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Deals, Data, and Deglobalization: Manish Sharma in the Hot Seat with Phil Fersht
141 Plays1 day ago
How do you drive transformation when every global signal is flashing red, yellow... and green?
In this episode of From the Horse’s Mouth, Phil Fersht sits down with Manish Sharma, CEO of
Accenture’s North America business, to talk about navigating talent, geopolitics, trust, and transformation in an age of relentless change.
They delve into the "rebalancing" of globalization, exploring how the future of service delivery is shifting, why AI maturity is about people, not just technology, and what global business leaders are still getting wrong about partnerships and accountability.
What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes
• How “re-globalization” is reshaping service delivery
• Why automation alone isn’t enough
• What boards really want from providers today
• The shift from cost to value: New KPIs for transformation
• The talent mindset needed for the AI-first world
• How Accenture is approaching trust, transformation, and partnerships
Guest Snapshots
Manish Sharma is the CEO of North America at Accenture, leading the firm’s largest market. Formerly Accenture’s Chief Operating Officer and Group Chief Executive of Operations, Manish has been instrumental in evolving the global services landscape—from pioneering intelligent operations to advocating for borderless talent.
His leadership spans transformation at scale, digital reinvention, and deeply human leadership. Recognized as one of the top thinkers in global services and operations, Manish blends global delivery expertise with a sharp lens on what’s next.
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro and welcome
02:05 – From India to North America: Manish’s journey and leadership lens
05:10 – The new rules of globalization: Borders, supply chains, and trust
08:40 – Are delivery centers obsolete? Manish on the future of service delivery
11:00 – Why AI maturity isn’t just about tech—it’s about people readiness
13:45 – Rethinking partnerships: From FTEs to outcomes
16:20 – The boardroom’s new obsession: How to turn insights into execution
20:00 – Manish’s challenge to the industry: “Don’t just automate. Re-imagine.”
23:30 – Lightning round: What’s next for services, skills, and leadership
26:00 – Wrap-up
Explore More
• Manish Sharma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manish-sharma-bbb1a1
• Accenture North America: https://www.accenture.com/us-en
• Phil Fersht on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/
• More insights from HFS: https://www.hfsresearch.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:12
Speaker
You're listening to From the Horse's Mouth, intrepid conversations with Phil First. Ready to meet the disruptors who are guiding us to the new great utopia by reshaping our world and pushing past corporate spin for honest conversations about the future impact of current and emerging technologies?
00:00:30
Speaker
Tune in now.
Spotlight on Manish Sharma
00:00:36
Speaker
great eggs and welcome to the latest edition of From the Horse's Mouth podcast. I'm your host, Phil Furst, and joining me today is a legend of the services industry, Manish Sharma, who I've personally known for about 15 odd years.
00:00:52
Speaker
from his various roles in Accenture. And he was recently given this role of Chief Services Officer, running an integrated portfolio of all Accenture services offerings at a time where an industry is going through profound change. So welcome, Anish. It's great to have you back and it would be great to hear a bit about maybe what's changed in your life in the last six months or so.
00:01:15
Speaker
I think, first of all, Phil, thanks for having me here. I think I've known you for more than a decade and it's always fun to meet with you, right? Let me kind of set the stage on this.
The Role of AI in Professional Services
00:01:26
Speaker
file AI is really, really powering all the professional services.
00:01:32
Speaker
And I think if I were to just explain that part, AI is just the enabling tool to achieve value is really complex. And the reality, however, is that most companies are not yet ready to take advantage at the scale of the power of AI because they have not yet created ah modern digital core.
00:02:00
Speaker
Their data is not accessible. Their processes are not ready. And using AI requires them to radically change the ways they work to capture the huge value, which is the promise of AI.
00:02:17
Speaker
And I think we are, and I'm so confident about the fact that only company in the world that can actually deliver the big reinventions our clients need.
00:02:31
Speaker
That's why companies call Accenture. And With this kind of a backdrop, right, if I just look at the service model, I think it is evolving. And client need us more than ever before.
