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AXA’s claims in the cloud

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Accenture Success Stories

Our stories and case studies reveal the human ingenuity behind everything from emerging technologies to global marketplaces. Discover how Accenture’s people are making a world of difference for clients and communities.                                                                                         

KEY RESULTS

Increase in Brand Awareness

Increase in Brand Consideration

Increase in Brand Usage

Marketing Objectives

Accenture is a leading global professional services company , providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting, interactive, technology and operations.

In 2021, Accenture set out to gain market share and fuel growth by updating perceptions about what it can do. Its target clients were C-suites and senior business decision-makers who were looking to transform their businesses through innovation.

In the run-up to the launch of its new brand message “ Let there be change ”, Accenture wanted to convince these business leaders that it had the end-to-end solutions to help them. It aimed to achieve competitive stand-out by becoming known for its research and perspectives and by illustrating its market leadership.

The Financial Times reaches 52% of C-suites in Accenture’s key markets, the highest amongst our competitors. Accenture saw that the FT could help it reach exactly the right audience; drive buzz with high-profile thought leadership content; and ensure that its new brand expression would be seen throughout Europe.

Our Solution

The FT devised a research-based multi-touchpoint campaign across Europe that promoted Accenture’s story to the FT audience and showcased its brand message in a credible environment, aligning it with high-profile FT editorial series, webinars and newsletters. Accenture had 100% share of voice across the series.

To get deeper insights before creating the campaign , the FT research team carried out a Management Consultancy Global Impact Study among over 550 of the world’s leading C-suites. This allowed us to understand the audience’s needs and see where Accenture currently stood among its competitive set.

We knew from the brief and our GIST findings that we needed to position Accenture around specific topics of interest.

• The focus of the campaign was the ‘ Economists Exchange ’ article series, exploring what a post-Covid recovery will look like. It featured top FT commentators like Martin Wolf and Gillian Tett in conversation with 12 world-leading economists, from Kristalina Georgieva to Raghuram Rajan and Jeffrey Sachs.

• We brought the topics to life in three co-hosted webinars , featuring high-calibre speakers such as Rolls Royce CEO Warren East.

• We launched an Accenture-sponsored mini-series on the ‘Tech Tonic’ podcast, exploring the big ideas driving innovation.

• Accenture also aligned with key topics of interest by sponsoring an FT Special Report ‘ The Cloud ’ and two premium newsletters: Tech FT and Coronavirus Business Update .

In an FT media first, we ran a campaign called ‘ Accenture Voices ’ to promote Accenture’s key influencers. The marketing team combined sponsorship of all native and display advertising units on the homepage across all key regions. Bespoke Promoted Content Units , served across FT.com, used semantic profiling to ensure contextual relevance and audience reach. A bespoke marketing campaign included paid social promotion, Linkedin targeting to Accenture employees, and 500,000 co-branded traffic driving impressions across FT.com

The campaign delivered exceptional results for Accenture, positioning it strongly as a leader in change.

• The Economists Exchange series reached over 102,000 known unique readers

• 1,200 senior business decision-makers attended the associated webinars, generating leads for Accenture

• With 10 touchpoints, this single campaign reached 502,191 unique FT readers and 92,000 unique C-Suite readers

• Accenture Voices saw over 4.4 million impressions and over 4,100 clicks

• Newsletter sponsorships delivered over 3.5 million impressions and 1,262 clicks

• The Special Report The Cloud reached 350,000 unique users

At the end of the campaign, the FT ran another Management Consultancy Global Impact Study to assess the impact of these results against the initial pre-campaign study. Across EMEA, Accenture had managed to increase its brand awareness by 60% . In Europe, it ranked highest as a firm that is a leader in digital development and innovation, and usage of the firm had increased by 27% . What’s more, 52% more senior decision-makers said they will be using Accenture in the next 12-24 months.

The post-campaign brand uplift study showed Accenture as the joint highest-scoring unaided first choice brand for management consultancy firms , while consideration saw an uplift of 31% between the control group and those that had seen the ads.

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Fujitsu: Sustainability Transformation in Action

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Accenture Case Interview: Formats, Question Types & Tips

Accenture is one of the largest consulting firms in the world, with more than 500,000 employees serving clients in 120 countries. If we could pick a consulting firm to win the aggressive campus recruiting award, it would probably be Accenture.

Accenture case interviews are a bit heavier on market-sizing, with a mix of candidate- and interview-led, and may include a special interview called Potentia.

Table of Contents

What is Accenture case interview?

Accenture case interviews are the final test to become an accenture consultant.

The Accenture case interview is the screening interview of Accenture, where candidates must solve business problems (or cases). The interview evaluates whether candidates possess the capabilities and qualities to become an Accenture consultant.

Accenture case interviews are both interviewer-led and candidate-led. The former has multiple separate questions presented by the interviewer, while the latter is one big case where you lead every step of the process, from structuring the issue, developing frameworks, requesting data, synthesizing findings, and providing solutions.

Before getting to the case interview, you must pass the initial screening rounds, which include resume screening and on-campus behavioral test.

In the resume round, you’ll of course need a consulting resume, just like what you’d need for McKinsey, and a cover letter, then submit it on Accenture’s website.

The behavioral interview will test whether you are fit to work for Accenture and the position you are applying to. This should take around 30-45 minutes.

Accenture also has a special case interview called the Potentia, testing candidate’s judgment and creative thinking ability. We’ll touch on this a bit later.

You don’t need tech background to solve Accenture cases

Accenture is a tech support powerhouse , but you don’t need to know about tech for consulting positions (it’s BUSINESS, but knowing wouldn’t hurt either).

Some may have tech-related topics, like on Uber or Facebook but you can solve the case, content-wise, just like normal case interviews. 

So brighten up if you don’t have any exposure in IT or computer science, you’ll be working in business at core. But tech bros are also welcome! (Well, they indeed can join tech for (arguably) higher pay up front versus consulting, but I’d say consulting is better in the long-run, so get at it!).

And in case you didn’t know, Accenture literally became the biggest consulting firm in the world thanks to tech.

Big corps nowadays are more than willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year to keep their tech humming, and Accenture enjoys quite a fair share of that. It is basically synonymous with tech consulting/advisory.

Also, before the tech giant it is today, Accenture actually hailed from a former Big Five firm (now Big Four)! It was first known as Andersen Consulting, the business & tech consulting department of Arthur Andersen, but later split in the late 1990s due to internal conflict and became Accenture! 

Accenture looks for those with achieving & analytical mindset

Just like all management consulting firms, Accenture looks for those who want to make an impact. The main value Accenture will look for are:

Outstanding academic achievement: Usually, your GPA (obviously) and school prestige. Your best bet? 4.0 at Harvard! But jokes aside, a 3.6 GPA should be good. Below that? Try to make focus points in other parts of your resume. This article might help!

Analytical ability: The ability to create a thorough, data-driven, insightful analysis and define the root cause and solutions to difficult problems

Demonstrated leadership : The ability to inspire and motivate others. Consultants won’t simply look for “leaders” who just tell their subordinates what to do, but a guiding beacon, even for their superiors (very much telling your boss what to do, but, think of it as inspiring ideas to them).

Collaborative approach : The ability to exchange facts and insights and effectively interact with people from various backgrounds and cultures

Intellectual curiosity : The ability to actively and continuously seek and expand knowledge 

Accenture case interview format

Accenture interviews are heavy on market-sizing.

This was based on our research. Also, most cases were divided into very specific and realistic questions, and they had no connections, whatsoever. The case as a whole sounds like a casual business discussion on some pressing issues.

So, you can expect these questions to be typical of consulting interviews. Market-sizing and guesstimate questions are popular and it’s no exception here. But keep this in mind: Market-sizing is not about getting the correct number, but estimating in a structured and logical way . The process is the important part .

Accenture cases are not heavier on math

Accenture cases are just about as math-y as what you’d see in most consulting firms. Yes, math is the foundation of consulting work, but what interviewers will look for is structured problem-solving, which brings us to MECE, root cause, and actionable solutions, the core of all cases. 

Accenture case interview questions

There are three types of questions in Accenture cases, known as the “ Great Unknown ”, the “ Parade of Facts ” and the “ Back of the Envelope ,” each targeting very specific aspects of a candidate’s problem-solving ability. 

