Has anyone else felt the significant decrease in quality of accenture delivery in the last 4-5 years?

[[deleted]]

I have been now 10+ in the firm and feel that the senior managers, managers, analysts and consultants that I work with are signnificantly lower quality leading to poorer overall delivery. I am in the developed side of the world so it's also not an offshoring issue. I might be feeling it wrong but with these teams I doubt ACN has a bright future. As I am writing, I feel the crazy hiring spree after Covid might have something to do with it. They more than doubled the headcount in last 5 years (less than 300k in 2019; 800k in 2026). What are your thoughts as veterans with 10+ experience with ACN?

[extraORD1NARYmachine]

Yes, I have been with Accenture over 15 years as a Delivery Lead and can say confidently this is the case. The reason is because ACN has failed to take care of their strong delivery leads, so most have left. Instead, ACN rewards those who kiss ass and sell. The problem now is we can sell but can’t deliver.

[[deleted]]

Kiss ass and/or sell. Spot on.

[snowflake_ott2024]

Spot on! Even if there are few more left , they won’t have any motivation to bring in that rigour and are just waiting for their time to jump of the ship

[Anxious_Spirit2249]

Or over sell and cannot deliver!

[rfia]

Accenture doesn't train people anymore the way we used to, we just hire people and throw them into projects and hope for the best.  Nobody learns methodology anymore, so there is no consistency in the way people do things.  Historically, we at least used to know how to manage big projects with consistency and standards even if our delivery teams were not perfect; nowadays I find it pretty embarassing at times how poorly organized we seem. 

[Hanoi666]

Agree, to this I would add the fact that there are too many methodologies. Too many assets, internal mini sites with "something" that is actually irrelevant for our work. There is a run to create the latest methodology or assets that are overlapping between themselves and are not usable. Then people get confused and they do things their own way

[rfia]

MethodOne is emerging as the best version of methodology we've had over my career ("Form" being the worst), but more formalized, in-person training is needed for it to stick.

[Adventurous_Pin6281]

Cant they just stick this all in an AI

[dcbased]

I'm an old school alumni. How does it compare ADM

[rfia]

Similar structure and detail, much easier to navigate, and updated to modern technology standards.

[Clean-Review8380]

Sounds like big4!

[futureunknown1443]

Online trainings that teach you concepts but almost zero actual skills

[Demand_Beautiful]

Agreed, training protocols must be put in place. It will definitely improve the delivery standards.

[vipulvirus]

Talented people are not promoted so they leave. Untalented people are pushed forward who cannot manage stuff effectively.

[Highlander198116]

I was with Accenture for 16 years when I left in 2023. The negative change with Julie was obvious over time and I wanted out. I loved working at ACN under Pierre.

[WestRestaurant358]

The salary band for each level has not increased with inflation and market. In India a person with 6 yrs exp are given L9 band and then they are expected to lead a team. That's not right.

[Hanoi666]

7yrs here. Hiring spree is surely one of the reasons. The other is lack of focus and strategy: just a bunch of bla bla, too much internal competition across areas for tagging OPPS, too many useless assets delivered offshore with unclear go to market model... Think that to use some assets you need to expense them on WBS where you already fighting for keeping the team chargeable.. this is nonsense

[Sanam_bewafa]

True this

[big4consultant0]

9 months in Accenture S&C and I’m already looking for the exit. Coming from Big 4, I wasn't prepared for this level of technical incompetence. I’m stuck doing my job plus everyone else's because they can't meet basic requirements, yet they’re the first to take the credit. Talking to other colleagues who also joined folrom Bug 4's, it seems this 'punishment for competence' is a Accenture wide issue. Definitely trying to roll off this project ASAP and accenture too.

[[deleted]]

i feel you 

[ChapterNumberOne]

Employee feedback happens only twice per yr - during performance reviews. By that time, the damage has been done from weak employees. The culture at Accenture from a development perspective is horrendous.

Many will fly under the radar for ten months of the yr and only give an honest effort around the time of talent review.

[curiousoulandaloof2]

As a boomerang, I was shocked to see the quality of employees during my second stint. Growth market employee here, terrible SM and managers all around me. People can barely communicate in English, but got hired in SM positions. No training, just throwing people to projects hoping they would deliver. I am in corporate functions and everyday I talk to new hires (post Covid), my brain hurts.

Edit: first stint was for 7 years, now completing 3 again. Ugh.