00:02:47
Speaker
I think the Gen AI revolution kind of has democratized the access to powerful tools.
Challenges and Opportunities with Gen AI
00:02:54
Speaker
But it has also multiplied the complexity of using them effectively, safely, and at scale.
00:03:04
Speaker
Accenture helps clients with that complexity. And I'll give you some examples, right? And if you just consider the following, AI is no longer a tool. It's an enterprise-wide transformation.
00:03:17
Speaker
I think Gen AI impacts the strategy, structure, skills, not just technology. It cuts across functions, whether from marketing to legal to R&D to finance.
00:03:31
Speaker
And I think success requires end-to-end orchestration, business strategy, technology integration, the change management. And that's where I will say that we have over 80,000 trained professionals who come in.
00:03:48
Speaker
Accenture brings multidisciplinary cross-industry expertise to architect and execute that transformation. Our business is actually about making it work in complex enterprises.
00:04:01
Speaker
That's what we do across more than 1,100 projects today. I want to give an example of a client, Air France, KLM.
Case Study: Air France-KLM's Gen AI Factory
00:04:11
Speaker
I think working with Google Cloud, we built a Gen AI factory, a cloud-based platform that gives teams across the airline access to like shared tools, proven models.
00:04:27
Speaker
ah We have a process from moving from idea to deployment, With this foundation, they can now develop and scale AI solutions in areas like ground operations, aircraft maintenance, and customer service.
00:04:47
Speaker
Second, I think off-the-cell models don't solve enterprise problems. I think public LLMs aren't designed for industry context, ah regulatory frameworks, or enterprise-grade security, and all three are really important.
00:05:03
Speaker
A true value comes from fine-tuned models, whether it is the private data pipelines, the agentic architectures integrated into core systems and building data backbone,
00:05:17
Speaker
I think Accenture, what it does is it builds sector, domain-specific AI solutions aligned to enterprise needs at scale. And that's the difference, what I call, between trying AI and scaling AI.
00:05:31
Speaker
You need a partner who has been there before. So how do you see AI changing the balance between human talent and machine intelligence?
AI: Task Replacement vs Job Elimination
00:05:41
Speaker
And what does that mean for companies?
00:05:43
Speaker
How do they transform the work and what tools are necessary? So I think if I look at that piece, site I think ai is not replacing people. It is actually replacing tasks or part of tasks and processes, allowing organizations to create new opportunities for people.
00:06:01
Speaker
I think employment declines are concentrated in occupations where AI is kind of more likely to automate and rather than augment human labor. i When I go into our centers and I look across our people, right, our people are doing new, more creative and innovative work for clients as a result of AI.
00:06:22
Speaker
We have taken what we have learned from thousands of projects and from our own reinvention and built a solution that brings people, AI agents and technology together clients can kind of move beyond pilots, right?
00:06:37
Speaker
to real results faster and with greater certainty. One thing which is there is, I will also say that we'll be launching a solutions that will also help with some of the stuff around these changes. So do you see in this end, Accenture building AI platforms of its own, oh is the future more about stitching ecosystems together?
00:07:02
Speaker
I think it will be a mix of both as we go into this. It will be a mix of both. We are building a lot of stuff. I think would have seen the AI refinery and some of the pieces that we have done.
00:07:13
Speaker
i will say that we will also stitching. So you have seen the trusted agent hurdle, which is, I think, a fantastic thing where we bring our own stuff as well as our clients' ecosystems stuff from there together.
00:07:28
Speaker
so I think it will be a stitch of both of them getting the best of the breed across the patch. Right, right. so So how do you balance that kind of a need for speed with AI because we see the pressure coming on and enterprises from their boards and their C-suite. There's this real urgency with the concerns are around trust, risk, and accountability.
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think you will have to go to the basics, right? Because I think I mentioned at the start that you have to be, first of all, having your data and ready. You have to have your digital code ready.
00:08:03
Speaker
You have to have your people, really, the talent orchestration. And I think we we will need to kind of get that piece going. Because if you don't really pull all of this together in the right way, you will not have, I think, creation of enterprise value.