The two most common will be the “Great Unknown” and the “Parade of Facts”. Still, no matter the question type you’re dealing with, don’t jump right in cracking the case before understanding the facts and knowing exactly what is being asked of you.

The Great Unknown focuses on ability to probe information

The Great Unknown questions basically give you the barebone, with truly nothing to build a case. They will test your ability to uncover necessary facts - to ask the right questions. 

Here’s an example: 

A leading manufacturer of plant-based meat has experienced a decline in profits despite an increase in market share. The senior executive team would like you to help them understand why and what they can do to reverse this trend.

And here’s how you should approach the case:

Okay, first, “market share” here is a rough percentage of the company on the market, not an absolute number. So, “an increase in market share” can be either by chewing out the competition, or competition dying.

Also, the market might be shrinking, but our sales are falling less than competitors. 

After clarifying what “an increase in market share” means, you can ask something like:

Has the company experienced any significant increase in cost in the last couple of years related to any additional fixed or variable cost?

On the revenue side, has there been an increase in the volume of output?

What about the competition? Has the competitive structure of the industry changed? Mergers and Acquisitions? New Entrants?

Are there any new products or new technologies that are gaining market share?

How is the company currently positioned (low cost, high quality, etc)? What is its competitive advantage?

The Parade of Facts focuses on the ability to distill key issues

The “Parade of Facts” presents you with an abundance of information, so now, it’s your job to navigate through massive loads of facts. It will put your ability to grasp the crux of the problem and find relevant information to the test.

For this type of question, pause for a moment and consider the central problem . It’s key to ask questions about facts that appear relevant.

Here’s an example:

Client is a leading ice-cream company that wants to sell vegan ice-cream. They want to know the market size, the feasibility of the business and how they can set up barriers to entry. Some additional information is given:

Trend among consumers is toward production transparency, e.g. they want to know their products were not made at the cost of animal suffering, labor exploitation, and environmental repercussions.

Trend among consumers is to avoid artificial preservatives or colorings.

Consumers are currently purchasing $45 billion ice-cream cups per year.

There are five flavors – matcha, coconut, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

Ice-cream is packaged in 18 oz cups.

Product is currently in limited consumer testing at $4 to $5.50 per cup

Here’s what you can do:

The key problem here is to find out the market size and profitability of the business. So, consider asking something like:

What prices are consumers responding to?

What is the competitive structure of this market currently?

What are the components of the company’s cost structure?

What is the break-even point for the firm?

What is the required market share to break-even?

The Back of the Envelope focuses more on math

This takes us back to the basics of market-sizing and guesstimate, so, things like estimate the number of phones in New York, or how many shots of espresso are consumed each year in Italy.

But let’s try a real case, shall we?

Estimate the total number of taxi drivers in Montreal.

Now, we’ll focus on assumptions.

First, estimate the market size by segmenting the population.

Assume Montreal’s population consists of 30% adult men, 30% adult women and 40% children

Assume children don’t use taxis and only 30% of adults use taxis

Estimate the average number of taxi rides each man and woman takes a week. For this case, assume one takes 10 rides a week, as the average works 5 days a week, and will take one to get to work and another back home

So, the market size (per week) is: 1.2 million people (60% of males & females) x 30% (percentage of adults using taxis) x 10 taxis rides = 3.6 million rides

Next, estimate the number of rides a driver can complete per week

Assume the average taxi driver completes 3-4 rides per hour

If the average driver works 10 hours/day, 6 days/week, he’d typically complete 180-240 rides (3-4 rides x 10 x 6)

Divide the total number of rides per week, we get the answer (about 15000-20000)

These are just some questions you may encounter in Accenture case interviews. If you want to familiarize yourself with the interview format, improve your performance, and develop techniques for each question type. The only proven way is to PRACTICE! 

Having trouble on where to start? Check out our Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program. We have everything covered for you to get ready for your case.

After practicing mock cases, try out MConsultingPrep’s coaching service. You’ll have the opportunity to receive detailed feedback on your performance from former consultants, and a personalized study plan to ace every case!

Accenture Potentia interview

Accenture Potentia Interview is a special type of case interview designed to test sound judgment and creative thinking of candidates applying for Strategy roles at Accenture. So not all candidates will take the Potentia, only the Strategy guys.

Potentia is also a case interview, just for Strategy candidates

The Potentia is a one-hour case interview. There are no clear guidelines for these cases, so whatever case you get depends on the interviewer. Regarding case type, some 60% chance you’ll get market-sizing, and nearly 40% chance you get profitability. On the format:

First, the interviewer will hand you a topic with a problem. The topics can be anything, even unrelated to work, like blood diamonds in Africa, or treatment of homosexuals in Muslim countries

You’ll have 5 minutes to read through the problem statement and prepare

After that, you’ll present your thoughts and the interviewer will ask follow-up questions. This conversation lasts around 45 to 60 minutes

Potentia is more on creativity rather than structure

Potentia focuses slightly more on creativity than structure. It mostly tests your ability to think outside the box, and come up with something fresh. So do expect it to be more casual than MBB cases (still, it’s a job interview, expect some level of seriousness).

But if you meet someone hailing from the MBB, they may get more demanding (it’s MBB, what do you expect?) and the interview will get serious real quick.

Still, Potentia will be more conversational and not go too much on getting the right answer.

Tips for Potentia

Tip #1: Construct your answers using frameworks:

You are still being evaluated on how structured and organized the answers are ( it’s a case interview at core , remember?). So, use frameworks to capture ideas.

Tip #2: Practice brainstorming ideas:

Coming up with a lot of good ideas in a short period of time takes practice. Try to generate ideas in different areas of your framework for a start.

Tip #3: Welcome ambitious ideas:

Remember, your creativity and innovation is also being assessed. Don’t be afraid to speak up ambitious ideas, because they might turn out to be very good. Still, it’s best to keep both practicality and ambition, for flexibility.

Tip #4: Don’t focus too much on getting the right answer:

Potentia problems are usually complex and don’t have absolute answers. Focus on giving sound judgements, creativity, innovation and you’re good! 

Tip #5: Bring in ideas from prior work experience:

A good way to showcase creativity is to draw relevant ideas from one industry and match them with another. Besides, it’s a good opportunity to leverage your previous work experiences.

Tip #6: Listen carefully to feedbacks:

Listen carefully and respond thoughtfully to your interviewer’s comments. It’s more of a conversation, not a one man show. Besides, listening is respecting, and a good impression goes a long way. Do apply feedback from previous questions to improve your performance in later questions. It shows that you are paying attention.

How to prepare for Accenture case interview

Careful preparation is a must to ace Accenture’s case. You can tackle each aspect of the interview step by step.

Start from getting used to both interviewer-led candidate-led cases, then further out with business intuition, consulting math, fundamentals & frameworks of case interview, then finally conduct mock interviews.

Step 1: Get used to the candidate-led case interview, and written case interview

Examine examples of interviewer-led and candidate-led case interviews to familiarize yourself with the case flow and how to interact with the interviewer.

You can also get familiar with more case interview samples and all instantly-effective tricks for case interviews with our Case Interview E2E Secret Program. Also, here’s our free video of a case interview example with an explanation and expert comments.

Step 2: Develop business intuition

Having business intuition significantly improves your performance in case interviews. Working on intuition is a gradual process that takes practice every day. You can improve your business intuition in two ways:

Written sources: Read business papers daily (Bloomberg is recommended). You can also find articles on McKinsey, Bain, and BCG’s websites. But be careful! The important thing is not your page count, but what you absorbed from them

First-hand experience and observations: Don't just do things like a machine; find out what the seniors are doing, why they did what they did, and how it has affected the organization. Everything is a learning process, and it’s up to you to squeeze out every bit of knowledge and experience

Step 3: Practice consulting math

Consultants work with quantitative data in just about every minute. It simply takes too long to whip out a calculator every time they need to calculate something, and you’re definitely not impressing clients with that. That’s why interviewers place such high emphasis on mental math skills of interviewees. To improve your math, you can:

Train your head : Apply mental calculations on any daily occasion unless an EXACT answer is required

Start small : Use a piece of scratch paper, give yourself some margins of error (5% is a good start); once you get used to it, remove the paper and narrow down the margin of error.

