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Alexandra Tyler: Managing Director, Digital Transformation Leader, Accenture Song

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Alexandra TylerRemoving my protective wall around my identity has enabled me to create deeper connections in my work and in building more meaningful relationships with my family and with my colleagues and clients,” says Alexandra Tyler. “The protective wall goes down, and it impacts everything, including being a better leader.”

Curiosity and Customer-Focused Growth

Curiosity has driven Tyler’s career. She’s come across specific job positions by asking questions. “I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been able to pave my way in making my own adventure, essentially through conversations with people about open positions they had that weren’t quite right,” she reflects, “and in which we often crafted a new position that matched the needs of the business with my expertise and interests.”

Having studied psychology, she began her career in advertising, where she learned to appreciate the power of understanding what customers want and need.

“If you understand what customers want and need at every stage of their journey and are able to fulfill those needs and desired successes, you can enable growth,” she says. “What do those customers want to achieve and how do you develop the roadmap and path to get there? That is the opportunity. That’s why I’m excited about Gen AI and other innovative capabilities to unlock and enable more insights to meet customer needs.”

Being Focused on People’s Motivations

Growing up as a daughter of first-generation immigrants and raised by a father with a disability, Tyler understood the importance of two important lessons that he imparted: in order to succeed, one must persevere and exhibit true grit. In addition, one must celebrate differences in others.

“I feel strongly about focusing on doing right by others. Ambition goes awry if you don’t have respect for individuals, and if you don’t think about what motivates them,” she notes. “I want to understand what’s important to the people with whom I work. I focus on treating individuals how I would want to be treated – including respecting their differences, talents and expertise.”

In addition to treating her colleagues and team members with mutual respect, Tyler learned the importance of inspiring them to pair their great ideas with great follow-through: “I often see people who are incredible ‘ideators’ – who come up with innovative and breakthrough ideas – but they struggle with execution,” she observes. “The devil is in the details when it comes to lighting up an idea. It takes focus, management and collaboration.”

Freeing Herself To Show Up Fully

“It took me a long time to feel comfortable as an authentic leader. Growing up in the world I grew up in, as an LGBTQ+ individual, was challenging,” she notes. Recently at a bank branch, she saw a sticker related to the LGBTQ+ community about celebrating differences. It struck her to imagine the impact that seeing that message would have made early on in her career.

“When I first started my career, I was lying by omission, often doing what LGBTQ+ people do…not using pronouns for your partner. It’s only in the last ten years that I have been comfortable enough to be honest about who I am and to bring my full self to the equation.”

What you feel you cannot say begins to grow heavy and become a burden. Tyler imagines carrying a sixty-pound barbell all those years. “When I put that burden down visually in my head, it was exceptionally freeing,” she says. “When I freed myself of that burden, opportunities in my career opened up.”

For example, at a work town hall, Tyler recently shared her personal journey and the value of bringing her full self to work. She was commended by the head of her division for showing up as her true self and was applauded for doing so, exhibiting the traits of leadership that Accenture values.

“I cannot tell you how much positive feedback I received just for being true to who I am and being vocal about it,” says Tyler. “Leaders at Accenture have been phenomenal in recognizing the power in whatever differences you bring to work and the ability to bring your full self.” And sharing her experiences of exclusion has built bridges of empathy with others who have faced challenges. LGBTQIA+ peers have approached her inspired by her authenticity and, in turn, let down their own protective walls.

Advocating and Inspiring Others

“Freeing myself up to be myself empowered me to be an advocate for others. It is important for me to pay it forward by being an advocate in my community.”

Tyler is on the Board of Be The Rainbow, an LGBTQIA+ nonprofit organization in her Long Island hometown. On their third Pride March, Tyler is excited to be opening minds and hearts to create a greater platform of equity in which all can have a voice.

In her training and at work, Tyler’s approach is comprised of experimentation and optimization. She often tests the waters, dips her toe in, tries out different messages and approaches. What she found when she ‘came out’ is that the response was much more positive than she had anticipated. She encourages others to consider who they can safely share with – a person, a group – in order to build that positivity. Tyler acknowledges that the experience of speaking one’s truth, no matter the reaction, is alone invigorating and empowering.

The Intersection of Identity and Innovation

Tyler admires that her daughter’s generation wields identity and labels quite differently. “Labels are fluid and I know that my daughter and her friends are comfortable at the same time with no labels or multiple ones: Imagine what you could do if you were not carrying the burden of the sixty-pound barbell, or invisible burden, every day?”

At Accenture, Tyler is fascinated by the intersection of innovation and identity – particularly how removing obstacles around identity frees you up to create and innovate. She considers cryptanalyst Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the film The Imitation Game) who developed the ability to decode messages and the predecessor to the computer, and who was also tortured for being homosexual.

“I think about what more amazing things he could have done. He was such an innovator, even with the constraints of conversion therapy and being tortured,” she notes. “What aperture could have opened if individuals like Turing could have been safe to express their identity freely? I’m interested in that tension for any minority who is held back because of societal constraints or one they put on themselves. I’m fascinated by the intersection of how innovative you are as a thinker and the ability to free yourself up to feel comfortable to think differently.”

Why Failure Is Growth

Early on in her career, Tyler worked on developing and launching a new product that consolidated all utility bills into one billing statement. For various reasons, after two years of pretests and pilots, the project failed to launch. But her functional leader was an innovator who believed in failing often and failing fast. Instead of berating the team, he applauded the risks and innovation and threw the team a “failure party” and handed out awards. The team received their best performance reviews that year.

“I learned the importance of reinforcing that failure can actually spur innovation,” says Tyler. “I was very lucky to find leaders that encouraged failing. I know that it may sound trite but, to me, the age-old notion that failure begets growth is very true.”

