Accenture Strategy gives F. Asvazadourian regional role
Accenture has promoted Fabrice Asvazadourian, Managing Director of Accenture Strategy for France, to a regional role. In his new mandate he will, only a few a months after joining the firm from Roland Berger, also oversee the Benelux operations.
In December 2013 Accenture – with over 350,000 employees one of the globe’s largest consulting, technology and outsourcing firms – announced the launch of Accenture Strategy, its platform that provides strategic management and business technology consulting services. With the move, Accenture aimed at aligning its go-to-market approach with changing clients demands and growth opportunities, said Accenture’s CEO Pierre Nanterme at the time, and more importantly, in particular in the case of Strategy, at distinguishing its suite of top-tier services from other operational consulting or non-consulting activities.
Mark Knickrehm, a former 12 year McKinsey & Company veteran (in his last role as partner) who joined Accenture in 2005, was given the task of leading Accenture Strategy, in retrospect with success – the platform has since expanded its footprint and branding internationally, on the back of among others high-impact research and engagements executed across the globe. Consultancy.uk for example last week featured a joint study by Accenture Strategy and the United Nationson climate change, while earlier this year two Accenture Strategy based articles were run on the economic value of digital strategies to GDP and how digital technologies are impacting the work floor. Expansion has not only been fueled by inorganic growth however, major acquisitions have also been made to boost scale, with the purchase of Schlumberger Business Consulting (globally) and Javelin Group (UK and France) the most notable recent examples.
Accenture Strategy is led by a team of 20+ (Senior) Managing Directors, each responsible for an industry and/or functional practice area. Frenchman Bruno Berthon, who is based in Paris, is responsible for the cross-industry strategy, as well as the M&A and Digital practice areas, while Ravi Chanmugam, also a McKinsey alumnus, heads the North American region. The Italian Mauro Macchi is responsible for Europe, Africa and Latin America, fellow countryman Marco Morchio is in charge of a number of European countries (Italy, Greece, East Europe), as well as Russia and the Middle East, while Paul Gosling oversees the Asia Pacific region. The UK division of Accenture Strategy – one of the firm’s larger businesses in Europe – is headed by Andy Tinlin, who has been with the consultancy since 2005, when he joined following an eight year stint with KPMG’s Management Consulting department.
The latest consultant to join Accenture Strategy’s leadership ranks is Fabrice Asvazadourian, an experienced advisor with 25 years of consulting experience. He spent the majority of his career with Oliver Wyman: after obtaining an engineer degree from the École des Mines de Paris he started his career with the management consultancy in 1990, and was promoted to partner in 2000. At Oliver Wyman he focused predominantly on the financial services industry, advising clients on topics covering strategy, commercial effectiveness and operational efficiency. In his last role Asvazadourian led the consultancy’s Financial Services practice and served as Country Managing Partner for France.
In December 2011 Asvazadourian left Oliver Wyman, amidst internal struggles within the firm which led to a wider exodus of (senior) partners*, and joined Roland Berger, where he was appointed Global Head of Financial Services. After roughly 3 and a half years with the German-origin consultancy, in June this year, Asvazadourian joined Accenture in France, based in Paris. Four months down the line he has now been promoted to a regional role, with his mandate enlarged to include the Benelux region – which consists of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. He will work closely with Sander van Ginkel, who has been leading the Dutch Strategy operations since the unit was incepted.
A select overview of ten of the 20+ leadership team of Accenture Strategy
Besides his role as Accenture Strategy lead for Accenture France and Benelux, Asvazadourian sits on the Executive Committee for both countries/regions.
* Between 2006 to 2011 Oliver Wyman saw its annual revenue in France halve, from €40 million to €20 million, according to media reports in the country. The vicious spiral was sparked by the move of Paul de Leusse (now CFO Crédit Agricole) and Nicolas Lioliakis (now senior partner with A.T. Kearney) to Bain & Company in 2006, and their decision to take several other consultants from Oliver Wyman along with them. In the following three years the downturn continued, and by early 2010 Oliver Wyman France had seven partners left, but then 15 months later, four more had announced their departure: Cyril Gay Belan (moved to Roland Berger; now with Monitor Deloitte), Jean Coumaros (left to Capgemini Consulting), Jérôme Barrué (moved to Roland Berger) and Asvazadourian himself. Since then, Oliver Wyman France has, under the leadership of Bruno de Saint-Florent – who was one of the seven partners back in 2010 but remained faithful to the firm – rebuilt its Financial Services team, and returned to the forefront of the €4 billion French consulting industry.
