I personally feel I will have failed if I do not make progress toward making us the most inclusive and diverse workforce in the U.S.
— Julie Sweet
There are three things that I have found were really critical in my first year: listening, prioritizing, and communicating. I don't think they're different for women. It's really about that first year as a CEO.
It is very hard to transform your culture and your workforce to be a relevant company in the digital world if all of your processes are stuck in the traditional world.
I'm driven by making an impact on the individuals I interact with and leveraging my success to give back to the world.
What motivates me has changed over time. My younger self was driven by the desire to be extremely successful.
You can't get the growth without the skills.
Through our Building Bridges dialogues at Accenture, where we have brought together people from diverse backgrounds to have sometimes difficult conversations, such as around race, I have experienced the power of storytelling to help people from diverse backgrounds understand each other.
Diversity is critical to innovation.
It's important to reflect upon how far we've come in achieving gender equality in the workplace and how we could move faster toward even greater goals.
We strive to create an inclusive and diverse environment where our people can be successful, both professionally and personally.
People often talk about the self-driving car and what will that do. In 32 states, the number one job is to be the driver. But remember, it's not just the driver. Let's think about the truck stops along the way. When you suddenly have a lot of other people who are dependent on those careers.
There is a high school trap where girls get lost in computing.
It takes work to figure out how to bank on your phone, how to sign up for classes, how to connect in a community.
There is a very genuine belief that without diversity of thought, companies can't innovate.
Women tend to lag in adopting new technology quickly.
Innovation is the new competitive advantage.
An employee, even a very junior person, if they can articulately summarize a meeting, if they can put together a presentation and even emails that are really salient and to the point, they are so valued.
Every year, I spend time to improve how I communicate.
When you come in as a new leader, it's really important that people do get to know you and that you are constantly communicating. That's really hard in a big organization.
Clients want to work with us.
I grew up with a single pair of shoes until I grew into the next size. My parents believed in the American dream and the power of education but didn't have the money to send me to college. I realized early on that I needed to go against the flow and be better than everyone else to support my family.
Pretty much every industry we serve feel like they are way over-regulated.
Innovation hubs are going to be in cities focused on the industries and clients of that city. So in Houston, it's focused on our industrial companies, particularly the energy sector, robotics, and automation.
What you want is to have women at the same pace as men doing tech immersion. It's not that every woman has to do it, but to close the gap, you need to have them do it at the same pace as men.
While men and women alike are liberated by the balance that work flexibility affords, women appear to derive greater value from it.
We believe that transparency creates trust.
Our focus has been on having Accenture be a place where you can be successful as an employee at work and also at home.
You can't expect leaders and people to be intentional, take the steps that are needed, and be a part of making progress if you're not willing to be transparent about where we are and where we want to go.
The government needs to invest in raising digital fluency of its citizenry.
This goes to show how much of an impact culture has. Even in countries where online access is readily available, there may not be the same expectation for women.
The U.S. may be behind on family-friendly benefits, but I see it's changing, because we're all facing a talent war.
Have the confidence to focus on uncharted territory. Take chances.
Diversity is critical to our business outcomes.
I think people underrate the importance of investing in your communication skills as a way to progress in your career.
What's the greatest advice I give? Develop excellent communication skills.
When you come into a role, there seems to be just a ton of different places you can make an impact. But it's critical in that first year to be seen to be a leader that can actually accomplish things and has a sense of priorities.
Being an inclusive place means being inclusive for all people.
My dad painted cars for a living, and my mom graduated from college when I was a college freshman myself.
We want the brand of Accenture to be innovation.
I want to have a really big impact on my kids, my community, and my company.
Digital fluency... is literally your ability to do things like banking online, to connect with people, to use a device and the Internet in a very easy way.
Digital fluency is about basic skills.
We believe our diversity makes us stronger, smarter, and more innovative, helping us better serve the needs of our clients, our people, and our communities.
We're smarter and more innovative when we're diverse.
We believe that transparency is needed to create trust, and it's also needed to create a dialogue.
Digital fluency can accelerate progress.
We're not going to change overnight that we have a majority of all white male leaders.
If you choose to work at a larger company over a smaller company, you are more likely to be higher paid.
If you aspire to senior leadership, you're going to have to work hard. That doesn't mean you have to give up everything.
We're supposed to be bringing out-of-the-box thinking and innovation, and you cannot do that unless you've got diversity... It's everything from gender to ethnicity to geographic diversity.
