Accenture recently gathered 60 Toronto residents for a focus group on what they wanted from their government, as part of the Global Cities Forum (GCF), a project by Accenture’s Institute for Public Service Value (IPSV). It was one of five focus groups being held in 2008, which Datamonitor believes reflects particularly well on Accenture, in terms of establishing itself as a thought leader, adding value for its customers and demonstrating its commitment to public services.
In addition to Toronto, Accenture is conducting GCF focus groups in 2008 in Oslo, Rome, Dublin and Tokyo, with the results planned for publication in early 2009. This is the second round of the GCF, the first having occurred in 2007, when the IPSV ran focus groups with residents in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Madrid and Singapore, culminating in the publication of Exploring People’s Perspectives on the Role of Government, a report outlining citizen’s views on what they expect from public services, and in some cases, the responses are quite telling. For example, in response to being asked how good public services are in their respective cities, only 14% of Singapore residents said poor, compared to 47% of Parisians. At the same time, 77% of Singaporean participants felt that people should have a greater say in how their city-state was governed, and Singapore was the only city whose residents cited a desire for more choice in terms of meaningful alternatives in their daily lives.
The IPSV’s work is demonstrative of Accenture’s position as a thought leader in the industry. In addition to the GCF, the IPSV also runs a variety of other innovative research projects which capture global attitudes towards public service delivery. In doing so, Accenture provides a key differentiator from its more traditional competitors which take a conservative approach to R&D strategy. This type of project is an example of a company taking a highly visible step to better understand its customer, and in this case, taking a step further by seeking to understand its customer’s customers. The IPSV also represents a serious commitment from Accenture to serve the public good. Projects such as the GCF are not likely to be lucrative ventures for the firm as the research is distributed for public consumption, yet goes towards helping politicians, government officials and citizens better understand what is expected of public services around the world.
While the GCF helps Accenture in terms of thought leadership and providing value to its clients, one particular limitation is that its focus has been on cities where Accenture already has a relatively strong presence, the bulk of which are developed cities in the West. From a practical, strategic perspective, this is to be expected, as Accenture is able to use the findings from the GCF to supplement its work with existing public sector clients. However, in order to keep the project relevant from a thought leadership perspective, Accenture would be wise to examine emerging markets where it could hold focus groups in the future. In particular, as BRIC countries increasingly implement e-government initiatives, Accenture could benefit from conducting the GCF in cities such as Beijing, Delhi and Rio de Janeiro.