As a result, Tyler encourages her teams to take calculated risks and experiment: “It’s okay to fail because you learn and those learnings bring you closer to success. Because you WILL eventually succeed. Perfection at the sake of innovation is failure in itself. You must try and also not be afraid to be curious, and that effort and curiosity are successes in themselves. ”

Tyler has two daughters, 15 and 18, a freshman in high school and college, respectively. Her wife, Beth, is a special education teacher in Queens. Recently, her oldest daughter “failed” to get into her first college choice. After the initial disappointment, she applied to an array of different schools that she would otherwise not have considered. She now feels “at home” at UNC Chapel Hill where she is thriving – an example of how failure can lead to the growth you didn’t see coming.

To be surrounded by her family and watch them grow are her greatest successes, and Tyler now embraces sharing those successes with others.

By Aimee Hansen

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Women in Tech: Is a “Widespread Cultural Reset” on the Horizon?

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women in techAmidst a global acceleration of the tech transformation, the shortage of tech talent is becoming increasingly pressing. Accenture is advocating that a “widespread cultural reset” is needed to address the gaps in women’s representation in tech.

COVID-19 Disproportionately Affected Women In Tech, Too

A recent tech report by Kapersky showed that over half of surveyed IT professionals felt that women in senior tech roles had increased and gender equality had improved.

But nearly half the women in tech felt COVID-19 effects had delayed, not accelerated, their own career progression, largely due to the challenges of balancing home/work life while taking on a disproportional amount of cleaning, childcare, and homeschooling responsibilities. Four out of every ten women felt these pressures had kept them from pursuing career changes, and the same amount felt men had faster career progression. Not to mention that male-majority teams dominate female-majority teams at nearly a 5 to 1 ratio.

Another 2021 “Women in Tech Report” by TrustRadius shared that women were equally as likely to claim the pandemic had a negative impact on their careers as a positive one. But men (54%) were more likely than women (42%) to perceive the remote work office in the past year had been positive for women.

57% of women in tech felt burnt out, relative to only 36% of men. Women in tech were more likely to have worked overtime, taken on more responsibility at work, and have much greater childcare responsibility than male counterparts. They were also twice as likely to have lost their jobs or been furloughed since the pandemic began.


The report found that “bro culture” remained pervasive in tech firms, but interestingly only 63% of women in IT/engineering roles reported this, relative to 80%+ in sales and marketing roles in tech firms.

Intervention: Unbiasing Systems and Caregiving Support

In identifying the best tech companies for women, Anita B concluded from their 2021 Top Companies for Women Technologists report that those organizations which focused on unbiasing systems such as recruitment and performance management, rather than just training on raising awareness of bias, had much stronger representation of black women and Latinx women. The report found that companies with mandatory training on unbiasing the hiring process have 20% more tech women and tech women hires.

When it comes to women of color, companies that provide caregiving support as a benefit had higher levels of black and Latinx women, especially at the senior and executive levels. Companies that conducted intersectional pay audits had 30% more women hires, 90% more black women hires, and 80% more Latinx women hires.

Wake-up Call: “Widespread Cultural Reset”

Accenture’s Resetting Tech Culture 2020 report found that an inclusive culture that enables everyone’s voice to be heard at both the academic and professional levels is the “master key that unlocks opportunities for women who are studying and working in technology.” The pillars of “more-inclusive culture”, underpinned by 40 specific factors, are “bold leadership, comprehensive action and empowering environment”.

For example, only 1 in 20 tech women feel like an “outsider” in more-inclusive colleges, whereas 1 in 4 women feel this way in less-inclusive colleges. Among more-inclusive cultures, all women are much more likely to see a clear pathway from studying STEM to a related career and are much more likely to enjoy their jobs. And while literally half of women in tech roles among less-inclusive cultures feel they are made to feel their job is “not for people like them”, this drops to 16% in more-inclusive cultures. Also, in more- inclusive workplace cultures, the likelihood of women advancing to manager and beyond by age 30 increases by 61%; for women of color it increases by a staggering 77%.”

But Accenture found that HR professionals tend to significantly undervalue the importance of building a more-inclusive culture and support in retaining and advancing women in tech roles, only 38% seeing it as effective, when it’s the number one reason why women leave tech jobs, and alongside with more role models, the top factor listed for attraction.

Accenture is advocating for a “widespread cultural reset” to drive the much-needed change in tech, projecting in just one example, that if every company had a culture like the top 20% more-inclusive ones, annual attrition of women in tech could drop by 70% and 1.4 million more women would be retained by 2030.

Overall, Fortune points out that women need the same conditions to thrive in tech as anyone needs to thrive: “encouragement; hands-on tech discovery in school; the presence of role models in leadership positions; mentorship; executive sponsorship; fair pay; workplace inclusion; and the flexibility to parent while employed.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Voice of Experience: Lisa Mitnick, Managing Director, Accenture Digital, Accenture North America

Lisa Mitnick

“A career is a journey. Things will change and you’ve got to be adaptable,” says Lisa Mitnick, Managing Director, Accenture Digital. “What you chose to do getting out of school doesn’t have to define you, but it is something that will ultimately shape you and help you grow. My advice to young women starting a career in tech is to always continue to learn – technology changes rapidly – and network like crazy to build strong relationships.”
A Career on the Forefront
 
Mitnick began her career in International Trade after receiving her undergrad in Asian Studies and Chinese from the University of Pennsylvania. After a few years, she returned to business school at Wharton, and from there, worked at what was then Coopers and Lybrand as a management consultant in the communications, media and entertainment practice for six years. Since then, she’s worked in several senior corporate development positions at Reed Elsevier, LexisNexis, Gartner and CEB.
Mitnick landed at Accenture 8 years ago into a new practice, where the mission was to incubate new businesses. Within a year of joining, she moved into Mobility which – although at the early stage of evolution – was on the verge of taking off, and held various roles, shaping initiatives, developing strategy and focusing on alliances. She later moved in to a leadership role in Digital Sales, aligned to the company’s Health and Public Service practice, and now is leading Sales specifically for North America IOT (Internet of Things).
Working on Projects That Matter
 
