter that welcomes you as the newest member of Accenture’s team.  Congratulations!

In this article, we’ve covered:

• Why management consulting firms use digital assessments,
• What you’ll face during the Accenture Discovery Portal digital assessment,
• Example questions from the Accenture digital assessment and what skills it tests,
• Tips to help you succeed in the Accenture digital assessment and,
• What happens after you pass the Accenture digital assessment.

—–

Still have questions?

If you have more questions about the Accenture digital assessment, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s case coaches will answer them.

Other people prepping for the Accenture Discovery Portal digital assessment found the following pages helpful:

• Consulting Case Interview Prep , 
• Why Accenture? , 
• Our page with links to dozens of consulting resources .

Help with Consulting Interview Prep

Thanks for turning to My Consulting Offer for advice on consulting interview prep. My Consulting Offer has helped almost 85% of the people we’ve worked with to get a job in management consulting. We want you to be successful in your consulting interviews too. For example, here is how Ruhani was able to get her offer from Accenture:

If you want a step-by-step solution to land more offers from consulting firms, then  grab the free video training series below.  It’s been created by former Bain, BCG, and McKinsey Consultants, Managers and Recruiters.

It contains the EXACT solution used by over 700+ of our clients to land offers.

The best part?

It’s absolutely free. Just put your name and email address in and you’ll have instant access to the training series.

6 thoughts on “The Accenture Digital Assessment: What You Need to Know to Pass”

I’m asked to give 40 minutes digital assessment test in Accenture after clearing the technical and HR interview. What can I expect from this test? I’m a SAP PI/PO Consultant.

We have this article on the Accenture digital assessment. I hope it helps you and good luck! https://www.myconsultingoffer.org/case-study-interview-prep/accenture-digital-assessment/

I received my feedback after completing the online assessment. My least developed strength is “tech advocate”. Given that Accenture uses technology at its core, I guess I’ve failed to meet their criteria.

You might be right about Accenture’s interest in candidates who are tech advocates. I talked to some of our Accenture experts and they mentioned that in the past, the firm has provided new hires with 2 weeks of coding training as part of their onboarding process. This might be a blow if Accenture was one of your top picks, but you might take the opportunity to think about what type of consulting firm is the best fit for you. Reading the different firms’ “values” pages can tell you a lot about their culture and what they look for in recruits. Another consulting firm with less tech focus might be the right one for you.

Good luck with the recruiting process!

How long Accenture takes to reply(feedback) after completing your digital assessment?

We’ve heard of Accenture and other consulting firms getting back quite soon after candidates take their digital assessment, but sometimes they take a couple weeks. While it’s hard to wait for feedback, you can put the time to good use by practicing for case interviews and preparing your behavioral interview stories. Best of luck!

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Accenture strategy final round case interview.

I have my Accenture final round case interview day next week and have been preparing a broad range of cases and setting up frameworks (MBB Style Case interviews). Since I am applying at Accenture strategy I heard there will be a potentia Interview but I can‘t find any resources to really prepare for it. Is anybody familiar with the process and could share some insights?

Much appreciated,

Overview of answers

• Date ascending
• Date descending

I helped someone interview and ultimately join the Accenture Strategy team. Last I recall it also involved a combination of case and fit questions, very similar to MBB.  I would prepare as you would for any other consultancy.  I wish you the best of luck!

I am myself in the recruiting process for two positions at Accenture Strategy (DACH Region). I was told by HR that each team is very flexible in the way that they organize their interviews. For one position, I was told that there are 3-4 interviews with 2-3 case studies in total. For the other position, there are only 2 interviews with no full case study, but rather a few technical questions during the interview. So my best advice to you is to reach out the the HR person in charge and ask them directly.

Thanks a lot for the helpful insights, I was informed that there will be two case interviews, and they informed me that I will get further details one day before the interview. Are you maybe interested in exchanging a bit more on case preparations?

By the sound of it, you've focused mostly on the case part of the interview for now. I'd reach out to the recruiter if I were you to understand whether the next round will also contain a personal fit part. Then I suggest you test out your answers to potential personal fit questions with other candidates and then do a session with an expert to polish your answers. 

First of all, I am very concerned . If you have not heard of a case before (and don't even know what to ask) then you are nowhere close to being ready! You need to get a coach . You also should try to delay this final round. It's very hard to go from 0 to ready in casing in just 1 week!

