Interview - Gib Bulloch from Accenture Development Partnerships
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Simon Valdenaire
Feb 5, 2014, 8:14:32 AM2/5/14
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Hi everyone,
We are pleased to convey you the contents of this interview for your interest.
Gib Bulloch
Gib Bulloch is Founder and Global Managing Director of Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP), a corporate social enterprise hosted within Accenture. Since 2013, ADP has brought Accenture’s business and technology expertise to the international development sector on a not-for-profit basis and has championed the concept of cross sector convergence. ADP has gained recognition as a pioneering new business model through various prestigious awards and is featured in an INSEAD MBA Teaching Case on social innovation. Gib is a regular blogger and speaker on the role of business in development, cross-sectoral partnerships/convergence and has played a key role in promoting the emerging concept of social intrapreneurship. In 2008, he was named as the Sunday Times sponsored Management Consultant of the Year in the Best Partner/Director category.
CR: Could you give us a brief overview of your personal journey, and the different experiences that have led you to found Accenture Development Partnerships?
GB: It was a very normal day in March 1999. I was on an unremarkable trip to work at a client site, travelling on the rather clunky District Line on the London Underground. I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen. The “trigger” was the Financial Times article I read that day about Voluntary Service Overseas’ (VSO’s) new corporate volunteering program called “VSO Business Partnerships”. Instead of seeking cash from business (still the norm to this day), VSO wanted business skills. There was no shortage of doctors, nurses and teachers applying to do a two-year VSO placement - but there were very few accountants, MBAs and business managers. VSO wanted companies to supply them with people with these skills for about 6-12 months at a time, on a loan basis, with their jobs held open for their return.
This short article had a profound impact on me. A switch seemed to go off in my head. Might this be the “missing link” in my quest to understand the broader role of business in society –a wake-up call in terms of how I could apply my own expertise in a different context for a different impact?
To their credit and thanks largely to the support of one senior Partner, Willie Jamieson, Accenture agreed to a pilot allowing a number of volunteers to take part in the VSO program. Within a year, I found myself exchanging the gilt-edged lifestyle of business class flights, expensive hotels and fancy restaurants, for a basic apartment in a small town called Gostivar in western Macedonia. Despite being at the heart of Europe, Macedonia was ravaged by poverty, high unemployment and ethnic tension. It was suffering from the aftermath of the war in Kosovo and had its own civil war brewing.
On the way home from Macedonia, I tasked myself with putting this thinking into a form my colleagues at Accenture couldn’t ignore. Instead of producing a thick deck of PowerPoint slides, I wrote a faux press article projecting six months into the future. It was set at the World Economic Forum in Davos where Accenture’s Chairman had just announced the launch of an innovative new not-for-profit to great acclaim. This faux article got the attention of the Chairman who agreed to discuss it over breakfast. He wanted to hear more about the idea. The journey to create Accenture Development Partnerships had begun.
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Managing Director, Accenture Development Partnerships
Gib Bulloch is Founder and Global Managing Director of Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP), a corporate social enterprise hosted within Accenture. Since 2013, ADP has brought Accenture’s business and technology expertise to the international development sector on a not-for-profit basis and has championed the concept of cross sector convergence. ADP has gained recognition as a pioneering new business model through various prestigious awards and is featured in an INSEAD MBA Teaching Case on social innovation. Gib is a regular blogger and speaker on the role of business in development, cross-sectoral partnerships/convergence and has played a key role in promoting the emerging concept of social intrapreneurship. In 2008, he was named as the Sunday Times sponsored Management Consultant of the Year in the Best Partner/Director category.
CR: Could you give us a brief overview of your personal journey, and the different experiences that have led you to found Accenture Development Partnerships?
GB: It was a very normal day in March 1999. I was on an unremarkable trip to work at a client site, travelling on the rather clunky District Line on the London Underground. I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen. The “trigger” was the Financial Times article I read that day about Voluntary Service Overseas’ (VSO’s) new corporate volunteering program called “VSO Business Partnerships”. Instead of seeking cash from business (still the norm to this day), VSO wanted business skills. There was no shortage of doctors, nurses and teachers applying to do a two-year VSO placement - but there were very few accountants, MBAs and business managers. VSO wanted companies to supply them with people with these skills for about 6-12 months at a time, on a loan basis, with their jobs held open for their return.
This short article had a profound impact on me. A switch seemed to go off in my head. Might this be the “missing link” in my quest to understand the broader role of business in society –a wake-up call in terms of how I could apply my own expertise in a different context for a different impact?