Describing the new opportunity, Mitnick comments,
“I’m really excited to help clients transform their businesses by leveraging improved insights, turning products into services, creating new experiences for consumers, helping improve operational efficiencies and achieving improved safety. In particular, I’m interested in how business models will shift with the advent of ‘connected everything’ and how that will transform how we engage with both customers and employees in the future.”
For Mitnick, it’s been important to work on projects that make a difference. “Over the years at Accenture I’ve been so proud of the work I’ve done on programs that I think make a really meaningful and measurable impact, whether that’s enabling a healthcare organization to improve health outcomes, a human services agency to provide citizen services or helping Federal Government clients in support of their mission across public safety and defense.”
Increasing the Number of Women in Tech
 
“Quite simply, women need to be at the table to drive innovation and be part of the revolution. We can’t afford a brain drain of women in technology.”
Noting that women represent half the population, Mitnick feels strongly about encouraging a focus on STEM education from an earlier age. Recently released research from Accenture and Girls Who Code warns of a decline in the share of women in the U.S computing workforce over the next 15 years (from 24 percent to 22 percent by 2025), but offers potential solutions to prevent this from occurring, for example, by encouraging girls to pursue a computer science education. The research says that this effort could help triple the number of women in computing, growing their share from 24 percent today to 39 percent in the same time frame.
Ensuring Women Feel Included, and Supported
 
In addition to her day job, Mitnick is an inclusion and diversity lead for Accenture Digital and is acutely aware of the challenges facing women across industries. “Bringing together a diverse group of women aligned to digital is so important for ensuring that all feel welcome, included and fulfilled.”
As the executive sponsor of Accenture’s Washington D.C. Metro Women’s Employee Resource Group (WERG), Mitnick focuses annually on two major events. The first is International Women’s Day, where the company celebrates women’s achievement and discusses the most pressing issues for women today. “I think this is one of the most inspiring, uplifting programs we run at Accenture. It really re-energizes us as working women, often trying to manage work life balance and many other challenges of daily life.”
The second is Accenture’s annual WERG golf scramble which is meant to dispel the myth of the golf course being just a place for men. Accenture women are encouraged to feel confident collaborating and networking in any environment.
In addition to professional events, Mitnick hosts informal social get-togethers like book night or painting over wine and cheese, which she says helps women network in a comfortable setting and perhaps figure out their next project or career move within Accenture.
Balancing it All
“Being a working mom is a juggling act,” says Mitnick, who acknowledges that women face certain challenges as they try to balance work with family life.
“You need to know your limits and be clear with your supervisors what you can and want to take on. But the company you work for should be there as a support system if needed.”
For example, Accenture offers its new parents the opportunity to work locally for one year following return from the birth or adoption of a child – a major initiative that helps improve the work life balance of a new mom or even a seasoned mom with lots of extracurricular activities.
Mitnick also is keen to point out that that “beyond the natural balancing act we must take on as parents, somehow when you love what you do, you can find the time you need at work and at home – and I find it increases your overall energy.
Outside of Work
 
Mitnick’s passion for technology spills outside of Accenture’s walls and into the Washington D.C. Metro region. She’s involved with the non-profit 501cTech (now merged with Tech Impact), working with them on their Technology Innovation Awards (TIA) which recognizes non-profits for technology innovation, increasingly with new digital technologies such as mobile and social, and typically on shoestring budget.  “I’ve been inspired by the work of these non-profits, and I’m working with other companies in the region to highlight their achievements through the TIA awards, helping drive up support for this critical mission-based work.”
As a hobby Mitnick loves to sing the blues and enjoys travelling for pleasure. At home she has two wonderful kids and a husband of 24 years that keep her busy with lots of activities.
By Cathie Ericson
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Voice of Experience: Rocio Lopez, IT Executive at Accenture

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Rocio LopezBy Louise Magrath

Passionate about advancing diversity in tech, and currently leading several initiatives aimed at growing Hispanic American technology talent, Accenture’s Rocio Lopez says: ‘The one piece of advice I would give to anyone is to be authentic.’

As a Mexican woman-in-tech for over two decades, Lopez learnt through Accenture’s Hispanic American Employee Resource Group (ERG) that she needed to be authentic about what she brought to the table as a talented Hispanic technologist.

‘For the longest time, I was trying to run in a different size shoe – actually a male size 8. It wasn’t until I met my ERG family that I realized I like my 7.5 size red high heels,’ she comments.

Longevity in her career

Lopez has a long career at Accenture having worked for the professional services company for 22 years since leaving University. Currently leading a team that helps the company and its clients adapt the latest IT solutions and flexibilities, she connects with Accenture’s business leads to understand their day to day, on the job behaviors. This helps her innovate new solutions to get them performing at their highest, delivering the best they can to clients.

‘I love it when I see them adopting the latest technology and get their feedback that it’s made their life easier and helped them to be more efficient. I’m excited that my job allows me to be creative and present and deliver ideas that transform the way our teams work. Being able to experiment and challenge my team to learn new technologies is the part I love the most,’ comments Lopez.

Increasing Hispanic Leadership in IT

‘Inclusion and diversity is an inherent part of Accenture, and as a company, we are committed to advancing diverse talent in technology,’ states Lopez.

One initiative led by Lopez, of which she is particularly proud, is the Accenture sponsored, Hispanic IT Executive Council’s (HITEC) Women’s Program, aimed at growing Hispanic American technology talent.

