One thing Joe Forehand has learnt during a 31-year career with the world's biggest management consultancy, Accenture, is the art of time management, writes Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter.
Since becoming chairman and chief executive of the group, which leans towards technology, in 1999, he has spent 200 days on the road every year visiting clients and staff in the 47 countries where Accenture has operations.
Despite a frenetic schedule, he manages to maintain a golf handicap in the low single digits and even tackle the greens with golf stars such as Jack Nicklaus.
A Texan, who grew up in Alabama, Mr Forehand speaks with a low southern drawl that is peppered with the type of "management speak" which persuades large corporations to part with billions of dollars every year.
"This is a relationship business and I visit where our top executives and people are," says Mr Forehand, shortly before hosting a meeting with Accenture's 800 Irish employees at its Dublin headquarters this week.
"These types of meetings are part of the Accenture culture and we have a long history in Ireland. We'll soon have 1,000 staff here," says Mr Forehand, who has built a reputation as an approachable leader during his three-and-a-half years in the top job.
Accenture is one of the few technology companies that has been able to expand its workforce in the Republic during the savage downturn in the industry over the past three years. Last year the firm made revenues of $11.6 billion (€10.2 billion), slightly up on the $11.4 billion in fiscal 2001 - a good result given the sector meltdown.
These results created the conditions for Accenture to announce in April an extra 150 jobs in Ireland, which will bring its workforce in Dublin to 1,000 people by 2004.
"I love coming to Ireland," says Mr Forehand, who makes one trip a year to Dublin "We've made it our European service centre and consolidated all our back-office functions here. About 350 people work in this alone."
Accenture's move to centralise its own organisation in Dublin has also created sales opportunities for its Irish division. The human resource function, developed by Accenture for its own staff, is now being offered to clients, according to Mr Forehand.
"One of the things we see in the market is an increasing trend towards more and more outsourcing of key functions. The market here \ is moving in that direction," he says. "The Bank of Ireland/Hewlett-Packard deal has got a lot of press but I don't think the conditions here are very different from any other country. Firms are looking to form strategic partnerships to cut costs and focus on what is their core competency."
Last year Mr Forehand set a target of boosting the proportion of Accenture's revenue generated from outsourcing deals from 20 to 30 per cent by the end of fiscal 2003. This will be achieved by the end of August (the group's fiscal year-end) and Accenture expects outsourcing deals to make up half of total revenues within a few years, he says.
US telecoms outsource about 60 per cent of operations, enabling Accenture to manage AT&T's customer service. In the Republic, Accenture recently completed a five-year outsourcing deal with logistics firm Exel, which saw 130 staff transfer to the Irish operations.
Accenture is talking with other Irish clients about further outsourcing deals, which could significantly boost its headcount.
But Accenture is far more than simply an outsourcing company, and bases itself around five operating groups, which together comprise 18 industry groups. These range from the airline industry to energy to retail. Accenture also specialises in technology consulting and has the capability to develop new products for firms.
Mr Forehand, who during his career with Accenture has led 11 of Accenture's 18 industry groups, says it is Accenture's global reach - it operates in 47 countries - and the calibre of its people that has made it succeed. "Seventy per cent of our top 100 clients have worked with us for more than a decade. . . and clients commit on trust," he says.
Mr Forehand's pursuit of partnerships with key industry players has brought good results. Not even Accenture can be best in class in every field, he says.
During the hype of the dotcom era Accenture created partnerships and alliances with more than 200 firms, but this number is currently being rationalised.
One of the most high-profile partnerships forged by Mr Forehand is Accenture's close relationship with Microsoft. The software giant's chief executive, Mr Steve Ballmer, sits on Accenture's board and the two firms formed a joint-venture company, Avanade, in 2000 to meet demand for technical expertise on Microsoft's platforms.
But not everything has gone well for Mr Forehand during his tenure as leader of Accenture, which has coincided with the most turbulent period in the firm's 50-year history - a history that can be traced back to the installation of the first computer for business application at General Electric.
After a bitter split with accountants Arthur Andersen in August 2000, the firm launched the Accenture brand. Less than a year later, in July 2001, it floated.
Not surprisingly Mr Forehand remains coy on Accenture's former relationship with Arthur Andersen, which was implicated in the Enron scandal and subsequently went out of business.
He admits the firm was glad to have split before the storm engulfed Andersen. Being the first of the "Big Five consultancies" to split from their accountancy arm, also enabled Accenture to steal a march on rivals.
But even Accenture and Mr Forehand could not escape the problems caused by the dramatic bursting of the dotcom bubble.
In mid-2002, the firm announced it would shed 1,000 staff to cut costs. This was a relatively small number of employees but with the firm ploughing $500 million into training every year, it was obviously a departure from the script.
Accenture was also forced to scrap one of Mr Forehand's pet projects - its venture capital arm. This unit, which invested in more than 200 start-up firms - including Irish technology firm BuyTel - was sold in 2002 to Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce shortly after Accenture took a $212 million charge.
There have also been tricky questions raised in the US about Accenture's Bermuda headquarters and whether this has enabled the firm to reduce its tax liability.
Mr Forehand dismisses this as a political agenda that gained pace as a reaction to the September 11th tragedy. Accenture was not one of the US firms that moved to Bermuda to evade tax and still pays US taxes, he says.
Certainly, one thing that cannot be denied is that Accenture's finances are in good shape. The firm has $2.1 billion in cash and no debt on its balance sheet.
It also looks well placed to benefit from the expected global economic recovery over the next few years, and Mr Forehand is bullish about the firm's future.
"I think we can double revenues in five years or less," he says.
Certainly, if Mr Forehand achieves this target, he will have earned time for a few more rounds with the greats of the golf golf.
FACTFILE:
Who is he?
Mr Joe Forehand is chairman and chief executive of Accenture.
What is Accenture?
Accenture employs more than 75,000 staff and is one of the biggest global consultancies.
What are his interests?
He plays golf off a low single-digit handicap and says his most admired leader is the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell.
Why is he in the news?
He visited Ireland this week to speak with Accenture's 800 Irish staff and meet clients.
