As Accenture (ACN) North American’s first female Chief Executive, Julie Sweet has already invested billions of dollars to build the business with acquisitions. But her investments haven't ended there. She’s also spent millions more on advancing the company's employees.
“Our focus has been on having Accenture be a place where you can be successful as an employee at work and also at home,” said Sweet. She claims the company has spent $800 million dollars last year in professional development for its workers including implementing changes in benefits for working parents.
Originally hired at the consulting firm giant as its general consul, Sweet is at the forefront of Accenture's transformation to an enterprise tech company. With digital on the minds of its clients, Sweet said the cloud and security space is the focus of its dealmaking.
Sweet excitedly shared the company's recent acquisition under her watch of cloud advisory and technology services company Cloud Sherpas. “You should expect to more of those [deals],” she added.
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Despite concerns America is falling behind and losing its grip as the global leader in technology, Sweet disagrees. “There’s lots of innovation around the world as well but the U.S., I think still remains the leader,” she said.
Sweet also sees “the U.S. as a growth market.”
“We are at the epicenter of innovation and we have huge companies that are embracing change, they’re embracing digital that are changing companies and the world,” she added.
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