‘HITEC is an organization whose focus is to develop the next generation of Hispanic IT Leaders, an ethos in common with Accenture, as we share a commitment to advancing diverse talent in tech and increasing Hispanic leadership in IT around the Globe,’ she comments.

She describes the program as a breakfast series and learning session, focused on developing, retaining and attracting women in tech careers by bringing them together in one place to network and establish connections. Lopez believes the key to the Accenture and HITEC mission is the structure they have in place to carry out the strategic goal to ‘push up and pull up’ its’ workforce and members. The Accenture partnership with HITEC, including the Accenture sponsored Women’s Program, demonstrates a partnership whose focus continues to be the growth of Hispanics in technology careers.

Lopez is proud and excited to lead the Women’s focus with HITEC and says, ‘I already see the impact the program has on inspiring women along their journey and I’m looking forward to this coming year and the technology learnings that our women will gain during the sessions.’

Support and Mentorship build success

For Lopez mentorship has played a critical role in her career, ‘I could not have a career without this. You need a mentor or sponsor to keep you honest about what success means and to help you along in your career journey,’ she comments.

An example where the importance of mentorship came in to play for Lopez was when she was given the opportunity to participate in the HITEC Emerging Executive Program and was assigned a C-Suite mentor, Ramon Baez. She notes,
‘The relationship I built with Ramon was key to a turnaround in my career journey, as I was facing some critical career decision points at Accenture. The conversations we had, helped me gain tremendous self-confidence and inspired me to believe that I could be CIO of a company.’

As a leader at Accenture, Lopez also is a mentor to people for whom she is directly responsible for engaging, supporting and growing. She is passionate about encouraging her mentees to be authentic as she believes it generates great thinking and increases their level of engagement overall. She comments, ‘My professional role model is our global inclusion and diversity lead, Nellie Borrero, an amazing, authentic woman that has managed to stay true to her values throughout her great successes.’ Lopez believes that every employee at Accenture is extremely talented and that it is her obligation as a company leader to ensure that they are listened to and tended to,
‘We are changing the game within the Accenture family by staying close to every single individual and focusing on their unique needs and wants. We create a place where everyone is a member of the family that is always cared for and nurtured,’ she says.

Commitment to Diverse Talent Pools

Lopez’s passion for advancing diversity in tech has led to her involvement in Accenture’s sponsorship of teams of Cristo Rey High School students to code at Accenture. She describes Cristo Rey as the largest network of high schools in the United States whose enrolment is limited to low income youth. Its distinctive approach to education equips students with the knowledge, character and skills to transform their lives. From freshman year, Cristo Rey schools blend rigorous academics and four years of professional work experience to and through college.

‘I became involved with Cristo Rey because I wanted to promote STEM jobs for these students in the Chicago area. To that end I proposed and created a program within our CIO organization that sponsors diverse students in to programming roles. This has evolved our internal IT talent strategy and has led to us identifying new talent,’ states Lopez.
Her passion for inspiring Hispanic American students to continue their education and to seek a career in tech along with her overall commitment to technology careers and diversity has led to Lopez being named on the Board of Cristo Rey High School.

Family

Even outside of work, Lopez continues inspiring young people to take up careers in tech. In the fall she will travel to Leon, Mexico, where her family is from. She will use her time there to inspire her teenage nieces and nephews to consider a tech as a career choice.

She comments, ‘They ask me questions about my Facebook posts during my network events, as they are excited to see me travel the world and meet so many new people. My answer is always to go in to technology! It’s very cool and allows you to truly impact the world we live in!”

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Voice of Experience: Marla Arbiv, Managing Director, Accenture

Marla ArbivMarla Arbiv, a working mom of three, has led a nearly 30 year career at Accenture.

She spent the first two-thirds serving clients, traveling around the world and living across three continents. She’s worked in multiple cities across the U.S. and spent two years working at Accenture in Tel Aviv and later, in Sydney, for an additional two.

Currently living in Atlanta, Marla helped build the company’s Oracle capability in its North America Global Delivery Network and now focuses on the company’s Oracle Outsourcing business. As part of her role, Marla managed a pipeline for delivery center-based work and has invested a significant amount of time helping Accenture teams and clients adopt delivery models that enable more people to work locally, and remotely.

In fact, numerous women (and men) come to Marla for coaching on how to raise a family while advancing careers. Navigating this balance can be tricky when travel is extensive, and Marla has a personal desire to see people achieve a work life balance that works for them. She states, “I’ve personally promoted many of the Accenture programs for flexible work and tried to lead by example for my peers and colleagues. I think for many people, regardless of company or level, finding a balance can be difficult – but it is possible.”

Marla strongly believes she has proven that as a career woman, you can progress professionally while effectively managing family and other personal commitments. In this way, Marla has been a direct and indirect mentor for multiple people, at various points in their careers. She comments, “I’ve worked to develop longstanding relationships with people, even if they move to other parts of the business or away to other locations. I greatly enjoy being a mentor to others, and I hope that people perceive me that way. I work with people to understand their situations so that I can help them be successful.” Interestingly for Marla, most of her early mentors were men. She reflects, “I’ve always been a self-driver, so there were times when I didn’t have an active mentor, but I’ve always encouraged people to find support through mentors, male or female.” Marla attributes her lack of women mentors to the lower number of women in tech at the time.

Now, however, interest in technology among young women is on the rise, thanks in part to organizations like Girls Who Code (GWC), with which Accenture partners across the U.S., helping the organization inspire, educate, and equip young women with computing and professional skills that enable them to pursue technology careers. The company has hosted multiple GWC clubs across the U.S. including NYC and Chicago and, this year, has extended the program to Atlanta, where Marla served as the executive sponsor. She says, “The girls in the program spent seven weeks learning new skills and were exposed to real-world business expertise and mentorship opportunities. While GWC provided the curriculum and wonderful instructors, we scheduled field trips and guest speakers and coordinated a mentorship program with our people who met with the girls on a weekly basis.”