Now, in terms of general advice for 2nd round:

#1 Fix your weaknesses

#2 Be prepared for anything (build your fleibility/adaptability)

Some reading for the case: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

Some reading for fit: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

Fit/Behavioral

You should be more prepared for a pretty in-depth fit interview. I highly recommend you expect "loose" or "random" questions and practice this scenario with a coach. They are less likely to just ask you 20 "tell me about a time" questions. They may have a bit more of a chat, ask you to brainstorm, ask things like "How would you setup x type of project", etc. etc. You need to prepare to be flexible here!

Broader topics/case variability

In terms of being MECE, try out a wide range of "unique" questions to test your MECE structure!

For example, if you were a farmer and had to pick between buying a cow, chicken, or pig, how would you think about which to buy?

Or, if you were a thief, which store between a, b, c would you rob?

Practice breaking these down into MECE structures so that the concept really hits home.

I don't actually understand the question. Are you asking whether you should expect a difference between 1st and 2nd round? In general, the answer is no - in theory... 

Because it's with more senior people (APs, Partners, or even Senior Partners), they often take liberty to divert from the script. To the average candidate, this may feel a bit erratic.

Bottom line, expect same as 1st round but be prepared for anything!

Hope this helps a bit. Best of luck!

Hi Moritz, Thanks for the answer, Accenture strategy has a type of case interview called Potentia Interview, which is somewhat different from the traditional case interview. Unfortunately, I am unable to find Potentia practise cases. Best, Jacob

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Coming together in a crisis

• Call for Change
• When Tech Meets Human Ingenuity
• A Valuable Difference
• Meet the Team
• Related Capabilities

Call for change

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. People around the world faced uncertainty, fear and a lack of information. Seemingly overnight, businesses and schools were closing, cities were locking down and personal protective equipment and necessities were in short supply. No one knew what the next day would bring or how this global crisis would impact all of us—physically, emotionally, or financially.

Here is our story of what Accenture did to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on our people, clients, partners, shareholders, and communities, how we navigated its challenges, and how we are planning to return to work together, greater than ever.

Fortunately, by early March 2020, Accenture had already taken action to make sure our people were safe, which—as always—is our top priority. Our global security team had established a pandemic task force in China and surrounding areas in January, using emergency and crisis management structures already in place. At the same time, cross-function teams were working to secure business resiliency and establish health and safety protocols to keep our people safe.

We were also able to respond quickly to the needs of our clients at this moment in history, because we had the technology, the infrastructure and the collaborative culture we needed in place. Every area of our business—from our people and how we work to the services we offer our clients across 120 countries—came together to set the tone for the months to come:

• Accenture specialists equipped our teams to work remotely , quickly mobilizing 95% of our people to work from home, ensuring business continuity
• We guided our clients and local communities in making the shift to remote work , including issuing a playbook that has helped nearly 600 non-profit professionals globally.
• We supported our people with services and assistance they needed to maintain their health, safety and well-being.
• By combining technology and talent, we drove business resilience through virtual workshops, coaching and peer-to-peer networks on Microsoft Teams.

Our success in reaching these milestones was the result of our unified approach, working together as one team. We communicated early and often with our people. And we made sure we all stayed connected and supported through our campaign known as #MoreTogetherNow—an all-inclusive website that continues to advise on the who, what, where, why and how of working through the pandemic.

When tech meets human ingenuity

Working remotely: a seismic shift in short order

Before COVID-19, Accenture people worked from a variety of locations—from client sites to hotels, Accenture offices or airports. Today, the vast majority of our 721,000 people are set up to securely work remotely in every country where Accenture operates. Around 96% of offices moved to work from home, including people at more than 50 Accenture Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. We quickly  enabled remote working  for our people working in procurement, payables, and other critical shared services. While this might sound like a small feat, imagine what would have happened if our 300 colleagues who process more than 1.4M invoices a year were unable to work from home.

We sent out more than 80,000 desktop computers to our people within a week. We purchased more than 33,000 Wi-Fi hotspots and enabled more than 230,000 concurrent connections using a Virtual Private Networking (VPN) solution. In India alone, we distributed tens of thousands of laptops and computers in less than a week—in addition to Wi-Fi hotspots and uninterrupted power sources. In addition, our local technology services enabled remote access services for 85,000 VPN users and provided 60,000 dongles to improve connectivity. Our team managed hundreds of one-to-one follow-ups and used our remote website, training and videos to support the shift.

