>> Narrator: Live from Las Vegas, it's the CUBE covering Service Now Knowledge 2018. Brought to you by Service Now. >> Welcome back to Service Now Knowledge 18 this is the CUBE's live coverage. We are the leader in live technology coverage. We extract the signal from the noise. I'm Rebecca Knight your host along with my cohost Dave Vellante. We've got a great panel right now. We have Andrew Wilson who is the CIO of Accenture and Ellen Shook who is the chief leadership in human resources officer at Accenture. Thanks so much for coming on the show. >> Thanks for having us. >> Hello great to be back. >> Good to see you again. >> Before the cameras were rolling we were talking about people driven change. But Accenture not but, and Accenture is a huge organization. 400,000 plus individuals working around the world. How do you drive change in such a large and dispersed organization? >> Well I think the most important thing is that change isn't human driven but humans need to be at the center of all change and I think that's why Andrew and I show up in a lot of places together. Because we do use technology to elevate the human experience at Accenture. And the more digital an organization becomes the more important human connection is and that's what we do is create truly compelling experiences for our people. >> Because we don't have separate agendas at Accenture. The relationship that Ellen and I have I think is one of the most important in our enterprise. Where we're driving digital transformation for our clients and within our own business and it's equal parts technology, talent, and change. And so you have to bring those things together and so what we're doing at Knowledge is talking a lot about the outcomes that we drive. Where we're in an experience rich culture our people, our employees, our citizens, our customers. They demand an experience which is very different to how the old IT posture had to deliver. So if we get the partnership right we create a culture and an environment that they'll have fun in and enjoy and not just have to turn up at work for. >> So Ellen what's the outcome that you're trying to achieve? Let's work backwards from there when you think about your human experience? >> Well really what we're trying to do is create an environment where our people can be successful both professionally and personally. Because you, we really require huge diversity at Accenture because in order to bring innovative solutions to our clients we truly need very broad diversity and in order to discover and inspire diverse base of talent. We need to create world class experiences that really unlock their full potential. >> We're all human beings after all. But human beings whether or not we're delivering services or whether we're consuming them. So under Ellen's leadership we talk about truly human and I think that's really important because we must reflect and understand the community we serve. So if we don't have the diversity, if we don't have the gender mix. If we're not looking like the humans who we need to look after then there's going to be a barrier and I think that's at the heart of a lot of modern transformation. >> Now hang on. I heard you say today you have a lot of nn human workers. >> I do, I do. >> So they're not all humans. Who are they, are they robots? >> Well the future of work and the future workforce is a combination of human and machine. Because you need both and you need both working in a way that compliments each other. So we're often asked does the machine replace the human. No it doesn't it changes the content of the work and frees the human to do more interesting work and we need both in a modern agenda. >> And quite simply we do have a very strong belief that technology elevates humans and does not eliminate humans. >> And I'm an optimist too but when I go to the airport I see kiosks, more kiosks than humans. When I drive down the highway out of Heathrow I see all the billboards and they're neon now or electronic so clearly machines have always replaced humans in jobs and clearly as humans we've always overcome. So I'm an optimist too but it seems different this time around because, it cognitive functions and it seems like a whole new set of skills. You guys are experts at this. What are your thoughts? >> I think we are building a set of skills is the new that's absolutely essential for the modern enterprise. So when you drive down the road from Heathrow you don't see the data scientists, you don't see the design thinkers. You don't see the humans that are listening to and talking with their customers and surfacing insights. We think about applying intelligence in the enterprise. Now the humans wouldn't have time to do that if they had to deal with all the old transactions. Free them up from that and then they can do all of this interesting work and that's the future of work. >> One of the things you were talking about on the main stage Andrew was about the changing role of the CIO and you said I actually think of myself as a chief experience officer. Can you refine that a little bit? >> Well I think Ellen and I both care about the experience of all of our employees, all of our humans, all of our citizens and all of our customers and clients as well. So the days of operating in a data center, of buildings systems are long gone. Accenture is now 90% in the cloud and I have to think about services which are really flexible, agile that deliver outcomes. So if my customers are not enjoying the experience and having fun and feeling at home. They're going to walk away so I care much more and that's why I think I lead with experience as the chief experience officer. >> So one just, to bring that down to an example. We hire about a 100,000 people a year and if you think of kind of the old paradigm when someone starts at your company. They have to get assigned a desk, a computer, a security badge you know get onto payroll and all of that historically has been done very siloed function by function. What Andrew and I are trying to create is an exciting experience when you show up for work on the first day where all of that is frictionless. All of that process goes to the backstage and how you feel about showing up as a new employee on your first day is just a glorious experience. >> So we always talk about people process and technology as a CIO you understand. Well the technology will continue to progress it's the people