As a leading technology company with a commitment to gender equality, Accenture has a vested interest in supporting organizations like GWC and fostering the next generation of women tech talent. Labor force statistics show anticipated shortages of technology majors in the near future. As for the gender gap, there is a significant decline in graduation rates for young women with technology degrees.

For Marla, it’s also personal. “It really started with Accenture’s involvement with organizations like GWC and Code.org to open my eyes. My three children are in high school and I began to ask myself, what are we doing to promote careers in tech for these kids? Are my children being taught computer skills in school? On college tours I heard prospective students speak about what they’re interested in and very few indicated computer science. Technology education needs to happen before college.”

According to Marla, early education about career possibility in the field is imperative, as “technology is going to drive everything we do– regardless of job or industry.” Every field has a piece of technology. Everyone needs to understand the influence of tech, even if they don’t want to be a technologist. “Concepts that we were talking about when I first started at Accenture, that at the time seemed esoteric and impossible, are now the reality. Technology is expanding and fast moving – there’s opportunity for young women to really make a mark. It’s a great field to look forward to.”

Advice for young women? Pace yourself to be able to sustain the changes that happen both in your career and personal life. She offers, “A career in tech is not an easy one –change is rapid and expectations are high. But by seeking out opportunities to grow, and taking chances when you are not always comfortable, it provides for a rewarding career in an exciting field.”

Her admission about change being uncomfortable at times is balanced by Accenture’s encouragement and support in her pursuing new and challenging opportunities, which she says mirrors the changing pace of technology. “Throughout my career, I have balanced the times when I could be flexible and take chances, with opportunities that aligned to my personal needs raising three children. I now see how my career choices have positively impacted my kids. No doubt they picked up on my constant drive to ‘get things done’ and do my best to succeed in both my professional and personal life. They’re self-starters, and I like to believe that they saw me be a self-starter.”

Outside of Work, Marla enjoys traveling and hiking and has a knack for running long distances “when she finds time!” With three very active teenagers, 15, 16 and 17, Marla spends most of her personal time watching (and driving to) her children’s sports events – track & field/pole vaulting, basketball and soccer.

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Mover and Shaker: Christine Molloy, Manager, Accenture Consulting

Christine MolloyMolloy began her career with Accenture in 2009 as a summer intern, and joined Accenture full-time in 2010 after graduating from Southern Methodist University with a Masters degree in Information Engineering. Since joining, she has worked with several large utility companies to help them implement complex systems and specializes in customer care solutions for energy providers nationwide.

Molloy understands what it takes to continue to raise through the ranks in her career as she comments,

“Many of my assumptions entering the corporate world were around work-life balance. In the beginning of my career, I believed the more I worked, the faster I would stand out and get ahead. I quickly realized this was old thinking – working smart and taking time to focus on your own well-being are extremely important to creating a successful career path.”

When asked about professional achievements so far, she replied,

“I am proud of several professional achievements I have had throughout my career. The ones that stand out most are when I have brought teams together to deliver great outcomes and, subsequently, when clients have been the most satisfied. I think it is about adding value.”

She goes on to give an example of having been a member of a team across geographies that was working across multiple US states, as well as Canada and India. The team had been working to solve a complex problem for a client and the team was struggling to integrate together around the task. Molloy comments,

“I guided the group to come together as a team, realize common ground and deliver a solution that was agreeable to all and beneficial to the client – and that felt like I added a lot of value.”

She also talks about a recent project that she has just completed, which consisted of a SAP Customer Information System and business intelligence implementation project for a large utility project. She states,

“This was such an exciting project because I got to work on it from the early stages through to a successful go-live. I was responsible for consolidating two systems into a single solution to improve operational efficiency and enhance customer experience. The nature of the work was complex and rewarding since my client was an early adopter of the technology.”

Molloy repeatedly cites her strong team and a good company as a key element in her success and also mentions sponsorship as playing a significant role in her career. She states,

“I would not be where I am today if it was not for the mentors and sponsors who have helped guide me. Everyone needs a strong team of support but, in many cases, you will have to seek out and identify mentors and sponsors that will be there for you along the way. “

Equally she recognized that it is important to take the time to support and mentor others,

“My father, now retired, taught me what it means to be a leader, to work hard and also to put family first. I owe my leadership skills to him and I know that as I continue to learn, build my network and give back to those around me, I too will be successful.”

Molloy states that she has learned the most from working with a diverse array of people, on her own teams at Accenture, with clients and with other people she interacts with daily. She enjoys working with people who have different ways of working, who expect the highest performance and people in different geographies with cultural nuances. She states,

“Working alongside people with a variety of differences can be difficult but, ultimately, it improved my listening skills, increased my flexibility and taught me how to better apply my own social style.”

Accenture has numerous programs and initiatives across the company to support women in succeeding and advancing and personally Molloy is involved with the Miami Women’s Enterprise Resource Group. She comments,

“We have a strong network of women within the company and in our local community. As a part of this, I lead several local women’s groups at different client sites to encourage our women to collaborate and learn from one another in the communities that we work in while traveling.”

Molloy is also the corporate citizenship lead for Accenture’s Miami office and is currently working with a nonprofit partner called Covenant House Florida on several exciting initiatives. Covenant House is a homeless shelter for youth that served more than 51,000 youth last year across 6 countries and 21 cities in North America, providing nearly 700,000 nights of shelter.

She excitedly shared that in a few months, Accenture volunteers will be helping them roll out a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) awareness program. “I currently lead a mock interview initiative where we bring Accenture volunteers to the nonprofit to work one-on-one with disadvantaged youth to prepare them for job interviews and the working world.”

She lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL with her husband and enjoys paddle boarding, traveling and spending time at the beach.