Establish a routine : Spare time for daily practice and get better each day, just like exercise. You’ll never notice the little changes, but they stack up HARD, and when you realize it, you’re probably doing math thrice as fast

Step 4: Learn the fundamentals and frameworks of case interview

Accenture case interviews (or any other case interview) are based on the fundamentals - using hypotheses and issue trees, the MECE principle, and the frameworks. So, knowing them is extremely important and you should practice the fundamentals until you are comfortable.

A common mistake candidates make during their case interviews is to go straight for the frameworks. Frameworks require extensive adaptation to match actual cases. To customize appropriately, you must understand the fundamental knowledge first.

To know more about case interviews, here’s a dedicated article .

Step 5: Conduct mock case interview

Mock interviews are a great way to simulate the actual case interview session. You should examine your cases in great depth during the mock case interview. Record your session, replay, note the comments, and look for ways to improve.

Find a former consultant to help you with your practice - they are the ideal people; they've been there, they’ll know what a candidate must be. Through their feedback, you can improve on what needs to be improved and boost your chance of getting an offer.

We can also help you connect with consulting coaches (all former consultants!) for a more personalized feedback. Book your mock case interview session with us now !

Accenture Tech or Accenture Consulting?

But Kim, you may ask, I have tech background, do I go for Accenture Tech or Accenture Management Consulting?

Good question! Both are great careers but I’d say even if you are amazing at tech, if you can, go for management consulting. Yes I might be biased, but let’s focus on the aspect of each: one leans more on one aspect of business, and other on the entire business.

With tech, you can make six figures fresh out of college

Tech guys can easily make six figures right after graduation, because, well, it’s tech! So you want to make 150, 200 just fresh out of school? Go tech!

With consulting, you have the potential to make millions in the long run

But I’ll ask you this, what does a company, say even a tech company do to make money? BUSINESS . Everything it does serves one purpose, to sell a product or service and make money from that. No matter what type of company, BUSINESS is always the core.

What management consulting will teach you is to look at the big picture, how the entire business works to make a profit, how to improve on what’s already there, how to solve upper-level problems, not just narrowing down to a simple cog of a whole machine.

Let’s say you go with the tech path, you make big bucks right out of school, but that’s probably it. Tech’s all you know, but you’re quite good at it. As time goes by, your development, and your money seem to plateau, because you can’t quite get higher up. You’re limited to just one aspect of the entire business.

But now, you go with the consulting path, you make less than tech guys at first (still good money), but with what you’ve learnt in business and management, you hop to upper-level management levels for another firm (COO, CTO, even CEO isn’t out of the question), or, you build your own tech firm. You become the boss of the tech kids.

I’d say the money from tech vs consulting looks something like this. Tech gives you the boost right from the start, but consulting gives you the momentum later in your career.

You can say some tech guys like Bill Gates or Zuck made billions, but as I said, their core was BUSINESS. You won’t make billions simply by writing some codes or making some phones. There’s a lot more to it, and that’s exactly what consulting will teach you.

And hey, you know that guy from Google? Sundar Pichai? Yeah, he began in engineering, but transitioned to consulting. From McKinsey to Google CEO. That’s a real brag. I’d doubt he’d get anywhere as big just staying in engineering.

So your choice, go big now, or go real big later. 

Scoring in the McKinsey PSG/Digital Assessment

The scoring mechanism in the McKinsey Digital Assessment

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Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program

Elevate your case interview skills with a well-rounded preparation package

Learn insider tips, proven strategies, and practical advice to ace the Oliver Wyman case interview with MConsultingPrep comprehensive guide!

Case interview is the last round of ZS Associates hiring process with 3 stages: online application, aptitude tests + video interview & 2 parts of case interview

A case interview is where candidates is asked to solve a business problem. They are used by consulting firms to evaluate problem-solving skill & soft skills

• Hacking the Case Interview

Accenture interviews are comprised of case interviews and behavioral or fit interview questions. If you are interviewing for Accenture’s Strategy group, you will also be given a special type of interview called the Accenture Potentia Interview.

If you have an upcoming Accenture interview, we have you covered. We’ll cover in detail:  

• The Accenture interview process
• What is an Accenture case interview?
• What does an Accenture case interview assess?
• How to solve Accenture case interviews
• The common types of Accenture case interviews
• Accenture case interview examples
• Accenture case interview tips
• How to prepare for Accenture case interviews
• How to ace the Accenture Potentia Interview
• Accenture behavioral and fit interview questions
• Recommended Accenture case interview resources

The Accenture Interview Process

Accenture is a massive professional services firm that provides management consulting, IT consulting, and back office outsourcing. Within management consulting, Accenture is broken down into three groups: Strategy, Operations, and Digital.

Accenture Strategy is the group that is most similar to McKinsey, BCG, and Bain in the type of work that they do. The Operations and Digital group is focused more on implementation rather than on pure strategy.

Depending on the office and group that you are applying for, there will be two to three rounds of interviews. Each round will have anywhere from one to three 1-hour interviews. Your interviews will be a mix of case interviews and behavioral or fit interview questions.

Below is an example of what your interview process could look like:

• Accenture first round interview : Two 40-minute interviews. The first 10 minutes will be spent on behavioral or fit interview questions and the remaining 30 minutes will be spent on an Accenture case interview.
• Accenture final round interview : Three 1-hour interviews. One interview will be focused on behavioral or fit interview questions. The other two interviews will be focused on Accenture case interviews.

One important thing to note is that if you are applying for a role in Accenture Strategy, one of your interviews will be a special type of interview called the Potentia interview.

You’ll be interviewed by more senior people as you go through the different rounds of interviews. In the first round, you’ll be interviewed by consultants or managers. In the final round, you’ll be interviewed by managing directors and senior managing directors.

We’ll cover all of the different types of interview questions in detail in the next few sections.

What is an Accenture Case Interview

An Accenture case interview, also known as a “case” for short, is a 30 to 60-minute exercise in which you and the interviewer work together to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem.

These business problems can be anything that real companies face:

• How can Amazon increase its profitability?
• What can Apple do to increase customer retention?
• How should Tesla price its new electric vehicle?
• Where should Disney open another Disneyland theme park?

Accenture case interviews simulate what the consulting job will be like by placing you in a hypothetical business situation. Cases simulate real business problems that consulting firms solve for their clients. Many Accenture case interviews are based on actual projects that interviewers have worked on.

While consulting projects typically last between 3 to 9 months, case interviews condense solving the business problem into just 30 to 45 minutes.

Accenture case interviews can cover any industry, including retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, energy, education, healthcare, government, and technology.

They can also cover a wide range of business situations, including entering a new market, launching a new product, acquiring a company, improving profitability, and growing revenues.

Although Accenture case interviews cover a wide range of industries and business situations, no technical or specialized knowledge is needed.

Unless you are interviewing for a consulting firm that specializes in a particular industry or function, cases are designed to be solved by someone that has general business knowledge.

Nailing your Accenture case interviews is critical to get a job at Accenture. There is no way to get a Accenture job offer without passing your case interviews.

What Does an Accenture Case Interview Assess?

Accenture case interviews assess five different qualities or characteristics: logical and structured thinking, analytical problem solving, business acumen, communication skills, and personality and cultural fit.

1. Logical and structured thinking : Consultants need to be organized and methodical in order to work efficiently.

• Can you structure complex problems in a clear, simple way?
• Can you take tremendous amounts of information and data and identify the most important points?
• Can you use logic and reason to make appropriate conclusions?

2. Analytical problem solving : Consultants work with a tremendous amount of data and information in order to develop recommendations to complex problems.

• Can you read and interpret data well?
• Can you perform math computations smoothly and accurately?
• Can you conduct the right analyses to draw the right conclusions?

3. Business acumen : A strong business instinct helps consultants make the right decisions and develop the right recommendations.

• Do you have a basic understanding of fundamental business concepts?
• Do your conclusions and recommendations make sense from a business perspective?

4. Communication skills : Consultants need strong communication skills to collaborate with teammates and clients effectively.

• Can you communicate in a clear, concise way?
• Are you articulate in what you are saying?