To their credit and thanks largely to the support of one senior Partner, Willie Jamieson, Accenture agreed to a pilot allowing a number of volunteers to take part in the VSO program. Within a year, I found myself exchanging the gilt-edged lifestyle of business class flights, expensive hotels and fancy restaurants, for a basic apartment in a small town called Gostivar in western Macedonia. Despite being at the heart of Europe, Macedonia was ravaged by poverty, high unemployment and ethnic tension. It was suffering from the aftermath of the war in Kosovo and had its own civil war brewing.
On the way home from Macedonia, I tasked myself with putting this thinking into a form my colleagues at Accenture couldn’t ignore. Instead of producing a thick deck of PowerPoint slides, I wrote a faux press article projecting six months into the future. It was set at the World Economic Forum in Davos where Accenture’s Chairman had just announced the launch of an innovative new not-for-profit to great acclaim. This faux article got the attention of the Chairman who agreed to discuss it over breakfast. He wanted to hear more about the idea. The journey to create Accenture Development Partnerships had begun.
CR: To what extent do multi-sectoral partnerships rethink the traditional methods of development, specifically regarding the growth of emerging nations?
GB: Businesses have woken up to the fact that what they once deemed social is now strategic to their organizations. Not only do they understand that there is money to be made in doing good, but they see long-term value in presenting themselves as exemplary corporate citizens in terms of social responsibility. With the rise of the multi-polar world—a world defined by multiple centers of economic activity in which emerging markets possess increasing geopolitical and economic clout—it becomes clear that those at what has been called “the base of the pyramid” in emerging nations represent powerful mass markets, sources of talent, and sources of political stability—or turbulence.
GB: Businesses have woken up to the fact that what they once deemed social is now strategic to their organizations. Not only do they understand that there is money to be made in doing good, but they see long-term value in presenting themselves as exemplary corporate citizens in terms of social responsibility. With the rise of the multi-polar world—a world defined by multiple centers of economic activity in which emerging markets possess increasing geopolitical and economic clout—it becomes clear that those at what has been called “the base of the pyramid” in emerging nations represent powerful mass markets, sources of talent, and sources of political stability—or turbulence.
CR: What factors are pushing civil society, the private sector and governments towards pooling their efforts?
GB: It has become increasingly clear to governments and NGOs that if society is to make real progress in the next decade and beyond, the development community must harness the latent socioeconomic power of business. Businesses are starting to consider how they source their produce to have an impact on the lives of people living in poverty. New ethical business models which incorporate marginalized farmers are an exciting step forward and a solution that can bring business benefits too.
Furthermore, there is significant evidence that business really does recognize the need for cross-sector partnerships in order to address issues of international development. For example, In the latest UN Global Compact and Accenture CEO Study (2013) we found that business leaders are firmly committed to partnering with NGOs to engage more fully in the development agenda, with some 78% of CEOs surveyed seeing a need to take action through on-the-ground partnerships and projects; 45% also report tangible business opportunities and value from previous collaboration with NGOs.
Why? My firm view is that some of the biggest challenges in development are in fact market opportunities in disguise. Take the millennium development goal around education: can you invest in talent, can you stop kids from dying and get them well-nourished in the first two years of life, can you get them into schools, and have them as economic assets in 20 years time? That's a huge return."
GB: We don’t pretend that NGOs and businesses automatically see eye to eye on everything, even if they are beginning to reconcile some of their short-term vs. long-term mismatches. And we don’t expect any easy resolution to the convergent issues that span several of the MDGs—the most far-reaching and intractable problems such as poverty.
However, a major factor is having people who understand the language of each sector – and some of the concerns each has of the other. I think this is something we can do at ADP and we’re starting to see more professionals moving between the sectors.
GB: It has become increasingly clear to governments and NGOs that if society is to make real progress in the next decade and beyond, the development community must harness the latent socioeconomic power of business. Businesses are starting to consider how they source their produce to have an impact on the lives of people living in poverty. New ethical business models which incorporate marginalized farmers are an exciting step forward and a solution that can bring business benefits too.
Furthermore, there is significant evidence that business really does recognize the need for cross-sector partnerships in order to address issues of international development. For example, In the latest UN Global Compact and Accenture CEO Study (2013) we found that business leaders are firmly committed to partnering with NGOs to engage more fully in the development agenda, with some 78% of CEOs surveyed seeing a need to take action through on-the-ground partnerships and projects; 45% also report tangible business opportunities and value from previous collaboration with NGOs.
Why? My firm view is that some of the biggest challenges in development are in fact market opportunities in disguise. Take the millennium development goal around education: can you invest in talent, can you stop kids from dying and get them well-nourished in the first two years of life, can you get them into schools, and have them as economic assets in 20 years time? That's a huge return."
CR: How can partnership brokers such as ADP help increase mutual understanding and comprehension across sectors? How can you help “converge” values between the sectors?