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How Digital Could Deliver Workplace Gender Equality in 25 Years

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By Aimee Hansen

Women-on-computerAn increasingly digital workplace may have brought debatable impacts such as the 24/7 work week and scattered listening, but according to Accenture’s latest findings, it also has the potential to bring global workplace gender equality a lot closer to reality.

Earlier this month, we wrote about how the United Nation’s International Women’s Day 2016 effort emphasized accelerating gender equality. A new report from Accenture entitled “Getting to Equal: How Digital is Helping Close the Gender Gap at Work,” asserts that digital is a key factor in accelerating gender equality in the workplace.

Accenture’s report finds that doubling the pace of “digital fluency” among women could double the speed of gender equality at work.

Rather than waiting until 2065, doubling the pace at which women become frequent users of technology would bring workplace gender equality in developed nations by 2040.

Rather than waiting until 2100, workplace gender equality could be brought forward in developing nations by 2060.

The Relationship Between Digital Fluency and Gender Equality

Accenture’s report comes as global talent shortages are being highlighted by the World Economic Forum as well as Manpower Group, while women remain an underrepresented presence that could become part of an evolving and flexible workforce increasingly enabled via technology.

Combining survey data (nearly 5,000 men and women in 31 countries) with published data on digital usage by country to create an econometric model, Accenture analyzed the effect of digital fluency on gender equality throughout the career cycle for an individual. Researchers also looked at the relationship between gender equality and digital fluency across nations.

In their report, digital fluency was correlated with women’s career achievement. The U.S., Netherlands, UK, and Nordic countries have both the highest digital fluency and rank among the top performers in workplace equality.

Large gender gaps in digital fluency exist in Japan, Singapore, France, and Switzerland, and closing them would increase gender equality in the workplace.

In countries like India and Indonesia, generally low levels of digital fluency, and gender gaps within them, are holding back women’s progress.

Nations like Saudi Arabia and Japan illustrate that digital fluency is not the only factor at work, since deep-seated cultural factors also hold gender gaps wider than expected based on the model.

Though it may be argued that over time digital, and its ability to amplify the voices that are so often disenfranchised, could play into challenging the cultural factors that disempower women.

Digital Fluency as an Accelerant, Especially For Women

Accenture concludes that digital skills are helping to narrow the workplace gender gap and level the playing field and that digital fluency acts as an accelerant in every stage of a woman’s career from education and employment to advancement because technology removes many of the barriers that prevent women from working more flexibly. Digital fluency helps men and women but the
the researchers of the report found that being digitally fluent held even stronger positive effects for women than for men.

Accelerating Education

The report showed that when men and women have the same level of digital fluency, women have achieved a higher rate of education.

Women are not simply becoming better educated than they were before. They’ve become better educated than men in 16 of the 31 countries.

Digital fluency played the greatest role in enabling women to access education in developing nations – with 68% of women saying Internet was important to their education (versus 44% in developed nations).

Accelerating Employment

Digital fluency allows for more flexibility in the workplace, which is helping to close the employment gap between men and women in many countries, as more women are more able to find and participate in work.

The report found that “While men and women alike are liberated by the balance that work flexibility affords, women appear to derive greater value from it.”

In the survey, 72% of women (and 68% of men) said that women’s employment opportunities increase as digital fluency increases, with nearly half of women reporting they used digital to access job opportunities and work from home.

Accelerating Advancement

While digital fluency also proved to help accelerate women’s career advancement, the relationship was less significant. The report found that “while digital fluency is having a positive impact on pay for both men and women, the gap in pay between genders is still not closing.”

What is changing is the expectations that it’s possible to close the gap within a foreseeable future, as nearly 60% of Millennial women aspire to be in leadership positions and feel skilled for it, and nearly 3/4 of respondents agreed “the digital world will empower our daughters.” Mind you, those digitally native daughters with better education than their male peers and expanded access to work of many forms across many countries.

According to Julie Sweet, Accenture’s group chief executive for North America, “This is a powerful message for all women and girls. Continuously developing and growing your ability to use digital technologies, both at home and in the workplace, has a clear and positive effect at every stage of your career.And it provides a distinct advantage, as businesses and governments seek to fill the jobs that support today’s growing economy.”

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Voice of Experience: Anissa Thompson, Managing Director, Accenture

Anissa Thompson“The best piece of advice I have ever received is that no one will, or should care, more about your career than you do,“ says Accenture’s Anissa Thompson. Thompson lives by this advice and is constantly seeking opportunities to expand her knowledge on a variety of issues, to stay relevant and to seek feedback on how she is doing. She believes it is essential that her and her peers make sure they build out their succession plans and ensure that they are full of diverse candidates whilst taking the time to nurture future leaders.

Thompson finished graduate school with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. Eager to find work as a policy analyst she started her career at a global policy think tank and spent two years as a research assistant, working primarily on research for the United States Army and Joint Chiefs of Staff. She describes this experience as, ‘excellent,’ but was keen to effect actual solutions that solved problems facing the public sector and began to explore other career options. She found herself drawn to management consultancy and began working at Accenture in 2001.

Variety within the same career

Over the course of her 15 years at Accenture, Thompson has worked across industries serving a diverse array of clients ranging from the US Federal Government, to an energy corporation and a large telecoms firm. In 2009 she moved from working with clients to an internal role where she was asked to build and lead a sales support team to help Accenture respond more effectively to proposals. That decision and role represented a major turning point in Thompson’s career and ultimately led to where she is today as the Director of Accenture’s North American Proposal Response Center, where she manages a team of proposal development professionals.

“I’ve been extremely fortunate to be able to explore new career paths. My main professional motivations have always been interesting work and the opportunity to work with great people and I’ve experienced both at Accenture – I have never been encouraged to simply continue down the path on which I started. As a result of moving my career into a new direction of my choosing, I was able to build an internal sales support function that has achieved a very positive reputation and been replicated throughout.”