5. Personality and cultural fit : Consultants spend a lot of time working closely in small teams. Having a personality and attitude that fits with the team makes the whole team work better together.

• Are you coachable and easy to work with?
• Are you pleasant to be around?

All of these five qualities can be assessed in just a 30 to 60-minute Accenture case interview. This is what makes case interviews so effective in assessing consulting candidates.

How to Solve Accenture Case Interviews

Accenture case interviews, also known as case study interviews, are candidate-led. This means that you will be expected to drive the case. You will be suggesting what areas to explore, what analyses to do, and what next steps should be.

Accenture cases last between 30 to 45 minutes. They tend to be based on real business situations, often drawn from an actual project that your interviewer worked on.

In  Accenture’s case interview workbook , they state that success in their case interviews does not depend on finding the correct answer. Instead, you are assessed on:

• How clearly you define the problem
• How logically you structure the analysis
• How strong your quantitative analysis skills are
• How well you communicate your thoughts to the interviewer

In addition to these hard skills, there are also soft skills that you will be assessed on. These are:

• Poise : your confidence, ability to perform well under pressure, and how you handle making mistakes
• Communication : your listening skills and how articulate you are in presenting your process and conclusions
• Flexibility : how well you can adapt your thinking to changing circumstances
• Other  intangibles : your energy and drive, initiative, time management, decisiveness, and genuine interest in consulting and the firm

Accenture suggests following six different steps to solve an Accenture case interview.

(Source: Accenture Case Interview Workbook)  

1. Listen to the case

In this step, the interviewer will give you a description of the case problem. This description can be as short as a few sentences or as long as a full page of detailed information.

During this step, make sure you are taking notes on the most important pieces of information. You should focus on understanding the context, company, and the objective.

2. Clarify the problem

Understanding the business problem and objective is imperative to successfully solving the case. Answering or addressing the wrong business problem is the quickest way to fail a case interview.

Therefore, ask clarifying questions to better understand the business situation and issue. Afterwards, make sure that you confirm or verify the objective of the case with the interviewer. This ensures that you will start the case on the right track.

3. Decompose the problem

Next, you’ll need to break down the problem in an exhaustive and logical way. You can do this by creating an issue tree or framework.

A framework is a tool that helps you structure and break down complex problems into simpler, smaller components. Think of a framework as brainstorming different ideas and organizing them neatly into different categories.

Accenture provides a few examples of frameworks that you can use to get you started thinking about how to solve different types of cases.

  (Source: Accenture Case Interview Workbook)  

We recommend that you do not just memorize these frameworks and use them in your interviews. Instead, use these frameworks as background knowledge to help you make your own frameworks that are tailored to the specific case that you are solving for.

For a complete guide on how to create tailored and unique frameworks for each case, check out our article on case interview frameworks .

4. State your hypotheses

After decomposing the problem, you should list out potential hypotheses that answer or address the business problem. A hypothesis is an educated guess on the answer based on the data and information that you have so far.

A hypothesis helps guide your analysis and keeps you on track. It ensures that you are spending your time answering the right questions and conducting the right analyses.

5. Test your hypotheses

Once you have a hypothesis, you’ll answer questions or conduct analyses to refine your hypothesis.

Sometimes, your hypothesis will be completely wrong and you’ll need to develop another hypothesis to test. Other times, your hypothesis will be generally right and you’ll need to refine and narrow down your hypothesis further.

This is an iterative process. Your hypothesis should be constantly changing and becoming more refined as you progress through the case. Once you have developed meaningful support for your hypothesis, you will move onto the final step.

6. Summarize your findings

In this step, you’ll present your recommendation and provide the major reasons that support it. It is also good to include potential next steps that you would take if you had more time or data.

Afterwards, the interviewer may tell you what actually happened with the case or project that they worked on. Don’t worry if your methodology or answer does not match what actually happened. Remember, you are not assessed on your answer, but the overall process.

Learn case interviews in 30 minutes

We've compiled all of the different steps of solving an Accenture case interview into a more easily digestible 30-minute video. We highly recommend watching the video below in its entirety.

The Common Types of Accenture Case Interviews

Accenture states that there are three types of cases you may see in your interviews:

• The “Great Unknown”
• The “Parade of Facts”
• The “Back of the Envelope”

The “Great Unknown” and “Back of the Envelope” are the most common types of cases.

The “Great Unknown” Case

For this type of case, very little information will be provided to you on the case background. For “Great Unknown” cases, you’ll be tested on your ability to probe for details, which requires having a structured framework.

Examples of cases:  

• Your client is a leading manufacturer of prefabricated kitchen furnishings. They have been steadily losing market share over the past two years. You have been hired to help them understand why this is happening and what they can do to improve their market standing.
• A major furniture retailer has experienced declining profits for four quarters, but has experienced a 25% growth in sales and has opened many new stores during this time. Why are profits declining?
• A fast food company is thinking about putting a franchise in an airport. Should they do this?
• A bread division of a large food company is facing increasing competition in the market. Should they exit the market?
• A car company is interested in developing a new car. What marketing related issues should it consider before making the investment?
• What factors influence the revenue potential of a new pharmaceutical product?
• Citibank is considering purchasing another credit card company, which would give them access to 100,000 new card holders. What is the estimated value of this acquisition?
• A commercial bank is re-evaluating the number of branches it operates and whether they should increase the number of branches or close some down. How should they make this decision?
• A large conglomerate company is facing declining profits in its railroad company division and is considering shutting it down. Is this the right course of action? What are potential alternatives?
• New York City has hired you to determine what optimal route or what destination taxi drivers should go to when they do not have a customer.

The “Parade of Facts” Case

For this type of case, a significant amount of details on the case background will be provided to you, some of them unnecessary. For “Parade of Facts” cases, you’ll be tested on the ability to synthesize and identify key issues.

Example of a case:

• Your client is a food company that wants to develop a freshly prepared meal business
• There is a trend among customers towards fresher foods with no artificial preservatives or coloring
• Consumers are currently purchasing $5B of frozen meals and there is a trend towards more upscale products
• A fresh meal plate combines a protein, vegetable, and starch and is delicately arranged in a sealed plastic dome package
• Nitrogen gas flushing is used to extend shelf life
• Product is currently in limited consumer testing at $5.50 to $8.50 per meal
• Shelf life of product is 14 days
• Product will spoil in 21 days, potentially causing food poisoning
• Client wants to know if they can make money in this business
• Client wants to know if the market is big and how will they keep competition out
• Client wants a consultant to assist in building a business case for them

The “Back of the Envelope” Case

This type of case asks a market sizing or estimation question. Very little information will be provided, but a clear question will be asked.

“Back of the Envelope” cases primarily test your analytic abilities. It requires a structured, logical thought process and competency in working with numbers and making calculations.

Examples of cases:

• Estimate the total number of dry cleaners in Philadelphia
• How much money could Continental Airlines save by giving customers half a can instead of a whole can of Sprite?
• What is the estimated value of a taxi medallion in New York City?
• Discuss what is wrong with the following statistic: The Volvo is the safest car on the road because a recent study has shown that Volvos have the fewest number of accident deaths per mile driven
• Estimate the change in the price of oil in the year 2000 from today’s price. Will it increase or will it decrease?
• Estimate the number of attendees for a free concert for U2 in Central Park in New York City

Accenture Case Interview Examples

We've compiled additional examples of Accenture case interviews below. These case interviews were actual cases given in previous Accenture interviews.

Example #1 : A consumer electronics company is looking to introduce a new smartwatch to the market. How should they launch this new product?

Example #2 : A global logistics company wants to streamline its supply chain operations. How can they lower their costs?

Example #3 : A pharmaceutical company is considering discontinuing a particular drug from its portfolio. Evaluate the reasons behind the decision and assess the financial implications.

Example #4 : A non-profit organization focusing on wildlife conservation is facing funding challenges. Recommend initiatives to enhance long-term sustainability of fundraising.

Example #5 : A financial services firm is considering adopting blockchain technology for its operations. What are some considerations that they should think through?

Example #6 : A leading e-commerce platform wants to enhance its customer experience. How can they improve customer satisfaction and loyalty?