One of our “go-to” solutions has been  Microsoft Teams . We are the largest corporate user of Teams, and at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 we saw a massive increase in its usage—as a 257% increase in audio usage and a 642% increase in video usage in one month as remote working demand grew. Teams also offers a global 24/7 chat response for our leaders and a  Microsoft Teams Rapid Resource Center , which provides how-to instructions, leading practices and additional resources to help people stay connected.

In  Corporate Services & Sustainability , we built a team of 40 people offering global workflow support. We used 11 COVID-19 dashboards to develop reports and tools and answered 990 e-mails over a 24-hour service level agreement. We handled thousands of calls diverted from the Accenture Security Operations Center.

Our security, workplace services, communications and other teams joined forces to create a comprehensive and flexible plan to return to our offices—and our clients’ offices—where permissible. Our plan balanced people’s safety and the needs of our clients in guiding a phased transition back to the office. We had personal protection equipment in 100% of our offices. We established “100 Return to Office Workplace Protocols,” introducing enhanced health and safety protocols, global checklists for office preparation and readiness, communication templates, access to digital health and safety guides, videos and more.

Guiding clients and communities: the Now and the Next

As always, continuing to work closely with our clients was a top priority for everyone at Accenture. We offered advice and support with  thought leadership  to help our clients emerge stronger from the crisis. Our Marketing teams worked closely with our business thought leaders to publish more than 60 individual pieces of content between March and July 2020 across 19 industries and six functional groups. We also released more than 800 client stories during this time.

Jill Kramer, chief marketing & communications officer at Accenture says, “We produced a collection of robust research-based recommendations that focused on what our clients needed to know to handle the reality of NOW but also what may come NEXT. We saw clients engage with the content at record levels, but our main goal was to help them act swiftly and confidently based on robust data and insights.”

But we also worked together to solve unprecedented challenges facing our communities and industries. For instance, we  collaborated with Avanade and Rolls Royce  to design, manage and operate a supply chain for hospital ventilators. We organized the purchase and shipment of 3.4 million parts from more than 100 suppliers to three manufacturing locations. The government of the United Kingdom alone ordered 5,000 ventilators via this supply chain.

We worked with Avanade and Microsoft to connect 57 health system procurement departments with a network of vendors. Launching a new service known as Critical Supply Connect, we connected 638 hospitals and 110 suppliers with more than 300 unique products—all in just eight days.

As many businesses stalled and entire industries were unable to operate, unemployment became a pressing societal concern. The chief human resources officers of Accenture, Lincoln Financial Group, Procore and Verizon joined forces to create  People + Work Connect , a free employer-to-employer initiative that brings together companies reducing their workforces with companies in urgent need of workers. Over just 14 days in April 2020, People + Work Connect moved from idea to launch, and in the next year more than 270 companies from 94 countries uploaded more than 380,000 roles to the platform.

COVID-19 didn’t stop our efforts in the non-profit sector, either. Accenture Development Partnerships works with leading international development organizations to address the world’s social, economic and environmental issues. We provided pro bono support to Dimagi Inc., a social enterprise that provides open-source software technology for underserved communities, to validate and improve training materials and user guides for COVID-19-related apps deployed on the frontlines. We donated laptops to schools in the Middle East to support eLearning, provided plastic cover pages from binders for assembling protective visors for medical staff in France and purchased 55,000 face coverings from a North America-owned business that donated 100% of profits to its healthcare system.

"The investments we made in IT technologies, infrastructure and a collaborative culture positioned us to support Accenture’s rapid move to work from home when we needed it most." — PENELOPE PRETT , Chief Information, Data & Analytics Officer, Accenture

“Our technology skills came into their own for ourselves and others. For example, the Education Department in the United Kingdom is using our digital skills toolkit for millions of furloughed workers—it helped more than 50,000 new learners in June alone.” — PAUL DAUGHERTY , Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, Accenture

Driving business resilience

We relied on technology to increase the tempo of communications, delivering more than 1,100 messages across 53 countries to our people and our clients within the first few weeks of March. Our dedicated COVID-19 app team developed and rolled out more than 25 apps covering  business resilience , asset management, health attestation, donation tracking and social distance monitoring.

Crises such as the pandemic focus attention on the need for cash to keep the wheels of business turning, so our finance team  needed to act swiftly  to keep a daily pulse on our financial health, payment processes and procedures for our clients and our people. We enabled off-system new businesses and people, supporting 42 deals with 7,000 people in 32 countries with crisis response.

