Accenture: Searching for leaders in thought and innovation

The search has begun for next year's Accenture Leaders of Tomorrow. Now in its seventh year, the competition is open to entrepreneurial college students with innovative business ideas. Entrants take part in a number of development days on the themes of leadership, digital innovation and entrepreneurship while specially selected guest speakers and mentors nurture their ideas and skills.

Finalists will have the opportunity to present their business plan to a panel of Irish business leaders.

The overall winners will receive a trip to one of Accenture’s Digital Innovation Centres, as well as the choice to pursue their business idea or an internship with Accenture.

Winners who choose to explore their business idea will be provided with the mentoring and support services needed to make their idea their future and become a Leader of Tomorrow.

Alternatively, the winning individual or team can choose a leadership internship with Accenture where they will work in the business area aligned with their preferred career, on real projects with real clients.

"The competition has evolved over the years and is a lot different now to when we started out," says Accenture Ireland country managing director Mark Ryan.

“Back then, we were looking at how to build our brand in the very competitive environment of Irish universities. We decided to look at what it took to be a successful leader for the future and to run a competition which would help develop the skills required for that. We were enormously pleased with how it worked out from the very beginning.”

According to Ryan, the competition has improved over the years. “We have got better at running the competition and how we interact with the colleges. The quality of the applicants has increased every year as well. I think the internships on offer to the winners are a big incentive there. Students now see internships as a vital part of their CV and they are quite sought-after.”

The award is structured as a competition in three rounds where entrants first submit an idea or concept which will be developed through the competition into a viable business plan.

The business ideas must relate to one of the areas of finance and payments, health and lifestyle, social responsibility or goods and services. It should also include a digital focus such as social, mobile, analytics or cloud.

In the second round, successful candidates develop their business idea into a business plan and pitch it to Accenture senior management. Round three sees the group of finalists participate in a series of development days and pitch their business proposal to a panel of Irish business leaders, after which the overall winner is selected.

Developing viable plans
"The aim of this competition structure is to provide participants with the opportunity to develop their business idea in a number of ways," Ryan says.

“We are looking to identify people who can create practical and commercially viable business solutions and demonstrate insight and clarity of thought. We are also looking for people who demonstrate leadership in thought and innovation while delivering practical real-world solutions.”

There is a strong emphasis on the digital dimension this year. “We are trying to put more of a digital focus on the competition,” Ryan adds. “This reflects the pace of change in terms of what’s happening in the world. We are seeing new business models emerging all the time and the successful businesses of tomorrow will have a strong disruptive dimension. This presents challenges for existing firms in terms of how they do business and they are going to have to embrace digital technologies regardless of their sector.”

He cites the Hailo taxi app as an example of a disruptive new business model. “That is a tremendous story. In just 16 months it has transformed the taxi industry. It is easy to use, beneficial to customers and the industry, safe and secure. We call market entrants like this over the top. They come in over the top and disrupt the market completely. What we are looking for in Leaders of Tomorrow is people who can do that.”

He points out that all of the entrants to the competition gain from it.

“We do a lot of work with the finalists during the development days in terms of developing their business skills, their writing abilities, their emotional intelligence and so on. Every finalist gets a lot of mentoring as well as the opportunity to interact with the mentor throughout the process. Every year the participants tell us that the journey itself was worthwhile regardless of whether they won or not.”

He is looking forward to seeing the latest batch of entries to the competition.

“Each year we sit down with the finalists and ask them what we can do to make the competition more interesting and beneficial. This means that we are in a continuous improvement loop with the finalists and that has contributed hugely to the success of the competition. Every year the judges are bowled over by the energy and passion and innovation demonstrated by the finalists. Reading the entries as they come in is really quite exciting and it gives me great confidence that Ireland’s future is in good hands.”

The closing date for round one applications to the Accenture Leaders of Tomorrow competition in association with The Irish Times is December 13th. Successful first-round candidates will be chosen on December 20th. The overall final will take place on April 24th, 2014, in Accenture's head office on Dublin's Grand Canal Square.

To learn more about the competition go to careers.accenture.com