00:08:23
Speaker
And I think that's and a really important one. So let's think a bit about talent. And, know, I know you guys talk about change a lot, let there be change, right? So if AI is automating a lot of the entry level work that we're bringing into play here, how should firms like Accenture keep investing and your next generation of talent?
00:08:46
Speaker
Do you still need to hire tens of thousands of graduates every year, Manish?
The Importance of Entry-Level Positions
00:08:50
Speaker
I personally believe, right, when we look at this, we lose entry-level time. Because what it does is I think it brings together ah really new person who is fresh from college and gets access from all the latest expertise, and they are able to weave a lot of, I will say, outcomes.
00:09:15
Speaker
They are able to weave in a lot of process, industry altogether, which it is available, and stitch a solution for the clients. So I personally believe that the entry level is a must.
00:09:29
Speaker
We will continue to hire, i will say, important work which will be done by the entry rules folks. If you really look at it also, With NVA in the early, you know, in the career highest, we're looking for people who have demonstrate demonstrated an entrepreneurial mindset, like those who were involved in a startup or contributed to open source, as well as ai literacy.
00:09:56
Speaker
And I think in addition, business skills like communication, collaboration are also important than ever before. I will also say this, a significant advantage in our ambition is to double our AI and data workforce from 40,000 to 80,000 by the end of f five point is I think the ability is back into our own people who have mapped thousands of them into high-skill, high-demand new roles,
00:10:23
Speaker
right making progress on our overall goal with 72,000 data and AI practitioners in our workforce to date. If somebody is a good learner, I think they will really flourish in this environment.
00:10:36
Speaker
Right, right. So what skills should universities and governments be prioritizing for the next decade of work? I would say that they should be really prioritizing some of the basic stuff.
00:10:47
Speaker
But I think the real key thing would be if they can really pull together some process skills, the technology skills, having a very continuous education program, and ah huge amount of curiosity if they can inculcate in their programs. I think that will be the most ah you know important thing about this.
00:11:10
Speaker
Right, right, right. So... So when you say curiosity, you mean finding ways to make people curious, to keep learning new things, to broaden roles, have more sort of almost the ability to deal with ambiguity? Is that what you're thinking?
00:11:26
Speaker
I would say if people are looking for some jobs in rich they are just going to do the same thing forever. i think this will be a very tough one. What they will have to interpret is to put different situations, different scenarios, and get the younger folks to really learn through those items. Because that will be the real key, I would say, a differentiator for anybody who wants to be successful.
00:11:52
Speaker
learning curiosity, dealing with ambiguity, actually unlearning and relearning again and again because things are changing so fast and so rapidly.
00:12:04
Speaker
i think that will be the key thing. You know, we could we talk a lot about young professionals, right? Because they don't have a preset way of doing things. And you mentioned people who just want to do the same thing every day for the rest of their careers.
00:12:16
Speaker
What's your advice for the mid-career professional, you know, who's maybe be threatened by this? do They have a bit of disillusionment. i You know, what's your advice to them to further their ambitions and careers in this environment?
00:12:29
Speaker
Well, let me first start by saying that this is the way which I'm really excited about. I have registered for a PhD program because I am trying to get myself also to learn.
00:12:40
Speaker
Now, when we kind of go out of this, two out of the three organizations we survey, you know, very strongly agree that Gen AI will make work more meaningful and full-fledged.
00:12:52
Speaker
And employees agree. 95% are excited to work with Gen AI. However, i think despite the enthusiasm, the workers do not trust organizations to ensure positive outcomes for everyone.
00:13:07
Speaker
And that caution is warranted. Three in four organizations have not designed AI transformation to be human-centered. So, got to focus on training. You know, 200,000 of our people have completed approximately 2 million hours of training to accelerate technology delivery with GenAR.
00:13:25
Speaker
So, making sure that we are human-centric, we remind people that reskilling is critical, but so is the focusing on the whole person. And here's how we look at it, right? We provide market-reading skills and provide experiences that will unlock people's full potential.
00:13:43
Speaker
Yeah. so So what excites you, Manish, most personally about the next decade of
The Future with Agentic AI
00:13:50
Speaker
IT business services? And what keeps you awake at night? I am excited about agentic AI. That's the headline, right?
00:13:57
Speaker
I think advancements in digitizing the knowledge, new AI models, the agentic AI systems and architecture, I think all enable enterprises to create their own unique, I think, cognitive base. And that's kind of spectacular, right?
00:14:13
Speaker
This is the future we are heading towards. AI that doesn't just respond but learns, improves and works as a part of team. AI agents working together on big picture goals versus his incremental profs.
00:14:28
Speaker
And what keeps me at night? I think I will say, how do we help our clients truly transform end to end? How we help the street get excited about what we do?
00:14:40
Speaker
and how we continually grow and hire the best talent. So you've been around a bit in this industry, Manish, and a lot of people talk fondly about you, especially when day is building out the old BPO and operations businesses. So what do you want to be your legacy in this role? When you you look back on this big challenge that you're driving right now, what how would you want people to remember you?
Prioritizing Legacy: Accenture vs Personal
00:15:04
Speaker
I think you know me, Phil, for decades, right? I'm not interested my own legacy, honestly. I am ah really, really interested in Accenture's legacy. What really want to help clients is steward their resources exceedingly well so that they know Accenture has contributed to their success.
00:15:23
Speaker
And that will come from helping clients transform with AI. As I said, we are the only company in the world that can deliver the big green missions our clients need.
00:15:35
Speaker
So I think that is really, really keen to have Accenture's legacy cemented in that. When you say you're the only company in the world who can do this,
00:15:46
Speaker
What is the key secret sauce that you feel is the differentiator between you guys and everybody else? Thanks for asking that question, right? How many companies in the world have deep industry expertise?
00:16:02
Speaker
Deep. For decades. How many of the companies in the world have a massive technology strength? And this is, I'm talking about, like doing, it's massive, right? You're talking about all the systems integration work and the AMS and the IMS stuff.
00:16:25
Speaker
How many companies in the world do have the ability to have a large, and I think the world's largest operations business? How many of the companies have strong,
00:16:40
Speaker
which is building your front end and you know have the ability to help clients grow their revenue. How many companies in the world can actually have a massive presence in industry x across procurement, supply chain, digital manufacturing, physical AI?
00:16:56
Speaker
I can't think of any company other than Accenture at the scale that we operate and ability to piece it together to deliver large reinventions, delivering tangible, sustained business outcomes.
00:17:11
Speaker
is miss you know and but When I'm saying this, I'm also trying to think of once again, well right? But there is nobody on this planet who can actually do this. One of my strongest beliefs in terms of just the presence across the globe, having all the services,
00:17:29
Speaker
The biggest data and AI practice in the world, assets like Synops, GenWizard, Song, it is incredible, right? We have plenty of examples to kind of say that, right? m you know When we talk about ah client example like NetWest, it's a five-year collaboration involving our ecosystem to partner, AWS, to transform the way its customers are accelerating the modernization of its digital data and analytics and the AI capabilities.
00:17:57
Speaker
Look at them when they had the complexity of the choice.
Accenture's Unique Capabilities
00:18:00
Speaker
Do you use OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Meta or build your own model? Which orchestration layer fits your stack? Azure, Amazon Bedrock or customer agents?
00:18:10
Speaker
How do you integrate AI into legacy, SAP, Oracle, ServiceNow environments? Right. XAC helps clients navigate, integrate, future-proof this complex and evolving ecosystem.
00:18:23
Speaker
I can go on with examples after example. you know If I look at Telstra, Australia's leading telco, we are partnering to create a new joint venture to accelerate Telstra's data and AI roadmap.
00:18:35
Speaker
Together, we will actually reinvent the business processes through new capabilities like agenting AI, enabling teams to kind of work with special intelligent AI ecosystems and kind of to optimize all the key tasks end to end.
00:18:50
Speaker
And this joint venture will also help build specialized AI tools to support teams to work smarter and faster. Now tell me, like with this just two examples, who on this planet can actually do this?