Example #7 : A software company that currently serves small and medium-sized businesses wants to expand into the enterprise market. Should they enter this new market?

For more practice, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases .

Accenture Case Interview Tips

Below are six of the most useful Accenture case interview tips for acing your case interviews.

Tip #1: Take your time and don’t rush into speaking

Structure your ideas and thinking before you start talking. If needed, talk through the problem out loud so that the interviewer can follow your thought process.

Tip #2: Be flexible

There may be times when the case will take a different direction than anticipated. You may also need to completely change your approach or hypothesis. It is important that you are open-minded and adaptable throughout the case.

Tip #3: Use visual aids

To make your communication even more clear and easy to follow, use visual aids to your advantage. When presenting your framework, turn your paper around so that it faces the interviewer. When outlining a process, use a whiteboard if there is one available.

Tip #4: Be 80/20

The 80/20 principle states that 80% of the results comes from 20% of your effort. You will not have the time to answer every single question in a case interview. Therefore, take an inventory of all of the information that you have and focus on diving deeper into the areas that will have the greatest impact.

Tip #5: Pay attention to cues from the interviewer

Remember that case interviewers are meant to be collaborative. You should listen closely to what the interviewer has to say. They may provide you with hints to help you out. They may also give you feedback on your approach or structure to help steer you in the right direction. Don’t dismiss what interviewers have to say.

Tip #6: Showcase your individuality

A case interview is an opportunity to showcase your personality and experiences. If you have unique insights based on your previous work experiences, make sure that you bring it up. This can help separate your answer from other candidates.

How to Prepare for Accenture Case Interviews

There are seven steps to preparing for Accenture case interviews.

1. Understand what a case interview is

The first step in preparing for Accenture case interviews is to understand exactly what case interviews are.

When you are familiar with what case interviews are, it is important to know what a great Accenture case interview performance looks like.

Knowing what a great Accenture case interview performance looks like will facilitate how quickly you learn case interview strategies in the next step.

Before continuing onto the next step, you should be familiar with:

• The overall objective of a case interview
• The structure and flow of a case interview
• The types of questions you could get asked
• What a great case interview performance looks like

2. Learn the right strategies

Now that you have sufficient background knowledge, the next step in preparing for Accenture case interviews is to learn the right strategies to build good case interview habits.

It is much more effective to learn the right case strategies the first time than to learn poor strategies and try to correct them later.

The quickest, most efficient way to learn these strategies is to go through our Comprehensive Case Interview Course .

If you prefer reading case interview prep books instead, the three I recommend are:

• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook
• Case Interview Secrets

Hacking the Case Interview provides strategies on exactly what to do and what to say in every step of the case interview. It is a concise and straight to the point guide. I recommend this book as the first book to read for beginners.

Case Interview Secrets teaches core concepts such as the issue tree , drill-down analysis, and a hypothesis driven approach. It illustrates these concepts through stories and anecdotes. If you have read Hacking the Case Interview, I recommend also reading this book to get perspectives from a second author. Check out our full review of Case Interview Secrets .

Case in Point provides a ton of specific and complex frameworks. However, you likely won’t be using many of these in an actual case interview because many of them are overly complex and specific. If you have time, it may be useful to skim through this book. Check out our full review of Case in Point .

At the bare minimum, read either the first or second book. If you have the time, read the first two books so that you can get strategies from two different authors.

Make sure to spend sufficient time learning the right strategies before starting to practice cases. It is ineffective to practice cases if you have no idea what strategies to practice and refine.

Before moving onto the next step, you should at least have strategies for the following parts of a case interview:

• Developing unique and tailored frameworks
• Solving quantitative problems
• Answering qualitative questions
• Delivering a recommendation

3. Practice 3-5 cases by yourself

Once you have learned the right strategies, the next step in Accenture case interview prep is to practice.

When practicing case interviews, it is usually better to practice with a case interview partner than to practice by yourself . Casing with a partner better simulates the real case interview experience.

However, when you are just starting to practice, I recommend doing the first 3 – 5 cases by yourself.

There are three reasons for this:

• You can get the hang of the case interview structure and format much more quickly working by yourself rather than having to wait to schedule a time with a partner
• There are many aspects of case interviews that you can practice without a partner, such as structuring a framework and solving quantitative problems. You can get much more practice working through these parts by yourself
• You may have difficulty finding a case interview partner if you are a complete beginner. Without having done any cases, you likely won’t know how to properly give a case or provide good feedback

4. Practice 5-10 cases with a partner

The next step in preparing for Accenture case interviews is to case with a partner.

Casing with a partner is the best way to simulate a real case interview. There are many aspects of case interviews that you won’t be able to improve on unless you practice live with a partner.

When practicing cases with a partner, ensure you are spending enough time after cases to deliver feedback.

For a case that takes around 30 – 40 minutes, spend at least 15 – 20 minutes for feedback. Much of your learning and improvement will come from these feedback sessions.

Do not move onto the next step until you have done at least 5 – 10 cases and are beginning to feel comfortable with case interviews.

5. Practice with a former or current consultant

At this point, I highly recommend asking former or current consultants to give you a practice case. This will significantly help you prepare for case interviews.

Doing a mock case with a former or current consultant is highly advantageous because they know exactly how to run cases and give feedback. You’ll receive incredibly helpful feedback that your previous case partners likely missed.

If you feel that you are plateauing with your case partner, that is a sign you should do a mock case interview with a former or current consultant.

You can find former or current consultants among:

• People you met during the consulting recruiting process
• Your broader LinkedIn network

I would not ask a consultant that is involved with the consulting recruiting process for a case too prematurely. Although these practice cases are not evaluative, some firms will actually make note of how well you perform during the practice case.

At this point, you will have accumulated a long list of improvement areas from all of the different people you have cased with.

6. Work on your improvement areas

In this step of preparing for Accenture case interviews, you will work on strengthening and fine-tuning your improvement areas. Examples of common improvement areas include:

• Creating a more complete and mutually exclusive framework
• Performing math calculations quicker or more smoothly
• Providing more structure to your qualitative answers
• Leading the case more proactively
• Delivering a more succinct recommendation

Try to focus on improving one thing at a time. This is much more effective than trying to improve everything at once.

For some areas, such as math, it will be better to work independently. For other areas, such as learning to proactively lead the case, it will be better to work with a case partner.

If you are looking for more cases, look at the resources listed in step four. If you are looking for specific drills or practice problems for a particular part of a case interview, check out The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook .

Do not move onto the next step until you have finished working on all of your improvement areas.

7. Stay sharp

If you have progressed this far, congratulations! You have almost finished preparing for Accenture case interviews.

Once you feel that you have no more improvement areas to work on, the key is to not burn yourself out by doing too many unnecessary cases.

While each case that you do makes you slightly better, there is a point when doing too many cases can create case fatigue right before your interview. Case fatigue can negatively impact your interview performance.

On the other hand, you also don’t want to go weeks without having done a case. You may end up forgetting strategies or become rusty and slow.

Once you have achieved case mastery, I recommend doing no more than 2 cases per week in the weeks leading up to your interview. This ensures that you remain sharp for case interviews, but don’t have case fatigue.

How to Ace the Accenture Potentia Interview

The Accenture Potentia interview is a 1-hour interview given to candidates that are applying for a role in Accenture Strategy. Here is the structure of the Accenture Potentia Interview:

• You’ll be given a short paragraph of text about a business topic with a problem statement. Topics are diverse and may not be work-related. Examples of topics include blood diamonds in Africa or intellectual property on the Internet
• You’ll have 5 minutes to prepare and think through the problem statement
• You’ll have a 45 to 60-minute conversation with the interviewer in which you’ll present your thoughts and the interviewer will ask follow-up questions

The purpose of the Potentia interview is to challenge your strategic thinking. There is no right or wrong answer. There are also no calculations or math involved.

Instead, the interviewer is assessing you on the structure and organization of your answer and your creativity.

