Accenture Reveals Strategies for Winning War for Talent in Global Economy

Business success requires new, strategic focus on talent

LONDON; Dec. 10, 2007— To win the battle for talent, organizations must transform the management of their workforces from a supporting function to a competitive capability, according to a new book from Accenture (NYSE: ACN).The Talent Powered Organization: Strategies for Globalization, Talent Management and High Performance is a comprehensive review of the trends that are elevating talent management to the top of the corporate agenda — from recruiting young technicians from the developing world, to retaining valuable experience from an aging generation of employees, to integrating Generation Y into the workforce.

Authored by three Accenture leaders in the field of talent management — Peter Cheese, Robert J. Thomas and Elizabeth Craig — The Talent Powered Organization is among the first books in the field to provide a thorough and holistic perspective on how to respond to these new challenges on a global scale. The book lays out leading practices and offers numerous case studies that illuminate the various dimensions of managing people, from defining talent requirements and their critical links to business strategy, to innovative ways of sourcing, building and deploying talent at the right time and in the right roles, to accounting for and measuring investments in talent.

Among the key points the book makes are:

• Engagement is the mystery ingredient that can transform business performance, but it can be elusive. The book provides examples of companies that are taking innovative approaches to fostering engagement and attracting and retaining employees.
• Human capital strategy must be an intrinsic part of any business strategy, but it requires the discipline of a long-distance runner. Among the examples in the book are companies that link employee engagement and satisfaction to business metrics such as improvements in sales and customer service.
• Learning and skills development is now one of the most important capabilities for the talent-powered organization, but it is essential to focus performance improve­ment efforts on those employees that add most directly to the organization’s bottom line. Leading organizations are better leveraging learning investments by developing competency where it is most critical—for example, by organizing personnel into “job families” with their own profession-specific learning teams.

The Talent Powered Organization reveals that the hidden key to sustainable competitive advantage in a turbulent global economy is to find new sources of talent and to multiply the value each employee provides, no matter their place in the organization. The book demonstrates that the development of a distinctive capability in multiplying talent can create extraordinary value and become an important and lasting source of competitive advantage that powers an organization to high performance.

The Talent Powered Organization was published in November by Kogan Page. For more information, please visit www.accenture.com/talentpowered.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With approximately 170,000 people in 49 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$19.70 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2007. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Contacts: Lucy Reeves
Accenture
London
+44 020 7844 9181
lucy.reeves@accenture.com

Rachel Barere
Accenture
New York
+1-917-452-3771
rachel.v.barere@accenture.com