Performance: The Key to Success.

Q: There is a tremendous focus today on human performance -- on driving personal and organizational change in ways that enable employees to work faster, smarter and more efficiently. Why is there such an emphasis on performance right now?

A: We're living in a time not unlike the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Then, as now, falling prices made new technologies more affordable to a greater population. One hundred years ago, it was the automobile; today, it's access to information via computers and the Internet. With financial barriers to entry almost nonexistent, anybody with a laptop and a cell phone can become your competitor, even if they're on the other side of the world. Conversely, that technology also potentially gives your customers many more places to take their business. With everyone using the same technology, superior human performance can be the critical variable in separating your company from its competitors. We define human performance as achieving business success by transforming an organization and its work force at scale and speed.

Q: How does the human performance variable fit in with the other challenges a CEO faces?

A: It's integral to all of them. This new, digital economy is affecting every industry, from communications to manufacturing to financial services to retail. Responding to the challenge isn't easy. It requires a real sense of urgency and a bias for action. It requires deep cultural changes in an organization. And it requires significant changes to an organization's fundamental business operations.

I believe that CEOs need to take four steps to make a successful transition: First, they must make their company a customer-driven enterprise and truly put the customer at the center of everything they do. Second, they must get technology on the personal agenda of every senior executive in their company. Third, they must apply rigor to human performance and do everything possible to get the most from their people. And fourth, they must establish a new leadership imperative to operate at speed. These four steps are closely interrelated, and failing to achieve one of them will cripple the other three.

Q: Haven't good businesses always focused on their customers?

A: We've moved from a seller-driven to a buyer-driven model, which means the customer holds the position of power today. Information is only a click away, and your customers know everything about you -- and your competitors. Technology gives you the opportunity to move from one-to-many relationships with your customers to a one-to-one relationship with each individual customer. You replace mass marketing and market share with individualized marketing and customer share. Ultimately, your goal is to enhance the lifetime value of your most profitable customers and leverage what this brings to your company.

Q: Technology used to be the responsibility of specialized departments. Why are you adding it to top management's already staggering workload?

A: Because putting technology at the center of the CEO's agenda is critical to success in the New Economy. Emerging technologies provide enormous opportunities to change business models -- even entire industries -- but the rate of change today is so rapid that you have to prepare for the business implications of technology before the technology reaches scale. And that means technology is now an integral component of business strategy, not just something you buy.

Q: What is the relationship between human performance and a customer-focused, technology- driven business strategy?

A: Your strategy is meaningless if your people can't execute it at a very high level. We as leaders have a great challenge in getting the human element of our organizations equipped to operate in an increasingly digital world. Half of that challenge is finding talent; the other half is maximizing the performance of the people we do have.

The people needed by high-performing companies expect economic returns that are at the very top of the scale, but money isn't all they are after. They also are looking for opportunities for exciting career development. They want to work with people who are interesting and fun and treat them with respect. They want their supervisor to be a mentor or a coach, not a traditional "boss." They consider themselves "free agents" and often want to help craft some of the parameters of their own job descriptions. Companies wanting to play the leadership role in their industry must be prepared to meet these needs.

CEOs also must ensure that the people they already employ have the right skills, knowledge and behaviors. We have a responsibility as leaders to raise the performance level of all employees, and to apply the same rigor to human performance that we do to all other areas of our business. It means creating a capable and motivated work force that can assume new roles and responsibilities, and reach dramatically higher levels of performance -- quickly.

Q: That sounds like a lead-in to the last of your four imperatives: speed.

A: Operating at speed enables companies to be responsive to a dynamically changing marketplace. First, you have to create a sense of urgency for everyone in your organization. Then, you need to articulate a vision -- today's work force wants to know where you're headed. At the same time, you need to build coalitions of advocates to ensure that your vision is understood, and you need to communicate relentlessly -- more than you ever thought possible. You need to go after and reward short-term wins while maintaining a clear sense of direction. And you need to continuously assess new opportunities and revise your strategy as necessary. A lot of it comes down to communication: You need to operate under a start-up mentality, in which information and knowledge is accessible to all employees, and the environment supports and promotes constant innovation.