in process that are hard part. But can you actually achieve that vision without a technology platform that is flexible, that enables that type of work environment? >> The technology problem is really what is the enabler of the experiences we're trying to create. But the most important thing that the technology does for us is enables us to create truly world class human experiences. >> Before the cameras were rolling you were talking about how you have five generations of workers at Accenture. How do you cater to them? I mean as you said you want, coming to work everyday whether it's your first day or your, you know you've been there for 20 years to be a glorious experience. How do you make sure you are taking this empathetic people centered approach for each of these different kind of workers? >> I call it with my team sweating the small stuff and that's not worrying about bureaucracy and process. That's worrying about the individual. So we do have five generations working side by side both serving our clients and serving our business and the most important thing is truly understanding what's most important to the human? Not what generation they're coming from or were born during. >> Those five generations have a lot in common before they come to work they typically watch the news. They may have read the Wall Street Journal. They may have consumed content on YouTube. They may have looked at Twitter, they may have subscribed to Netflix. They may have asked Alexa or Cortana for advice and guidance. When they get to work what changes? It has to feel and be exactly like that and Ellen and I will be creating the services that do that so that it feels welcoming and sticky and so I want to stay. Which is really important in the modern enterprise when there's so much opportunity out there for the human. >> And to go back to the question you were asking and talking about driving out of Heathrow and not seeing humans. I think the thing that CEOs really need to understand is that employees are excited about the opportunity that technology is going to bring to their job. In fact we did a piece of research that we launched earlier this year that says over 80% of people are excited about how technology is going to improve their work. Because of the very reason they Google things at home. They use you know Amazon or whatever to go buy their things that they need for themselves. And so they see the opportunity and it's companies and organization's roles to tap into that excitement and really change the future of work. >> Here's a really good example of that. So there is nothing more boring than security training. >> I agree. >> So inside Accenture why don't you subscribe to a TV show that looks like 24. The TV show, the 24 that's episodic. We drop a season that has actors portraying the implications of if you don't get your security rights as a human and as an individual. It gets great ratings, great viewing figures. So it's ratings and viewing figures that tell us we're communicating with our employees. That's what being in the new is about. >> And that's really innovative. I was going to ask you about training and education because the example of Heathrow you don't see the data scientist the person who's putting paper and glue and doesn't have the skill sets of that data scientist. So I know Accenture big on training, education. You guys invest a lot there. My question is as you span five generations is the training regimen... Sort of how do you tailor it to those different needs? >> Well what we're finding frankly is that all of our people really want to stay relevant to their clients and to their people and so what we did was we worked together to democratize our learning platforms. So you no longer have to be tapped on the shoulder and invited to take training. We've enabled our training platform to be available real time and on demand and when you create a culture in which people are hungry to learn. You see some amazing things happen and we can see on our dashboard that Andrew's team has built all of the trending topics on any given day in any day of the week. That our people are doing through self learning. >> And that's shared and open? So there's a little bit of game theory going on here. >> Because transparency builds trust. Absolutely. >> What you want, where you want, when you want it, why you want it and at the rate you want it. Because everybody has different sets of needs. Well they'll stay relevant, they'll stay liquid and they'll be able to keep up with modern technology because we're a technology business in our case. That's wat training is about and they'll be more effective and they'll have fun and they'll have job security and none of that is threatened by other aspects of technology. >> But one point to add to that because I think Andrew's brilliance doesn't always fully come through is that everything that he's built for our people has a social component it. So for example on the learning platform I can recommend different learning experiences that I've gone through to my colleagues, to my peers and when you see the interaction among the people and how you can create real change. With just each other, without driving change top down. That social experience really changes the whole dynamic in an organization. >> I think one of the things that Ellen and I have had a chance to leave our mark on is that we have both democratized training and we socialize training as well and both are really important. >> You talked about, oh sorry. Go ahead please. >> You said you hire a 100,000 people a year and at a time where the skill set is really changing. Because so many of the repetitive automate the task are being automated and so really the skillsets that we need are more empathetic, more creative. How are you finding those people? Particularly at a time we really are in a war for talent? >> We talk about discovering new sources of talent rather than attracting talent to us. So we really try to go digital where the people are. So that's where people are, that's where we go look for them but the most important thing is that we are investing in new skilling our people. So we're not just hiring people in with new skills we're giving all of the 442,000 humans at Accenture the opportunity to continue to keep themselves relevant. >> So rather than coders and testers we now have data scientists and I do think we have new talent sources inside and outside the company. So I'm delighted to say that 54% of my team in China happen to be ladies and there's a really good solid data science gene in them which is helping us with our analytics and surfacing insights in a way that my organization didn't used to do. So we've tapped into new talent, many of them we already had it's just how you free them to do the job that they are very very capable of doing. >> Well Andrew, Ellen thank you so much for coming on the CUBE. It was great to have you here. >> Thanks for having us. >> Great to see you guys. >> I'm Rebecca Knight for Dave Vellante, we will have more from Service Now Knowledge 18 just after this.

>> Welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. It's International Women's Day 2018. There's a ton of events happening all over the world. Check the social media stream, you'll be amazed. But we're excited to be here, downtown San Francisco, at the Accenture event. It's called Getting to Equal, 400 people, it's a packed house here at the Hotel Nikko, and we're really excited to have the authors of some really important research here as our next guests. This is Julie Sweet, the CEO of North America for Accenture. Good to see you, Julie. >> Great, thanks for having me today. >> And Ellyn Shook, the Chief Leadership and HR Officer at Accenture. Great to see you. >> Thank you, Jeff. >> All right. So Ellen, I want to start with you just cause I noticed your title, and I wrote it down, I've never seen, we do hundreds of events, thousands of interviews, I've never seen Chief Leadership and HR. Where did that title come from, and why is "Leadership" ahead of "HR"? That's a pretty significant statement. >> It is, it is, and Accenture's a talent-led business, and part of being a talent-led business is growing our people to grow our business, so leadership and leadership development is essential to our business. It's a core competency of ours, and that's why my title is Chief Leadership & Human Resources Officer. >> And Leadership before HR, meaning you really need people to get out in front. >> Yes. >> It's not about compliance, >> Yes, leaders at all levels. >> and this and that, leaders of all levels. >> Correct, correct. >> Okay, so let's talk about the research. >> Sure. >> It says, "When she rises, we all rise." I think it's pretty common, and everybody knows hopefully by this point, that diversity of opinion, diversity of teams, leads to better business outcomes. So what specifically is this piece of research, and give us a little background. >> Sure, the research, I think, is groundbreaking because never have I seen a piece of research that looks at the cultural aspects of an organization and really helps to articulate very transparently, what are the biggest accelerators in a culture for equality? And that's what the research is about. >> And you've identified, and is this an ongoing research, is this the first time it's been published, is it kind of an annual thing? >> Every year we publish a piece of research about gender equality, and this year we put a different lens on it to really look at equality for all. >> So you've identified 40 kind of key areas, but of those 40, really 14 are the big hitters. Is that accurate? >> That's correct. >> So what are some of those 14? >> Well, I would put them, we've put them in three categories. The first is bold leadership, so think about companies like Accenture who set targets and have CEOs who are very clear about their priorities. The second is comprehensive action, so think about policies and practices that are really effective. And then finally third, which I think is often under focused on, which is an empowering environment. What does it feel like to be at work every day? Do they ask you to dress a certain way? Is there flexible time for all? And it's the combination of these 14 factors that really makes a difference about creating a culture of equality where men and women advance. And what was really impressive is we saw that, in companies with these factors, women were five times more likely to advance to director or senior manager, and men were two times more likely. And so it really is about, when she rises, all rise, and that is probably one of the most exciting things about the research. >> It's really interesting, we just had Lisa on from The Modist, and you know, I would never have thought of clothing and dress as such a significant factor, but you've got that identified in that third bucket that you mentioned. And in fact, it's the number one attribute. So what are some of the other surprises that kind of came out of the research? >> Well, I think one of the surprises was that companies that, as part of comprehensive action, that implemented maternity leave only, it actually had a negative effect on women's advancement. But where companies implemented parental leave, so it was for men and women, it eliminated that negative bias. And it really goes to the importance that these policies, and actions, and the focus need to be about women and men. And when you start putting women too much in a category, like flex time is a mommy track, as opposed to flex time being something that men and women commonly do, it really changes how it feels to, does it feel inclusive every day at work? >> Right. >> Yeah, so companies really need to, I think what the research showed very strongly is that companies need to look at programs, policies, practices, and an environment that levels the playing field rather than isolating any particular gender or other form of diversity. >> But it's interesting, kind of law of unintended consequences, I think that panel that you were on earlier, one of the gentlemen said, since the not me, there's been reports of, >> Me too. >> for me too, excuse me, a lot of hashtags today. That there's been people doing, men scared of mentoring maybe that they weren't before. I don't know how true that is, but no it is kind of interesting to think, are there some kind of counter balances, as you said, if there's just maternity and not parental leave that need to be thought about? That probably people aren't thinking it through that far. >> Well and I think, one of the things as we saw in the research is that it's not about also one action, and so the way that companies really create a culture of equality is it's a combination of these factors. And you said something when we first started that I think is really