We provided timely data and analysis to our organization’s leaders to aid critical decision making. These and other measures strengthened our financial position and meant we could perform business critical functions—including closing our books and submitting our 10Q on time and executing 22 acquisitions in the first six months of the pandemic.

Supporting health and well-being—in all its forms

At Accenture, we strive to support our people’s health, safety and well-being, every day. But in these extraordinary times, it’s even more important to make sure that people stay happy and healthy, feel safe and connected and know they are financially secure.

By April 2020, the Corporate Services & Sustainability Mobility team had offered support to every assignee, traveler or individual on holiday. We contacted 12,000 assignees, booked 8,000 flights and helped more than 3,000 people who became stranded due to new travel restrictions. We created daily status updates to track ongoing changes to country travel restrictions, employee locations and tax implications, resulting in more than 500 reports in six months. In two weekends, we managed the rapid escalation of 20 country shutdowns. The Mobility team also secured thousands of hotel rooms and corporate apartments, including 1,000 hotel rooms in the Philippines alone.

We completed more than 6,000 COVID-19 Tax Accrual Impact Assessments for taxable travelers in 69 countries. Mobility coordinated with travel suppliers to cancel 6,000 flights in three weeks and, in just one week, they formed a team of 15 people to create a COVID-19 approval process and a tool to manage business-essential travel requests.

Mobility’s Meeting and Events team collaborated with Marketing and Communications and  Accenture Productions  to successfully convert a major in-person event to a virtual experience in just seven days. The virtual event for 300 people featured 12 hours of live content, videos, polls and feedback, played across 14 time zones and 26 countries. More importantly, Accenture avoided 766.05 tons of CO2 emissions from air travel. Throughout the pandemic, this shift to virtual events has enabled our people to remain connected, while Accenture-approved technology continues to help them get the most from meetings, despite travel and in-person event restrictions.

We deployed new capabilities to enable local government benefits and to reimburse people for additional expenses incurred when working from home. We developed analytics and data insights with key metrics to measure and manage the business and financial impact of the pandemic and to ensure people’s safety and security. We further served our talented teams by issuing 652,000 pay checks during March in 56 countries and also made early payments and reimbursements where needed, such as in India, Russia and Peru.

In addition, our HR Case Management team stayed in touch with people who were unwell and used contact tracing to maintain safety standards by making sure that anyone exposed to the virus avoided returning to the office. The team issued regular, accurate information to assist leadership decision making and inform our people. We selected and trained 600 HR professionals to serve as single points of contact for every Accenture person impacted by the pandemic. The case managers provided 24x7 telephone support for queries and concerns. Trained client response teams kept in touch with clients, vendors and landlords of our real estate, while employee relations professionals supported employees and their families who found themselves handling difficult situations.

A valuable difference

Returning to office: safety first

The next phase of our response to COVID-19 centers on our return to the workplace . We have created a comprehensive plan that focuses on the specific needs of our clients and our people. The plan includes globally organized, locally implemented evaluation and pre-approval processes and protocols that vary based on the type of space and emphasizes constant, compassionate communications with our people.

To ensure a safe return, we’re focusing on the fundamentals, such as space and access management, social distancing guidelines, enhanced cleaning and the provision of safety supplies. We’ve teamed with Salesforce to implement a secure health cloud to support our return to work, which includes case management, contact tracing, shift management and a Workplace Command Center.

The way forward

We’ve all learned a lot over the past year, but perhaps the most important lesson is that change is a constant, for all of us. No matter what may come, Accenture believes three key actions will help your organization embrace change:

Invest in the journey and your priorities ongoing. Accenture had already made moves to support our workforce in an agile way when faced with difficult decisions about how to run our business. We always want to serve our clients "on our best day," but we also aim to keep our people safe and healthy. With the need to work remotely, we had to find a balance between these two priorities—and we were ready to do so because of the investments we had made, coupled with the support of strong, empathetic leaders.

Understand where you are, then fill the gaps. As part of our analysis into how to create an elastic digital workforce , we created a diagnostic with a series of questions about readiness that we completed ourselves and also made available to clients. Based on a score of one to three, where three was the ideal score, Accenture scored three for the majority of answers. By contrast, most of our clients found they scored ones across the board. Your organization can benefit in seeing where your own gaps lie and work to address them.