Currently, Thompson is excited about expanding the services that her Sales Support team provide at Accenture, so that they will be involved throughout the whole entire Sales lifecycle, enabling more sales and greater efficiency. An area that is of particular interest to her is how at Accenture they are doubling down on automation, especially in the area of content creation.

By conquering this work, Thompson comments, “we are able to create content for our sales collateral using software rather than “search and find” efforts, thus allowing us to respond to proposals with greater speed and efficiency.“

She is also enthused with how they are finding creative ways to better source and staff their resourcing needs through crowdsourcing platforms and are always looking at innovative ways to get their messages across visually, helping bring to life Accenture’s focus on all things digital.

On a personal note she is excited about the impact they are making in the local D.C community.In January she volunteered with Urban Alliance – a local non-profit that empowers disadvantaged youth to succeed through internships, training and mentorship – during Accenture’s Martin Luther King Day of Service, one of the largest corporate efforts in the country. 1,500 Accenture people volunteered at more than 85 projects in the Metro DC area. Thompson is presently involved in another exciting project outside of her day to day role, leading Accenture’s relationship with the 11th Street Bridge Park Organisation – one of Accenture’s non-profit partners in the D.C area.

Thompson describes it as ‘a multi-partner project to transform an old bridge into the city’s first elevated park: a new venue for healthy recreation, environmental education and the arts’.She recently completed a pro bono skills based volunteering project to refine their strategic plan.

Mentoring and Sponsoring Others

The professional achievement of which Thompson is most proud, is the number of women and minorities that she has helped excel to executive level at Accenture, both on her own team and in her mentoring circles. She has received great mentoring at each stage of her career and very much believes in ‘paying it forward’. Thompson began by registering as a mentor on Accenture’s Global Mentoring Program and shortly thereafter was matched with an African American Female who was a new hire at the company. Over the course of 18 months she helped her navigate her path at Accenture, sharing career advice along the way.

“For me”, Thompson adds, “it was very gratifying when I received an email from her announcing that she had been promoted to the next level.”

For women across every industry she would encourage them to find a sponsor internally and seek support from mentors formally and informaly. Throughout her career Thompson has learnt that you will face challenges.

“The reality is, many of the decision makers you will encounter may not look like you, but it is important to understand that this is not a deterrent to success,” she states. She believes that for women especially, it is important to seek sponsorship and support from a diverse array of people versus turning to just those within your demographic.

Thompson is proud to work for a company that has not only announced its’ commitment to gender equality, but one that is committed to supporting the professional goals and aspirations of its’ more than 130,000 women globally. Accenture recently announced an investment of over $840 million in learning and professional development in 2015, which includes a range of training programs to develop the next generation of women leaders. Personally Thompson mentors four women personally and many more informally.She partakes in learning and networking opportunities during events like Accenture’s celebration of International Women’s Day, which she has previously co- hosted in D.C.She has also had the great fortune to work directly for a strong woman leader who also serves as her career counsellor- helping her to define her own path to success and to ensure she achieves it – and to sit in a highly diverse organisation with many senior women reporting in to her.

In her spare time she loves to travel and recently spent time in Buenos Aires, Rio and San Juan, Puerto Rico over the holidays. She expresses that she is fortunate to have a geographically dispersed set of friends and that she spends time abroad almost monthly. She is an avid reader and is never without her kindle. Some may find the most surprising thing about Thompson is her love of football, or soccer as it’s called in the US. She supports FC Barcelona and DC United and given the opportunity will happily while away a weekend watching the various European leagues play on television!

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Voice of Experience: Monica Boll, Managing Director, Accenture

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Monica Boll“Be bold about asking for what you want, particularly when you know you deserve it. If you don’t make others around you aware of your career aspirations, they can’t know how to help you get there,” says Monica Boll. “The right time to make your goals known might not be today – it’s different for everyone – but a conversation won’t happen unless you start it. It’s important to find your voice.”

This advice has helped Boll throughout her career, which began working in and around the outsourcing business in a variety of roles involving process improvement, transition, change management and global sourcing. For the past nine years, she has held a variety of functions in Accenture Operations, including leading an HR transformation program, delivering finance and accounting, procurement and marketing services and cost management initiatives. Currently a managing director in Accenture Operations, Boll leads accounts in the Financial Services and Communications, Media and Technology industry groups and manages a team of 250 Accenture associates in India, Costa Rica and the United States.

As such, she is on the forefront of seeing how technology is disrupting industries in a positive way in her various roles. In Accenture Operations, it’s the use of automation – for example, robotics to improve quality, turnaround times and overall customer experience or leveraging a cloud-based solution to deliver a new capability or system to a client. And in Financial Services, it’s disruption through the advancement of digital services like Apple Pay – what will life will be like without cash? How will purchases and sales be funneled through a smart phone versus a computer or other system? “It’s fascinating to me how quickly technology is advancing and then, on the flipside, how we always need to be trend spotters in order to remain relevant and stay ahead.”

Women in Finance

Boll has recognized that across all of the industries in which she’s worked, there is a severe shortage of women in senior leadership positions. She notes that in the financial industry, for example, the barons in centers like New York, London and Hong Kong have been men, with rarely if ever a woman to be seen at any leadership level. “True or not, most women believe that they have to exert more effort to prove themselves; history shows it takes much longer to achieve parity. Women have to work a lot harder and be a lot smarter to be recognized,” she says.

In addition, she notes the increased obligations outside of the office that traditionally fall to women, from bearing children to raising a family and caring for aging parents, and how striving to achieve balance among the demands of work and life make it harder for a woman to succeed.

