70-strong leadership and talent consultancy Cirrus joins Accenture
Accenture has purchased leadership and talent consultancy Cirrus to support its offering in C-Suite transformations. The UK and Australia based firm brings digital learning capabilities to Accenture, which the firm hopes to leverage for its clients as they address a disruptive global market.
The challenging business environment forged due to digital disruption had already meant that business leaders were having to update their skillsets at unprecedented rates. In response to a number of quick and chaotic new hurdles – now also including the global tumult of the Covid-19 pandemic – top leadership needs to be able to deploy organisational agility, strategic flexibility, and team diversity, if firms are to survive and thrive. To that end, with 70 experts located in Britain and Australia, Cirrus is a professional services company that blends leadership, talent, and engagement expertise to assess and develop leaders for global clients.
Founded by Simon Hayward in 2010, Cirrus’ experts look to create behavioural change within organisations’ leadership, while fostering the implementation of agile ways of working to further unlock the potential of clients. In order to do this, Cirrus has a track record of delivering business impact through bespoke leadership and team development solutions run via virtual, face-to-face and digital channels – something that has proven essential during the lockdown months.
As Accenture looks to boost its own development and coaching capabilities for leaders seeking business transformation, the global consulting giant has snapped up Cirrus for an undisclosed fee. Cirrus joins Accenture’s Talent and Organisation/Human Potential division, helping transform and reinvent clients’ C-suites and broader teams in innovative ways.
“Joining Accenture creates an opportunity to bring our capabilities to more clients seeking expertise in leadership guidance,” remarked Hayward, Chief Executive Officer at Cirrus. “Together, we’ll be able to bring our innovative digital learning and leadership development services to clients around the world at a time of truly critical need.”
Christie Smith, global lead for Talent and Organisation/Human Potential at Accenture commented, “Our clients look to us for guidance and innovation alongside them in their transformation journeys, especially during times of change. By acquiring Cirrus, we can deliver leadership and talent development programs to serve them at a greater pace and scale.”
Accenture has been steadily building its multi-faceted consulting offering via a sustained campaign of purchases in recent times. Cirrus is already the third acquisition that Accenture has made in the UK in 2021. In February, the firm significantly beefed up its digital consulting capabilities in the UK with the arrivals of Edenhouse and Infinity Works, adding 660 professionals to its team. Meanwhile elsewhere, Accenture recently purchased New Zealand-based SAP and cloud solutions technology firm Zag. That move also boosted Accenture’s New Zealand and Australian digital transformation capabilities to meet increased demand from organisations migrating to the cloud and SAP’s next-generation products.