GB: We don’t pretend that NGOs and businesses automatically see eye to eye on everything, even if they are beginning to reconcile some of their short-term vs. long-term mismatches. And we don’t expect any easy resolution to the convergent issues that span several of the MDGs—the most far-reaching and intractable problems such as poverty.
However, a major factor is having people who understand the language of each sector – and some of the concerns each has of the other. I think this is something we can do at ADP and we’re starting to see more professionals moving between the sectors.
CR: What kinds of changes in companies and NGOs are leading them to integrate in order to begin a collaborative relationship?
GB: There’s a lot of good work being done on partnerships at the moment, and of course there have been some set-backs. An important element though is to learn from failure.
In my own view, I think we are eventually likely to see a new breed of organization that doesn’t fit neatly into the standard descriptors used in the private, public or non-profit sectors. These will be hybrids—organizations that have some of the attributes of each or all. Their leaders will think and act in terms of a convergent value chain—a flexible model in which different participants play different roles at different times, according to the recipients’ needs and according to which entity has the necessary mix of skills and resources.
CR: In your approach, what role does technology play as a lever for development?
GB: A potentially transformative one. In fact we have just completed a major new research project on the specific attitudes of business leaders to how technology can spur development in emerging markets. We conducted the work with Nethope. You can read more about it here.
GB: There’s a lot of good work being done on partnerships at the moment, and of course there have been some set-backs. An important element though is to learn from failure.
In my own view, I think we are eventually likely to see a new breed of organization that doesn’t fit neatly into the standard descriptors used in the private, public or non-profit sectors. These will be hybrids—organizations that have some of the attributes of each or all. Their leaders will think and act in terms of a convergent value chain—a flexible model in which different participants play different roles at different times, according to the recipients’ needs and according to which entity has the necessary mix of skills and resources.
CR: In your approach, what role does technology play as a lever for development?
GB: A potentially transformative one. In fact we have just completed a major new research project on the specific attitudes of business leaders to how technology can spur development in emerging markets. We conducted the work with Nethope. You can read more about it here.
CR: In what ways does ADP act as a gateway between the skills of Accenture and the establishment of partnerships in the field?
GB: Leadership is a big one. The leaders of tomorrow, whether in Accenture or any other successful global business, will not only have experience working internationally, they will be comfortable working cross-culturally, cross sectorally and in a business environment that is a lot more challenging than their own home environment. Accenture is essentially a human capital business and Accenture Development Partnerships is a proven incubator of talent. We may send our best people but time and again they come back even better, more engaged, more confident and more competent. They come back having had challenging and testing experiences and with new insights that can be often be applied back at their normal client environment. For example, I’ll never forget watching a relatively junior consultant confidently present to the President of Tanzania when he made a surprise visit to check on progress of the education program we were working on. Experience of interacting with C-suite executives is important to any consultancy – but this was “P-Suite” experience!
But beyond the people benefits and the fact that we were gradually building intelligence on the next generation of emerging markets, our new strategic focus on cross sector convergence is offering us the chance to extend and enhance our relationships with traditional commercial clients. The partnerships we are involved in--linking businesses with other businesses and with NGOs and development agencies--may tend to be small in monetary terms but they have a profile with the senior leaders of our clients that is disproportionate to their size.
GB: Leadership is a big one. The leaders of tomorrow, whether in Accenture or any other successful global business, will not only have experience working internationally, they will be comfortable working cross-culturally, cross sectorally and in a business environment that is a lot more challenging than their own home environment. Accenture is essentially a human capital business and Accenture Development Partnerships is a proven incubator of talent. We may send our best people but time and again they come back even better, more engaged, more confident and more competent. They come back having had challenging and testing experiences and with new insights that can be often be applied back at their normal client environment. For example, I’ll never forget watching a relatively junior consultant confidently present to the President of Tanzania when he made a surprise visit to check on progress of the education program we were working on. Experience of interacting with C-suite executives is important to any consultancy – but this was “P-Suite” experience!
But beyond the people benefits and the fact that we were gradually building intelligence on the next generation of emerging markets, our new strategic focus on cross sector convergence is offering us the chance to extend and enhance our relationships with traditional commercial clients. The partnerships we are involved in--linking businesses with other businesses and with NGOs and development agencies--may tend to be small in monetary terms but they have a profile with the senior leaders of our clients that is disproportionate to their size.
About Accenture Development Partnerships
ADP collaborates with organizations working in the international development sector to help deliver innovative solutions that truly change the way people work and live. Its award-winning business model enables Accenture’s core capabilities–its best people and strategic business, technology and project management expertise–to be made available to clients in the international development sector on a not-for-profit basis.
Kind regards,
Simon Valdenaire
Founder
+33 648 117 773
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