However, it is a career where the rewards are vast for those who push past these barriers. She advocates that young women be bold by being innovative, vocal and open to learning as much as they can all the time, as well as by actively volunteering for work opportunities to improve their skills. “They should treat themselves as an equal to their male counterparts,” Boll says.

In addition, Boll hopes that senior women will be more supportive of one another. “Only we have the direct experience and have lived or recognize the limitations that women might face in their professional careers,” she said. Because of that, they need to advocate for young professional women and dedicate the time to coach and mentor them so they can advance faster, and more effectively, than they would on their own — to help young women navigate a professional world that can be, or appear to be, incredibly complex.

Paying it Forward

Boll walks the talk in all those areas. Looking back on her career, she is most proud of how she’s been able to leverage her industry experiences – those at Accenture and previous roles – to be the executive sponsor of the Accenture Operations North America Inclusion & Diversity mentoring program.

“It is a rich and gratifying experience, and I am particularly passionate about this because it focuses specifically on both men and women from diverse and LGBT backgrounds, a reflection of what I offer as a woman who is LGBT and Hispanic.” The program focuses on mentoring in various ways: professional development, work-life balance, career management and even reverse mentoring.

Boll also acts as a sponsor in the mentoring program which is gratifying because of her positive experiences as a mentee. “I have had a variety of excellent mentors and role models throughout my career who have helped me become the person I am today – both professionally and personally. I am very passionate about paying it forward to the next generation.”

Accenture has a number of programs in place to further that mission. The company has a global women’s theme, “Defining success. Your way.,” which is designed to encourage the more than 115,000 women at Accenture to find their own paths to professional and personal success by supporting their goals and aspirations and striving to provide an environment and culture that empowers women and enables them to thrive.

Speaking Out For LGBT Rights

Boll is actively involved in the firm’s LGBT initiatives, including the New York and Atlanta LGBT Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) which help bring the LGBT community and allies together for leadership development training, networking, mentoring, information sharing and recruiting activities.

Earlier this year Accenture joined more than 300 companies in signing an Amicus Curiae brief urging the Supreme Court to affirm that all couples share in the right to marry. “I am extremely proud to work for Accenture, a company that offers its people and their partners, regardless of sexual orientation, access to the same benefits.”

On a personal note, she and her wife Ellen were associate producers of a feature film “Love is Strange,” a story about love and a network of friends and family that come together to support a married gay couple during a time of need.It premiered last year at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to achieve global acclaim. “For me, that was a great opportunity to take a risk on something topical – gay rights – and something that I’m passionate about. We wanted to be, and indeed it felt like we were, part of the movement that will lead to the Supreme Court case on gay marriage to be decided this summer.”

She and her wife have been together for 23 years and married since 2012. They are involved with the Human Rights Campaign, the Trevor Project and the True Colors Fund which works to end homelessness among LGBT youth.

When they are not splitting time between Atlanta and New York for work, they make the commitment to take an annual vacation to somewhere exotic. She also describes herself as a huge tennis fan: “a formal recreational player, an avid spectator, and one who one day will pick up a racquet again.”

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Voice of Experience: Teo Lay Lim, Country Managing Director for Singapore, Accenture

Teo Lay LimWelcome the The Glass Hammer’s “Spotlight on Asia” week! We will be highlighting successful women working in Asia all week long!

Teo Lay Lim has been working at Accenture for 26 years, and she loves what she does. One lesson she has learned throughout her experience is the importance of networking which, she finds, women are naturally good at because they collaborate and communicate well.

“For women at all levels of their careers, constantly building your personal network both internally and externally is extremely valuable,” she said. “Building personal networks helps you to draw on others to augment your own insights [and] perspectives,” she added. This is especially important for leaders because they need experience, perspective and insight.

Accenture has more than 85 local women’s networking groups in 32 countries which, as she explained, “help them build strong networks.” Lay Lim added that “our global women’s theme, Defining Success. Your Way., demonstrates our commitment to supporting women’s professional goals and aspirations. It’s all a part of our overall commitment to attracting, retaining and advancing women, which supports our broader commitment to an inclusive and diverse workplace.”

Lay Lim encourages women to look for careers in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). “STEM skills are a business imperative and I believe that women are key in this area,” she said. “We need the intelligence, talent and ability of women to help fill the growing number of STEM jobs and this means encouraging young women to pursue careers in these fields and enabling them to succeed.”

“At Accenture, for example, STEM skills are critical. Technology-led innovation is at the heart of our business – a business in which women comprise almost half of the workforce,” she said.

Working in Accenture

She currently works as the geographic unit senior managing director for Accenture’s offices in ASEAN (South East Asia), and she is also the Country Managing Director of Accenture in Singapore. Prior to this position, she worked as the Asia Pacific managing director for the company’s Analytics and Sustainability Services, and during 11 years (two of them spent in Shanghai) she worked as the managing director of Customer Relationship Management in Accenture’s former Management Consulting practice.

Working in the services industry, she has learned about the importance of showing talent and relevance, which she believes “is a challenge because even though our competitors have changed over time, our client and customer expectations are consistent and ongoing.”

Being different helps a company be more successful than its competition and she offers two pieces of advice that can help companies reach this goal: “Be relevant to what [your] clients and customers need, and be a talent magnet for the best people with the right potential to be developed.” These best people, she explained, learn quickly, are committed to the company and their jobs, and have the character and values that the company is looking for.

Improving the Country

“I love what I do at Accenture and the work I take on in my roles, both past and present, has always kept me on my toes,” she said, “but I’m also excited about the work I’m doing externally, to help my country. I am a steering committee member of the Infocom Media Masterplan, led by Singapore’s Ministry of Communications & Information, which aims to spearhead the development of a single, integrated plan to guide Singapore’s Infocomm & Media sectors up to 2025 in a holistic manner.”

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