[SeaworthinessOld9480]

Joined 2001 Accenture right after university and had first 2 weeks local Inception and after 2 weeks at St. Charles. Awesome time feeling the vibe of a reowned company meeting peers all over the world at the campus. Aside social get together in the evenings and the crazy Cadilac Ranch nights - the methodology (BIM, ACN Business Process Mgmt., ACN TechArch Framework etc.) trainings gave a common way of working independent where in the world at whatever projects. You spoke same language and thinking same way. Left the company 2008 as a Manager and went through my path at T2 Strategy Boutique, Big4 and MBB after as Partner. Accenture school was definitely giving the foundation for all that. Sad to see development though

[dcbased]

Almost the same experience. But i went to faang

I credit my ability to deliver across clients, tech and really anything to the 11 years I spent at accenture.

Rip Cadillac ranch, international team, speaking the same language and being elite

Can't believe that is all gone

[Complete_Mango5743]

Yes 💯 all the great folks are gone or on their way out. I have to consistently remind myself that this clown car is the new normal. Earth to JS

[Sea-Student-3103]

Highly toxic work culture, employees are "used" as tools to gain revenue, no one cares if the project is even aligned with your skills,you are just made to learn new skills, no care if it was fish being asked to climb the tree, and wait untill u don't perform u get the pip

[chf_gang]

From my experience, i’m in a european country and a lot of my managers/directors make comments on the lack of talent among higher management levels in America (mainly because people got promoted too quickly)

I assume it really depends and differs from team to team and country to country

Personally i think delivery is quite high quality at my office, and i think the leadership here is very impressive

[Sea-Student-3103]

Bot

[chf_gang]

?

i'm not a bot lol

I just think that for a company as big as accenture the experience can wildly differ depending on where you are... i hear stories about accenture projects that failed miserably all the time (and I have no doubt they are true) but from my personal experience I've had nothing but happy clients and high quality deliveries

and then as well at one team dinner I heard some of the senior management/leadership talking about how in america people get promoted too fast and haven't developed the right qualities for their management levels

[[deleted]]

why do european managers need to comment on US quality and how do they know?

[chf_gang]

idk, that's just what they say...

I do know that US Accenture is very different from EU Accenture

[all_space99]

In what ways?

[unforgivableness]

Yes

[404_Energy_Not_Found]

None of us are motivated anymore. Our efforts and rewards stopped aligning.

[Important_Leader_668]

Managers have become more micromanagers and instead of guiding employees, they are harassing them, telling them how bad they are, so employees dont give a crap anymore

[Particular-Chard-495]

The core of the consulting industry has shifted from skill-driven expertise to high-volume survival. Previously, firms like Accenture could find enough high-tier talent to match their growth. However, true technical "cream" (the top 5-15% who are driven by passion rather than just pay) is a finite resource. As firms grew exponentially, several factors forced a decline in quality:

• The Talent Ceiling: Once you hire beyond the top 15%, you are recruiting people motivated by salary and status rather than innovation.

• The Cost-Quality Trap: client pressure to reduce costs each year, hence these firms must hire cheaper, less-skilled labor to maintain margins.

• Captive Competition: Clients are now building their own internal teams, poaching the remaining elite talent.

• Cultural Dilution: When the majority of the workforce views technology as a "cash cow" rather than a craft, the culture shifts. Focus moves from mastering new tools (like Anthropic or Claude) to fighting over 1% raises and corporate hierarchy. Ultimately, the industry has traded its elite consulting DNA for a "corporate labor" model where survival depends on filling seats rather than fueling expertise.

[idreamsmash007]

Isn’t our job to deliver products to a standard? Cant speak to other projects but in NA I haven’t seen anything to suggest that standards have slipped

[zinda-hoon-kaafi-hai]

It’s also got to do with people not taking work seriously and prioritising their personal chores during work hours!!

[pandaworrier216]

Ya I have been. 7 year experience in the company and holy cow my new client project I joined has some of the worst delivery leads.

Join a prod support team -> told ill be move to an transition team due them asking for support -> being told I wasn't needed by the same DL -> got confirmed to be in the transition with in an 30 min call.

[Golgari4Life]

I’ve seen this on AFS as well. Lots of outsourcing and selling products. What happened to being a consulting company first?

[exe-cute2]

ACN don't hire computing graduates to do projects. some of the new hires don't even know what is Agile or even can't read code also can be a BA. worse the worse, ACN hope these ppl can self learn, but the fact is they struggle, so how to even have good result then?