Tips for the Accenture Potentia Interview:  

• Use a framework or structure for your answer : Remember that you are being assessed on how you structure and organize your answer. Therefore, instead of listing random ideas that come to mind, develop a framework to structure your ideas.
• Brainstorm as many ideas as you can : Use your framework to help you brainstorm effectively. Your framework should have three to five different areas. Meticulously think through each area and try to generate at least three ideas in each.
• Have a mix of practical and ambitious ideas : You are being assessed on creativity, so make sure you include ideas that are ambitious and impactful. However, you also want to show sound business judgment, so you will need to include ideas that are practical and easier to implement. You should have a mix of these two types of ideas.
• Bring in ideas that you learned from your prior work experience : One way to demonstrate creativity is to take ideas or solutions in one industry and apply them to another. Therefore, if there is an opportunity to leverage learnings from your prior work experience, you should definitely bring it up.
• Make it a conversation : Remember that the Accenture Potentia interview is meant to be a two-way conversation. Make sure you are listening to the feedback or questions that the interviewer has and responding accordingly.

Accenture Behavioral and Fit Interview Questions

In addition to case interviews, you will likely be asked a few behavioral or fit interview questions. There are ten questions that are most commonly asked.

1. Why are you interested in working at Accenture?

How to answer: Have at least three reasons why you’re interested in working at Accenture. You could mention that you loved the people that you have met from Accenture so far. You can talk about Accenture’s massive global presence and expertise in nearly any industry or function. You can speak to how Accenture provides strategy and implementation, so you can see the impact of your work.

2. Why do you want to work in consulting?

How to answer: Again, have three reasons why you’re interested in consulting. You could mention the fast career growth opportunity, the opportunity to develop soft and hard skills, or the level of impact that you can make by working with large companies on their most challenging issues.

3. Walk me through your resume.

How to answer: Provide a concise summary of your work experience, starting with the most recent. Focus on emphasizing your most impressive and unique accomplishments. At the end, tie your experiences to why you are interested in consulting.

4. What is your proudest achievement?

How to answer: Choose your most impressive, unique, or memorable accomplishment. Structure your answer by providing information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work.

5. What is something that you are proud of that is not on your resume?

How to answer: This is a great opportunity to highlight an accomplishment that is not related to your professional work experience. Perhaps there is a non-profit that you volunteer at, a side project or business that you work on, or a hobby that you have won awards or recognition for. Choose something that is impressive and interesting.

6. Tell me about a time when you led a team.

How to answer: If possible, choose a time when you directly managed a person or a team. For this question and the following questions, make sure that you structure your answer. Structure your answer by providing information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work. This is known as the STAR method and is commonly used to answer behavioral or fit interview questions.

7. Give an example of a time when you faced conflict or a disagreement.

How to answer: When answering this question, focus on emphasizing the steps you took to resolve the conflict or disagreement. Speak to the interpersonal skills you had to use in order to mediate the situation. Interviewers want to know that you are a great mediator and that you can handle conflict in a constructive way.

8. Tell me about a time when you had to persuade someone.

How to answer: Choose a time when you were able to change someone’s mind. Focus on emphasizing the steps that you took to persuade that person and what impact and results this had. Interviewers want to know that you are a great communicator and a good people person.

9. Describe a time when you failed.

How to answer: Choose a time when you failed to meet a deadline or did not meet expectations. Focus on emphasizing what you learned from the experience and how you used that experience to deliver even better results in the next opportunity that you got. Interviewers want to see that you don’t get discouraged from failure and that you treat those experiences as learning opportunities.

10. What questions do you have for me?

How to answer: This is a great opportunity to get to know the interviewer on a more personal level. Ask them questions about their experience in consulting or their career. Express genuine interest in what they have to show and ask follow-up questions. The more you can get the interviewer talking about themself, the more likely they will have a positive impression of you.

For a step-by-step guide on how to best answer all of these questions and more, check out our complete guide on consulting behavioral interview questions .

Recommended Accenture Case Interview Resources

Here are the resources we recommend to learn the most robust, effective case interview strategies in the least time-consuming way:

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with former consulting interviewers
• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer
• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple interviews

Land Multiple Consulting Offers

Complete, step-by-step case interview course. 30,000+ happy customers.

Accenture – Implementing Agile at Scale – Benefits of SAFe in Professional Services

“ Enhanced SAFe processes are key to attaining solution alignment between different scrum teams. ”

Professional Services

The partner that made it happen:

Introduction

As many companies struggle to implement Agile at scale in distributed environments, this case study describes Accenture’s experience enabling faster delivery and speed-to-market by implementing scaled Agile programs using SAFe, along with the adoption of DevOps principles.

Accenture is a $30 billion global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 336,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for from 2009-2015. As part of their effort to accelerate software delivery, Accenture has adopted Agile and DevOps on a large scale across its Global Delivery Network, leveraging the Scaled Agile Framework ®  (SAFe ® ) with a range of tools. In addition, Accenture helps its clients successfully shift to Agile development using SAFe along with DevOps to drive high performance.

In the provided case study, Accenture shares its insights on addressing process, organization, and tool challenges, including:

• Solution misalignment between teams
• Integration of Agile with Waterfall
• Different timezones, customs, and cross-team activities
• Different DevOps tools between teams

Early Quantitative Benefits

The early benefits are compelling:

• 50% improvement in merge and retrofit (based on the actual effort tracked)
• 63% improvement in software configuration management (effort to support SCM activities)
• 59% improvement in quality costs (percentage of defects attributed to SCM and deployment)
• 90% improvement in build and deployment (process and effort to raise deployment requests)

Early Qualitative Benefits

• Improved demand management and traceability from portfolio through to Agile delivery teams
• Granular configuration management and traceability
• Integration with Agile lifecycle tools to allow story-based, configuration management driven from meta data
• Real-time traceability of status for build and deployment
• Automated build and deployments, including “one-button deployment”
• Developer efficiencies as a consequence of improved tool interaction times and processes

Many thanks to Accenture’s Mirco Hering, APAC lead for DevOps and Agile, Andrew Ball, senior manager, and Ajay Nair, APAC Agile lead for Accenture Digital, for taking the time to share their insights and learnings. Their story is an inspiration to all of us in the SAFe community.

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CASE STUDY: Accenture

Key accenture learnings on scaled and distributed agile delivery.

In the provided case study, Accenture shares its insights on addressing process, organization, and tool challenges, including:

• Solution misalignment between teams
• Integration of Agile with Waterfall
• Different timezones, customs, and cross-team activities
• Different DevOps tools between teams

As many companies struggle to implement Agile at scale in distributed environments, this case study describes Accenture’s experience enabling faster delivery and speed-to-market by implementing Agile programs using SAFe, along with adoption of DevOps principles. The early benefits are compelling:

Early Quantitative Benefits

• 50% improvement in merge and retrofit (based on the actual effort tracked)
• 63% improvement in software configuration management (effort to support SCM activities)
• 59% improvement in quality costs (percentage of defects attributed to SCM and deployment)
• 90% improvement in build and deployment (process and effort to raise deployment requests)

“ Enhanced SAFe processes are key to attaining solution alignment between different scrum teams. ”

“ SAFe is critical to the alignment of delivery timelines.”

Early Qualitative Benefits

• Improved demand management and traceability from portfolio through to Agile delivery teams
• Granular configuration management and traceability
• Integration with Agile life cycle tools to allow story-based, configuration management driven from meta data
• Real-time traceability of status for build and deployment
• Automated build and deployments, including “one-button deployment”
• Developer efficiencies as a consequence of improved tool interaction times and processes

Download Accenture Case Study

Many thanks to Accenture’s Mirco Hering, APAC lead for DevOps and Agile, Andrew Ball, senior manager, and Ajay Nair, APAC Agile lead for Accenture Digital, for taking the time to share their insights and learnings. Their story is an inspiration to all of us in the SAFe community. 

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The Accenture Case Interview: A Comprehensive Guide for 2024

• Last Updated January, 2024

Former Accenture

Accenture Consulting’s Recruitment Process

Mco’s 5 tips on how to ace the accenture case interview, the accenture potentia interview.

Fit / Behavioral Interview

Case Interview: A Step-by-Step Guide

Consulting’s Recruitment Process

Does it feel like there’s so much to try to understand about tackling Accenture case interviews? Are you unsure where to even start?

Don’t worry, we’ve been there. No, seriously, we actually have been there . And we made it through to the other side, job offer in hand.