Q: Your own company is going through massive change that must resemble a startup. On January 1, you ceased being Andersen Consulting and became Accenture. What goes along with the name change?

A: The reinvention of our company. Leading that effort has already been the most exciting challenge of my career, and we've just begun. The name Accenture is a combination of "accent" and "future." It means to accelerate, to amplify and to exceed expectations. We are building a network of businesses to meet the full range of client needs -consulting, technology, outsourcing, alliances and venture capital.

Specifically, we have focused our efforts on three sources of bold growth -- reinventing our client service business, creating new markets and investing in tomorrow's leaders. We also are committed to making Accenture a great place to work, and we have developed a vision of human performance that includes recruiting and retaining the best people. Finally, we are striving for operational excellence through a new organizational structure and developing new Web-enabled operations to help us run it.

Q: Given those large goals, what are same of the specific internal initiatives that you have undertaken to optimize human performance within Accenture?

A: Our vision for human performance is based on the six elements our people have identified as important to satisfying careers: inspiring leaders, interesting work, a diverse work force, flexible work style, continuous learning and competitive rewards. Here are some of the ways we have begun implementing that vision:

TWO-WAY COMMUNICATIONS. We have implemented a number of ways to engage in dialogue, across levels and across geographies. For example, we created an interactive Web site through which our people can ask questions and view replies to the questions others have posted. We also started employee forums and breakfast meetings around the world to bring together people of all levels to discuss issues specific to a group or a geography. On a more personal note, whenever I travel, I try to meet with small groups of employees to hear what's on their minds. I also include a feedback button on each message I send to our people. I read every piece of mail I get from them and personally respond to every question or suggestion.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT. We are reinvigorating the principle of meritocracy in our organization. We have removed strict time guidelines from promotion consideration and are focusing instead on abilities and value delivered.

FULL DEPLOYMENT. For operational efficiencies, we have deployed the majority of our people, who previously may have played cross-industry roles, to our five industry-facing organizations. This not only brought our people closer to our clients, it brought them closer to our partners and associate partn ers and gave them a "home" within our organization. To further this feeling of belonging, we realigned what we call our "communities" -- local groups of 100 to 150 people across career levels, focused on networking and skill-building -- so that most individuals in a community share a common specialization.

REWARDS. To reward superior performance and allow more people to share in the success of our organization, we created eUnits -- stakes in the investments made by our venture capital unit. We invested $200 million to establish the program and provide a kick-start award.

FLEXIBILITY. We have introduced more flexible working arrangements in our organization, so our people can strike the balance between professional and personal life that is right for them and their families. This could mean more flexible schedules, a compressed workweek or a part-time working schedule.

E-ENABLEMENT. We are giving all of our people access to our internal Knowledge Xchange system, and we have supplied laptops to all of our consulting analysts who tend to be mobile.

PARTNERSHIP EXTENSION. We have made our partnership level more accessible, naming 1,300 new partners, and we are restructuring our associate partner position to better leverage their talents and contributions.

DIVERSITY. We have increased our commitment to diversity to ensure that our organization looks like the clients we serve, and we have created a task force focused on the advancement and retention of women.

FEEDBACK. To chart our progress, we introduced a new employee satisfaction survey designed according to the elements of our human performance vision; the results will guide our future actions. For the first time, we are making our leaders truly accountable for satisfaction and retention of our people. Our leaders should not be rewarded well in partner compensation if those goals are not met, regardless of performance on other metrics. If we have not made significant progress, I will expect to take a reduction in my personal compensation, too.

Q: Can you offer CEOs a bottom-line takeaway on human performance?

A: It's not just about winning -- it's also about survival. In fact, it's integral to how a CEO achieves both organizational and individual results. Look at the turnover at the top that we've seen lately. Leadership used to be structured and hierarchical. Today, it requires quick wits, quick decisions, judgment calls, guts and passion. This market won't wait for those who fall behind or who miss a turn.

Robert S. Benchley