00:19:06
Speaker
Well, I think you've got the ability to bring together, as you've done in years, you've got the consulting, the strategy, and the delivery, but you're also very steeped in the business process as well as the technology and a lot of your competitors are obsessed with just tech and the decisions are being made jointly between the business side and the tech side right now and when we look at emerging tech like vibe coding that gets me very excited because you're actually redesigning the role of the developer and you're really bringing the business context into the equation because you can't just
00:19:47
Speaker
bolts these technologies onto existing process. and You have to completely rethink work and rethink the ways you do things. and And you guys bring it all to the table. You did it with cloud, you did it with digital, and now with seeing the, I think personally, think this is the biggest challenge of our industry that it's ever faced.
00:20:07
Speaker
And you've been given probably one of the most challenging roles to to make it happen and stuff like that. Are you enjoying it? Is this what you want to be doing? This is my 31st year in the firm.
00:20:19
Speaker
People always ask that, how come you're such a long time? Because I think that this is the only firm where I'm still learning after 31 years. Learning. You know, doing new things.
00:20:30
Speaker
I think and this is a firm which allows one to take lot of risks. You can be an entrepreneur here in Accenture within a large company. And this is what I have enjoyed.
00:20:41
Speaker
And, you know, when I look at this job, I think AI requires a new operating model. It's not just about using ai It's about redefining how work gets done, how decisions are, how teams are structured, how performance is made. yeah Can you imagine, you know, in 31 years, like I'm back to ah learning and figuring out, right? with ah Where else can I get this opportunity built?
00:21:04
Speaker
We aren't the only one. I feel like I'm doing it myself. To be honest, it's changing my industry more than ever. I'm in the information business. so You're a partner, Phil. You're my partner.
00:21:16
Speaker
You are a part of this whole journey. ah So I think we have been part with you since you started, and I think we will absolutely be taking your coaching and some of the insights that you made. That's good.
00:21:27
Speaker
Well, I personally believe when we went through the advent of the internet, The reason why this was so fundamentally transformational was because it impacted society, us personally, as well as business.
00:21:42
Speaker
And then you get a lot of technologies where people are buying a platform like Workday or Salesforce or something like that, which is fairly routine. But now we're going back to a the next wave of technology that's truly changing us as human beings and the society that we live in and the way we do things on a day-to-day basis.
00:22:02
Speaker
and That's why it becomes truly transformational. and you know When we look back at the change the internet brought, I feel this is the new wave. and When we come out the other side of this, we're Our lives are going to be more enriched.
00:22:16
Speaker
You know, we're going to do our jobs so much more efficiently and so much more intelligently. And then the human aspect will really dig in, which is engaging with other people, meeting your clients and your colleagues and your friends and all these sorts of things. So I think we're getting to that point.
00:22:34
Speaker
I feel that we've developed a lot in the last year from where we were and um im ah I'm excited. I will leave you with one more fact. right Skills often follow the progress of technology.
00:22:45
Speaker
And if you look at some of the economists' estimation, 60% of today's title did not exist in 1940s and 50s. We will see new jobs in the future.
00:22:56
Speaker
And that is you know exciting. A prompting engineer used to be a standalone skill, but no longer. With agent-like AI, you now have new skills such as agent architect.
00:23:08
Speaker
So I think, you know, AI is like creating a widespread disruption field that you and I have not seen him and new talent needs, right? Because I think and that is where we are going to be having reinvention deployed engineers doing all the reinvention for the big enterprises.
00:23:24
Speaker
This is going to be, I think personally, the most exciting time that we have actually seen. Yes, I'm completely with it. And on that note, I will thank you very much for your time. Take care, Phil. Thank you.
00:23:39
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to From the Horse's Mouth, intrepid conversations with Phil First. Remember to follow Phil on LinkedIn and subscribe and like on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite platform for no-nonsense takes on the intricate dance between technology, business, and ideological systems.
00:23:59
Speaker
Got something to add to the discussion? Let's have it. Drop us a line at fromthehorsesmouth at hfsresearch.com or connect with Phil on LinkedIn.