Which makes us perfectly placed to walk you through it, step-by-step, in our comprehensive guide.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• What the Accenture recruitment process looks like,
• The Accenture Potentia interview,
• The Accenture case interview – a step-by-step guide,
• MCO’s 5 tips on acing the Accenture case interview, and
• The Accenture Consulting fit/behavioral interview.

Let’s get started!

The Accenture recruitment process is similar to that of other consulting firms. Since 2021, more and more of the process is being conducted virtually. There are 4 main elements which we’ll cover here:

• The Online Application
• The Digital Assessment
• The Phone Interview
• Assessment Day

Nail the case & fit interview with strategies from former MBB Interviewers that have helped 89.6% of our clients pass the case interview.

Accenture’s Online Application

The first stage is to submit an online application form. Make sure this is tailored to the service and location you’re interested in applying to. You can use Accenture’s job descriptions to make sure you cover the main elements recruiters are looking for.

Need more help? Read our comprehensive guide to preparing your consulting resume .

The Accenture Digital Assessment

Depending on the role, the next stage after your application’s been accepted is an online assessment. This is an opportunity for the recruiting team to test your numeracy, logic, and decision-making skills and to identify areas of natural strength.

You can find out all you need to know about the Accenture Digital Assessment in our article.

Phone Interview

The phone interview is your first chance to really connect with the recruiting team. They’ll be looking to understand your motivation for joining Accenture Consulting and how your skills match what they’re looking for.

This is your opportunity to show how enthusiastic you are about Accenture, so referencing something unique to the company that’s sparked your interest — how its values align with yours, how it supports advances in technology, or your interest in the company’s corporate social responsibility work — is a smart move.

Accenture Assessment Day

For graduate hires, the final stage is an assessment day. This may be in-person, though many offices now hold virtual assessment days.

During the assessment day, there will be both group and individual elements including leadership activities, case study discussions, and 1:1 interviews. The 1:1 interviews will include both a behavioral/fit interview and a case interview.

Experienced hires won’t have an assessment day. Instead, they’ll have either a virtual or face-to-face case and fit interview.

Worried about how to tackle a virtual case interview ? We’ve got 7 top tips to help you ace them.

Accenture is a big firm. As well as management consultancy, they also provide IT consultancy and outsourcing services for business support operations.

The management consultancy part of the business is divided into 3 parts: Accenture Strategy, Digital, and Operations. Accenture Strategy is the arm of the company that competes against top consulting firms such as Bain, BCG, and McKinsey.

If you’re applying for a role within Accenture Strategy, you’ll complete a unique interview called the Potentia interview.

How Is the Accenture Potentia Interview Different from a Regular Case Interview?

Don’t be thrown by the name. At its heart, the Potentia interview is a case interview. The main difference is that it focuses more on assessing the creative thinking of Accenture Strategy candidates.

We’ll be taking you through the nuts and bolts of a case interview below so, for now, here are a few tips to approach this unique Accenture interview.

Our Top Tips For the Potentia Interview

The Potentia interview is a 1-hour long interview about a broad business topic. You’ll be given a short piece of text providing some context to the topic and a problem statement.

Topics are diverse, such as the mining of blood diamonds in Africa or who owns the intellectual property of the internet.

You have 5 minutes to read through the information and prepare your thoughts. After that, there’s a 45-60 minute conversation with the interviewer where you present your thoughts and answer their follow-up questions. There’s no math required during the Potentia interview.

Here are our top tips:

• Use a framework to organize your thoughts . While the interviewer is assessing your creativity, how you present your thoughts should be logical and structured. Outline your core ideas and then expand on the key strengths and weaknesses of each.
• Don’t try and ‘solve’ the problem . These are complex real-life topics that don’t have an easy solution. Focus on presenting innovative ideas that could create real benefit. But, don’t forget good business sense. Evaluate your ideas for practicality, risk, and ease of implementation.
• Adapt your experience . If you have previous work experience that gives you insight into how to approach the problem, use it! Adapting something that’s worked in one context for use in another shows flexibility and a creative mindset.

The Accenture Case Interview: A Step-by-Step Guide

Let’s now look at the Accenture case interview in detail – what types of case you might face, how to approach them, and a real-life work example.

Types of Cases

There are 3 types of cases you might face during your Accenture case interviews. These are called:

• The “Great Unknown”
• The “Parade of Facts”
• The “Back of an Envelope”

Each of the types has different attributes, as shown below. Of the 3 types, the “Great Unknown” and the “Back of the Envelope” are more common than the “Parade of Facts”.

Whichever case you face, make sure you fully understand all the facts and what you are being asked to do before trying to “solve” it.

How to Approach the Case Interview

1) make sure you understand the question.

Fully understanding the question asked is the 1st step in our tried-and-tested method of approaching case interviews.

You don’t want to spend 45 minutes crafting a great answer to the wrong question. Take a moment to consider the problem statement and then repeat it back to the interviewer in your own words to make sure you’ve got it nailed down.

2) Take Time to Think Things Through

Once you understand the problem, it’s helpful to break it down into smaller parts to help you uncover the issues that might be driving it. An issue tree is a helpful tool to identify the root cause of problems.

Once you’re clear on what the problem is, take a moment to figure out what approach you’re going to take to “solve” it and what clarification questions you want to ask the interviewer. 

At this stage, you might want to think about familiar frameworks you’ve studied during your case study preparation and how they can help frame your thoughts. 

For more information on some classic business frameworks, see Case Interview Frameworks .

3) Ask Insightful Questions

At this point, you should be clear on the problem and have figured out your approach to “solving” it. Share this with the interviewer so they can follow your thought process and ask any clarification questions that you need.

Asking pertinent questions and probing for more information should then allow you to form one or more hypotheses of what could solve the problem.

Testing your hypotheses against what you know about the client and by using a relevant business framework will allow you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each, until you finalize your preferred recommendation.

4) Summarize Your Findings

In this final stage, you’ll summarize your findings and present recommendations to the client.

Make sure you provide a clear and direct answer to the problem statement and outline any next steps you recommend the client takes. 

Highlight any risks associated with your recommendations and options for mitigating them.

The Accenture Case Interview: A Worked Example

Let’s go through an example “Great Unknown” case to see how this all fits together.

As is typical in a “Great Unknown” case, there’s not much information given so asking great questions is key to cracking this case.

Issue Tree 

After considering the problem statement, remember to reflect back to the interviewer what you understand to be the problem, in your own words.

Next, create an issue tree to break the problem down and into component parts.

Using an issue tree helps you to quickly identify several things the client needs to consider when evaluating how to distribute the vaccine including the following issues: infrastructure, staffing, procedures and training, communications and technology, funding, and procurement.

This is also the time to ask clarification questions and probe for more information where there are gaps in your current understanding of the problem.

Building A Hypothesis for How to Quickly and Efficiently Vaccinate the Philadelphia Population 

Depending on the information given, now is the time to narrow the focus and create a hypothesis.

Once you have a strong hypothesis of where the vaccine should be distributed, you still need to address the other infrastructure needs for the vaccination center as well as the other components of your framework. Go through them one-by-one.

Presenting Your Recommendation

Now you’ve considered all the facts, built, and tested your hypothesis. At this stage you should summarize your findings, noting any assumptions you’ve made. 

Conclude your presentation by offering clear recommendations to the client directly addressing the problem statement. Note any risks associated with your recommendation.

Here are our top 5 tips to help you feel confident tackling the case interview:

Tip 1: Think before you dive into the case

Depending on the type of case, there can be a lot of information to manage. Make sure you’ve got it all clear in your head before you begin to tackle the case.

Equally, don’t be thrown if there’s not a lot of information. Take a moment to think through how you’ll approach the problem from beginning to end.

Tip 2: Ask questions

Don’t be afraid to probe for more information where you’ve identified there are gaps. And do clarify anything you don’t understand, such as acronyms or terms you’re not familiar with.

Tip 3: Share your thoughts

It’s no good to listen to the problem statement, scribble frantically on some paper for 45 minutes and then present the “answer.” Interviewers want to understand your thought process, how you handle information, and what assumptions you’ve made. Share your framework for approaching the case with your interviewer and walk them through each step as you address it.

