Accenture on hiring spree

Global consulting and technology major, Accenture, plans to hire around 1,500 management consultants in India by August 2008 to augment its current capabilities.

Briefing reporters here on Tuesday, Accenture Group Chief Executive (Management Consulting and Integrated Markets) Mark Foster said, "Expanding our management consulting capabilities in India will complement the capabilities we have in technology and outsourcing, benefiting both domestic clients in India and clients in other markets."

"We are actively recruiting management consultants, professionals with deep industry and functional expertise, and graduates of India's top business schools," he added.

The expansion includes additional growth in the company's consulting analytics center in Delhi. The analytics center provides customer, marketing and data analytics; marketing automation and campaign management; and enterprise performance management to the company's global clients.

The move is part of the company's plans to double its global headcount in the consultancy domain from the existing 13,000 over the next three years. This includes active hiring at the company's regional centers in China, Japan, Australia, Europe, Latin America and Russia.

Accenture, which has an annual budget of $2-3 million for acquisitions is also scouting for "relevant buys" in consulting, BPO and technology services. India plans also include increased focus on verticals such as retail, energy, utilities, and automobiles. On the issue of American firms such as IBM,

Accenture and EDS losing out on large outsourcing deals to Indian players like Infosys, wihich offer both consulting as well as IT/BPO services, Foster said that they did not face any competition from Indian companies on the big contracts. "We do compete with them in the mid-size and small contracts, but we enjoy the battle. You win some, you lose some," he said.

Chairman and MD of Accenture in India Harsh Manglik said, "As the first global consulting firm in India - we've been operating here since 1987 - we are well-positioned to combine our management consulting, technology and outsourcing capabilities to provide clients, both domestic and global, with comprehensive services that enable them to become high-performance businesses."