Voice of Experience: Janet George, Managing Director, Accenture Technology Labs

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to Janet George, Managing Director at Accenture Technology Labs, it’s time to start viewing the differences women bring to the table as assets. “I think women are different from men. Our brain structure is different. Our leadership style is different. Our management style is different. Our career styles are different.”

“These differences are strengths when partnering and collaborating in a team environment,” continued George, a technical leader in the emerging technologies space. “They lead to richer discussions. I can tell you – there’s nothing compared to working with smart women.”

“Companies need to take advantage of the value-add that women provide. The challenge lies in under-utilization. We need advocates – both men and women – to change things,” George said. “It’s also important to have advocates in your own career. Being a deeply technical woman, in many cases, is daunting or even isolating. We deal with a lot of complexity. For years I was the only woman with a technical background in the room – and it’s very encouraging to see a changing landscape.”

Career in Technology

George says her interest in technology comes from her passion for problem solving. “I feel like I’m naturally a problem solver and a deep thinker. Programming comes very naturally to me. I love code – I like looking at code and trying to understand what it means.”

“Programming has a lot of constraints and tradeoffs since the technologies are always evolving and emerging. And when someone tells me I can’t do something, I want to find a way to do it and the right way to do it. Finding the right trade-offs while working in a technologically complex environment is very rewarding to me,” she continued. “Then all of a sudden, the nicely designed and implemented code does not work and you are still responsible to execute and deliver the product in a timely manner. The challenge of going against all the technical complexity – and yet succeeding – is what drives me.”

George began her career in technology at HP after earning her bachelor’s and advanced master’s degrees in computer science in the ’90s. Since then, she’s stayed on the cutting edge of the space, moving from HP to Informix then Apple, Etak, eBay, Andale, Intuit, and then Yahoo, where she became Head of Yahoo Research/Labs Engineering. Just under a year ago, she was recruited to Accenture to lead the company’s Technology Labs division, where she focuses on emerging technologies.

“I’ve had multiple repeated successes. I’m extremely fortunate to have such a successful career,” she reflected. “About a year ago, I joined Accenture. I now have the opportunity to work with really smart people and our worldwide client base and bring cutting edge innovation to them – I have always been an innovator and working with such a large worldwide client base is a significant opportunity.”

“Currently I’m a managing director in Accenture Technology Labs leading the Data Science initiative for big data. Big data, in IT terms, refers to datasets that grow so large and complex that they become awkward to work with. This space is an exponential growth area for our clients and we are working to help them innovate and transform their business.”

George believes her proudest achievement so far has been leading and building technical teams from the ground up. “At the very top is technical leadership – being a senior executive leading highly technical teams and innovating in the heart of Silicon Valley. It has been an unmatched opportunity for me to work with the best and brightest,” she said. “I’ve been involved with big data, data science platforms, and cloud technology years before the media paid any attention to it.”

Disruptive Power

George is enthusiastic about the potential benefits that new technology can bring to companies. “I’m fascinated by the evolution and adoption of new technologies, such as massively parallel distributed computing, data science, information retrieval, extraction, natural language processing, pattern recognition, inference engines, data infrastructures and databases, and the massive disruptive power it holds.”

“Almost 15 years ago, we did fine without the internet, and today we can’t imagine a world without the World Wide Web. Only seven years ago, we rarely thought about Facebook or text messaging,” she continued.

“Now with distributed computing, the world is a flat concept. We have the cloud and big data. How will our world look when we are creating enormous amounts of data? The access to and ability to understand customer behavior at an individual level and population level is an exponential growth opportunity for our clients.”

George says the rise of big data will necessitate the further advancement of machine learning. “We need a lot of help from computers to process this data, and not mainstream technology. We need machine learning to separate the noise from the signal, find co-relations between disparate data sets and help find meaning. The human brain just can’t do it – we’re good at a lot of things, but we need technology to help us with the processing.”

Advice for Women in Technology

“For young women, my primary advice is finding your strengths and passion,” George recommended. “Everyone has a unique gift and when you find it, commit to it with all your heart.”

She continued, “Work-life balance is also important – for employees and employers. It’s important to find a rhythm because your journey is a marathon.”

She encouraged senior women to help young people in the industry. “Try to give back as much as possible. You have to advise or mentor or volunteer – you have valuable insight and experience and can give the next generation the help they need. ”

“Education and knowledge is the only solution to ignorance and fear.”

Fortunately, the industry is more open to women these days. “What I’ve seen is a lot more women. For years, I was the only technical women on a team but now I’m seeing a lot more. For example, at the Grace Hopper Conference, when it started, there were about 100 attendees. Now there are upwards of three to five thousand. And I see the greatest technical women coming out of universities – it’s amazing.”

She continued, “It’s also great to see companies supporting women by sponsoring events like the Grace Hopper Conference. Companies are making big strides and I love that.”

George praised Accenture for its commitment to women. “Accenture is the only company I’ve worked at that celebrated International Women’s Day,” she said. “We have a huge women’s network and we’re very committed to attracting a lot of women. Our numbers – 90,000 women globally – support that.”

In Her Personal Time

George spends much of her free time mentoring and volunteering. “I get so much return on investment though, it’s amazing. It started out small, but I get so much back from it, a lot of emotional satisfaction.”

As for hobbies, she continued, “I like the outdoors. Something I care deeply about is the environment and the world we leave behind for the younger generations.” She also enjoys cooking, music and traveling.