Communicate freely and frequently as a way of life. A strong and regular communications strategy that includes employees, clients, suppliers and partners is essential to being transparent and staying aligned. Ongoing, daily updates help cut through the noise. By moving entirely to virtual operations, our video production team has helped connect our people working remotely—for example, producing Accenture’s biggest and most complex all-employee broadcast ever, featuring our CEO, Julie Sweet —and is still handling internal events and client events, such as virtual workshops.

By investing in the journey, filling in the gaps, and keeping lines of communication wide open, Accenture continues to create value for people, clients, partners, shareholders and communities and help them thrive in a changing world.

“Our work to ensure the well-being of Accenture people is more important than ever. We continue to implement and evolve our comprehensive plan to return to offices where permissible, with our people’s safety and the needs of our clients guiding the way.” — MARGARET SMITH , Senior Managing Director and Executive Director – Corporate Services & Sustainability and Business Operations, Accenture

Meet the team

Margaret Smith

Penelope Prett

Kai Nowosel

Tony Leraris

Helen Hickson

Erin Harris

Lisette Smyrnios

Arlin Pedrick

Related capabilities, how accenture does it, corporate services & sustainability.

These teams are enabling innovation, growth and business continuity for Accenture.

Finance at Accenture

Customer Case Study: Accenture and Semantic Kernel

Sophia Lagerkrans-Pandey

March 26th, 2024 0 2

Accenture Evolves its Data Analytics with Microsoft Semantic Kernel

Below we’ve provided a brief overview of the Customer Story of Accenture. Check out the entire Accenture Customer Story featured here: Accenture evolves its data analytics with Microsoft Fabric to calibrate the new “experience office”

Accenture created DEX, an AI-enhanced experience measurement framework. Leveraging Microsoft Fabric, DEX transforms data collection and analysis with AI, prioritizing user experience and productivity and allowing you to fine-tune your digital strategies to align with your workforce’s needs and expectations. It’s a shift towards a user-focused model that simplifies complexity and paves the way for better customer outcomes. Built and tested within Accenture itself, DEX is set to transform workplace dynamics in organizations worldwide.

Quantifying success through better enterprise data analysis

As one of the world’s largest professional services companies, Accenture is a leader in the current and evolving states of workplaces across the globe. Accenture has been working to help clients measure the efficiencies of remote, in-person, and hybrid work approaches. Accenture is at the forefront of helping companies measure what’s working, what isn’t, and the ways in which employees are navigating the numerous styles of workplaces, processes, and collaboration tools.

The challenge is not the ability to accumulate data towards this goal, but rather in managing and mining insights from that data.

Reinventing workplaces by democratizing data and insights

Accenture turned to longtime partner Microsoft to help realize the first generation of its new Digital Experience Measurement (DEX) Platform; a standardized system that quantifies six dimensions of an employee’s experience within a company: usability, user adoption, sentiment, support, performance, and accessibility.

DEX uses  Microsoft Fabric  and  Microsoft Semantic Kernel  with an open-source library. Microservices move data and responses using  Microsoft Azure OpenAI  to create an AI Large Language Model (LLM) on the back end.

Fabric integrates an extensive array of datasets, pulling from diverse sources such as custom applications, data warehouses, and other disparate repositories, and consolidating them into a single, unified repository within Fabric’s OneLake.

Unlocking information from data had previously been a complex exercise – structuring data, then building custom tools to accomplish a defined set of anticipated needs. Mining the data required custom-built tools to parse and deliver a limited data set. This created a number of isolated data silos that continued to grow over time.

DEX isn’t just about bringing data together; it’s about creating a unified, secure, integrated experience from end to end. Whether it’s visualization, developer interaction, or data analysis, Fabric simplifies the complexities for Accenture.

“Creating a seamless, connected digital experience that helps our people navigate across the expert knowledge at Accenture we believe will, in turn, have a positive correlation on customer satisfaction,” says Christensen.

“That’s where DEX is ultimately headed: getting the tools in the hands of the end users themselves,” says Tybor. “Our IT department can of take a step back and focus on enabling our business goals while ensuring we have a more secure and governed data estate—ultimately enabling the businesses’ strategic goals,” he added.

Please reach out if you have any questions or feedback through our  Semantic Kernel GitHub Discussion Channel . We look forward to hearing from you! We would also love your support, if you’ve enjoyed using Semantic Kernel, give us a star on  GitHub .

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