Tip 4: Pay attention to cues

Sharing your thoughts gives the interviewer an opportunity to guide the conversation. Make sure you follow any feedback they offer on your approach and listen closely for any hints about where to go next.

Be aware, however, that some partners like to stress-test final round candidates to ensure they can defend their answers. If you think you’re right, stick to your recommendation.

Tip 5: Be yourself

No one else shares your story. The case interview is an opportunity to show creative thinking and offer insights based on your individual experiences. Your unique perspective is important and helps separate you from other candidates.

For even more tips on acing case interviews, check out 7 Tips To Help You Land A Consulting Offer .

Accenture Fit / Behavioral Interview

This Accenture interview concentrates on 2 types of questions: fit questions and personal experience questions.

Top 3 Fit Questions and How To Ace Them

1) why do you want to work for accenture.

Or the fact they have both strategy and implementation functions so you can see the tangible difference your client recommendations make. Or how the great people you’ve met so far have reinforced that this is the company for you.

The best answers are personal stories. Don’t share generic reasons for joining the firm. Instead show why the reasons you present matter to you. For more on this, see our article “ Why Accenture? ”

2) Why Do You Want to Work in Consulting?

3) tell me something about you that’s not on your resume., typical personal experience questions and how to approach them.

• Tell me about a time you disagreed with someone and how you managed that.
• Tell me about a time when you led a team through a challenging situation.
• Tell me about a time when you persuaded someone to change their mind.
• Tell me about a time when you overcome something you personally found difficult.

Using the A STAR(E) Framework

The A STAR(E) framework covers the following points:

• Answer. Give a clear 1-sentence answer to the question.
• Situation. When and where did the story happen? Who was involved?
• Tension. What was the problem, conflict, or challenge you faced?
• Action. What did you do to solve the problem?
• Result. What happened as a result of the action you took?
• Effect. What effect did this have on you? What did you learn?

The (E) is in parentheses because this won’t be relevant to every story.

For a detailed guide to tackling the Fit/Behavioral Interview, see our article on Consulting Behavioral Interviews .

In this article, we’ve covered:

• What makes up the Accenture recruitment process,
• What the Accenture Potentia interview is,
• Our step-by-step approach to tackling an Accenture case interview,
• Our top tips for success in your Accenture case interviews, and
• What’s covered during the Accenture behavioral interview.

Still have questions?

If you have more questions about Accenture case interviews, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s case coaches will answer them.

Other people prepping for the Accenture case interview found the following pages helpful:

• Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep ,
• How to answer the “Why Accenture?” question ,
• How to answer Market Sizing questions

Help with Consulting Interview Prep

Thanks for turning to My Consulting Offer for advice on consulting interview prep. My Consulting Offer has helped almost 85% of the people we’ve worked with to get a job in management consulting . We want you to be successful in your consulting interviews too. For example, here is how Ruhani was able to get her offer from Accenture.

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3 Top Strategies to Master the Case Interview in Under a Week

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Case Study of Accenture Human Performance Practice UK

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Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with net revenues of US$19.70 billion for the fiscal year ending August 2007. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance organisations.

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Powell, M. (2009). Case Study of Accenture Human Performance Practice UK. In: Blass, E. (eds) Talent Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230233522_4

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Exploring the Accenture Performance Management Changes

Professional services giant Accenture had a relatable dilemma in 2014. The Accenture performance management process was broken. Accenture created the process to help employees achieve top performance. Instead, the process was slowing everybody down.

Then 2015 rolled around. It was then that Accenture overhauled its old methods for evaluating employee performance.

Here’s the story of how a large global organization transformed how it evaluates employee performance. HR folks can use this Accenture Performance Management case study as a reference for refreshing their own processes.

Need a more customizeable performance management system for your organization? Learn More

Accenture’s Old Performance Management Process

‍ Accenture  has 700,000+ employees, and offices in over 200+ cities and 49 countries. Before 2015, Accenture conducted annual performance reviews. Like many of its competitors, Accenture also determined and ranked employee performance with a bell curve. 

The bell curve approach had flaws. Accenture only recognized a specific percentage as ‘top performers’ with high quantitative scores . The underperformers with low scores appeared at the tail ends of the distribution. The mean of the curve showed the average score of Accenture’s employees.

Accenture wanted to set the right objectives for its people. The company started with five main goals. Then the list grew to 15. It then expanded to 20, as then-CEO Pierre Nanterme told the Washington Post . 

Measuring performance became complicated. The process created bureaucracy and was more of a hindrance than a help. The performance review process wasn’t motivational or evaluative. It was nothing more than a long list of metrics and objectives. 

Why Accenture Needed a Change

Nanterme saw the consulting industry start to shift from ideas to outcomes. Clients expected more than a roadmap. They wanted a commitment to business results. 

Accenture needed a new approach to be competitive and differentiate itself. Changing performance reviews to focus on outcomes was mission-critical.

There was also the issue of time. The management research firm CEB found that the average manager spends more than 200 hours per year on performance reviews. Managers spend time in training sessions, filling out forms, and delivering employee evaluations.

“Employees that do best in performance management systems tend to be the employees that are the most narcissistic and self-promoting ,” said Brian Kropp , CEB’s practice leader. “Those aren’t necessarily the employees you need to be the best organization going forward.”

Streamline performance management and save time with PerformYard. Learn More

Accenture’s New Performance Management Process

In 2015, Nanterme announced plans for a “massive revolution” for about 90% of its internal operations. The focus shifted to evaluating each employee in their specific role. This would be different than using a distribution curve that measured an employee in Washington the same way they’d measure an employee in Asia.

Accenture also wanted to get away from the prior method of gauging employees’ contributions long after they happened. The company would now measure employees more often and provide more real-time feedback.

PerformYard helps organizations build real-time feedback into performance management. Learn More

The company eliminated the bell curve approach and the annual review process. Managers started giving employees timely feedback on an ongoing basis. The company also implemented an internal app to help with relaying continuous feedback. 

Accenture Removes the Annual Review

Accenture’s new way of evaluating employee management is more agile and immediate.

“Performance is an ongoing activity,” says Nanterme. “It’s every day, after any client interaction or business interaction, or corporate interaction. It’s much more fluid,”

Nanterme expands on this, “People want to know on an ongoing basis, am I doing right? Am I moving in the right direction? Do you think I’m progressing? Nobody’s going to wait for an annual cycle to get that feedback. It’s all about instant performance management.”.

What Can HR Pros Learn From Accenture Performance Management

Accenture restructured its performance review process to measure employees on an individual basis. If your organization appraises performance with a distribution curve, it’s time to sunset the process. The distribution curve is generalized and ineffective. It doesn’t give employees the information they need to achieve their potential.  

Consider eliminating annual performance reviews as Accenture did. Immediate, ongoing feedback cycles will arm employees with the knowledge they need to succeed. They can adjust, maintain the status quo, highlight where they need support, or consider new approaches.

Accenture made the mistake of cramming too many metrics and goals into reviews. You should start with a few key objectives. Align with your employee on these goals and establish how you will measure them. Software like PerformYard helps you track goals and show up-to-date data.

The tools to streamline your performance management process.

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Accenture Case Analysis

Accenture is a global management consulting and professional services firm that provides strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations services. A Fortune Global 500 company, it has been incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, since 1 September 2009. In 2018, the company reported net revenues of $39.6 billion, with more than 459,000 employees serving clients in more than 200 cities in 120 countries. In 2015, the company had about 150,000 employees in India, about 48,000 in the US, and about 50,000 in the Philippines. Accenture’s current clients include 95 of the Fortune Global 100 and more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500.

Accenture common equity is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol ACN, and was added to the S;P 500 index on 5 July 2011.

Accenture has five businesses; these are Accenture Strategy, Accenture Consulting, Accenture Digital, Accenture Technology, and Accenture Operations.

Accenture Case Study Analysis

Accenture Swot Analysis

Accenture Pestle Analysis

Accenture case study examples, case analysis-strategic it transformation at accenture.

Case analysis-Strategic IT Transformation at Accenture Accenture was separated from its parent company and rebranded as a new organization. They face a challenge of building a new IT infrastructure to support their business. Because the new Accenture’s organization structure is different from the Anderson Consulting, the Anderson’s IT is deficient in several ways. Based on […]

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