important, and that was, you said, well it's really commonly known that diversity is important. And I think that people do need to understand that, we are optimistic about where we are today because, as a company, we're constantly in the c-suite. We serve in the U.S., 3/4 of the fortune 500, and as much as we're talking as a leader in digital disruption and artificial intelligence, the conversation quickly turns to people, to talent, to diversity, and so there's a real business lens that's on this, and that's the context in which we're operating. >> Right, and we can go to Grace Hooper, we do a ton of women's events as well as large conventions. And most people, I think, hopefully have figured it out, that it's not just about doing the right thing, it's about actually having better business outcomes. You get better outcomes with diversity of opinions, diversity of teams, you think about things that you just wouldn't think about. You don't have that same experience, everybody has a bias from where they come from, so you want to get some other people and have different points of view, different lenses to look at things. So it is really important. But why do you think things feel like they're changing now? What's important about, March 8th, 2018, versus say a year ago when you started doing some of this research? Is it the tipping point that it feels like, or? >> I think there's a couple of factors that are coming together right now. First of all, we're living in the digital age, and the digital age is all about innovation and innovation fast. And as you just said, you cannot innovate without diversity. Diversity is a form of, you're able to tap into creativity, and it's a source of competitive advantages for organizations in this age. But also what's happening in culture around the world, the me too movement as well as other things that are occurring for women around the world, and it's a moment in time where a movement can really start to happen. And I think, companies who look at culture as an accelerator of change are going to be the winners. >> Right, so what impacted bold leadership? We had from the Golden State Warriors on earlier and I think there's, what's great about sports teams is we all get to see them do their business. And we get to see the scoresheet at the end of the day, we don't necessarily get to see that in other companies. But really a fantastic example of new leadership coming in, made bold sweeping changes, probably a little bit of luck, which most success stories have, but you know significant top-down culture change. So how do you see cultures changing with bold leadership and old-line companies? Can the old guard flip? Do they need to bring in new blood? How are people executing bold leadership? >> Well first of all, I do think that it's not about old-line, it's not about young, it's really about leadership. And so it is very dependent on who is the CEO and what kind of a board we have, and so, we don't, both of us don't subscribe to the idea that you have to be born digital to be have a great culture >> To be digital. >> Yeah to be digital. And I would say that, one of the key things we saw in the study was around transparency of goals. And we talk a lot at Accenture about transparency creates trust. And so when you think about, how do you change a culture? Bold leadership is in part to find in the research by the willingness to set public goals, and to be transparent and that creates the trust. The trust of your employees, and the trust of the people you want to attract. And what I often will say that is, when we put out our statistics in the U.S, we're the first professional services firm, it wasn't that we had phenomenal statistics, but the fact that we were willing to put them out created trust that we were trying to change. And it helped people want to be a part of that change. >> Right. I mean you know that, you guys are in this business, if you can't measure it, you can't improve it. It's interesting, the Anita Borg organization puts out a self-assessment, we do their show, and Grace Hopper, to have companies. Again, not necessarily that they're going to score high but at least they recognize the problem, they're trying to measure it, they're trying to set a base line and make moves. We've heard that from Brian at Intel, Intel's making moves. And you guys have made a very definitive statement, write a line in the sand, at 2025, you're going to hit 50%. I believe that's the goal. >> Correct. And not only do we say that we're going to do it but we're doing something about it. And a lot of companies will say they want to achieve gender equality, but it's actually the actions that you take every single day. And then, of course, reporting on your progress, whether it's what you wanted to see or not, just the full transparency around the scorecard is important. >> Yeah, it's so critically important cause again, if you can't measure it, you can't change it. So great event here, as you look forward into 2018, I still can't believe we're a quarter of the way in to the year, it shocks me. (laughs) What are some of the priorities for 2018, if we sit down here again a year from now, where will you have moved on that measure, what are some of the things that are your top priorities around this initiative this year? >> Well I know for me, we certainly are trying to make sure that we continue to make progress, but I also think there's a growing conversation about the intersectionality of diversity, and so, it's women in color, it's race and the workforce, and so. We're a global company, but certainly in the U.S, which is part of the business I lead, we are not only focusing on gender, but the intersectionality of diversity and on race. >> Yeah and I think just broadening the conversation from gender diversity to true equality for all is really the big push for us here at Accenture now. And I think it's essential that no part of our organization or no individual gets left behind. And that's what we're really focused on. >> Well that's great, and so I want to thank you for having us, and wish you well in 2018, and really a fantastic event and super, super initiative. >> Come back in 2019 and we'll show you our progress. >> Alright. >> Exactly. >> She's Julie, she's Ellyn, and I'm Jeff, you're watching theCUBE from International Women's Day at the Accenture event in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching.