 Welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. It's International Women's Day 2018. There's a ton of events happening all over the world. Check the social media stream. You'll be amazed, but we're excited to be here. Downtown San Francisco at the Accenture event. It's called Getting to Equal, 400 people. It's a packed house here at the Hotel Niko. And we're really excited to have the authors of some really important research here. As our next guest is Julie Sweet, the CEO of North America for Accenture. Good to see you Julie. Great, thanks for having me today. And Ellen Schiff, the Chief Leadership and HR Officer at Accenture. Great to see you. Thank you, Jeff. All right, so Ellen, I want to start with you just because I noticed your title and I wrote it down. I've never seen, we do hundreds of events, thousands of interviews. I've never seen Chief Leadership in HR. Where did that title come from and why is leadership ahead of HR? That's a pretty significant statement. It is, it is. And Accenture's a talent-led business. And part of being a talent-led business is growing our people to grow our business. So leadership and leadership development is essential to our business. It's a core competency of ours and that's why my title is Chief Leadership in Human Resources Officer. And leadership of 4-HR, meaning you really need people to get out of town. It's not about top-levels and this and that. Leaders at all levels. So let's talk about the research. So it says when she rises, we all rise. I think it's pretty common and everybody knows but hopefully by this point that the diversity of opinion, diversity of teams leads to better business outcomes. So what specifically is this piece of research and give us a little background? Sure, the research I think is groundbreaking because never have I seen a piece of research that looks at the cultural aspects of an organization and really helps to articulate very transparently what are the biggest accelerators in a culture for equality? And that's what the research is about. And you've identified, and is this ongoing research? Is this the first time it's been published? Is it kind of an annual thing? Every year we publish a piece of research about gender equality and this year we put a different lens on it to really look at equality for all. So you've identified 40 kind of key areas but of those 40, really 14 are the big hitters. Is that accurate? That's correct. So what are some of those 14? Well, we've put them in three categories. The first is bold leadership. So think about companies like Accenture who set targets and have CEOs who are very clear about their priorities. The second is a comprehensive action. So think about policies and practices that are really effective. And then finally, third, which I think is often under focused on, which is an empowering environment. What does it feel like to be at work every day? Do they ask you to dress a certain way? Is there flexible time for all? And it's the combination of these 14 factors that really makes a difference about creating a culture of equality where men and women advance. What was really impressive is we saw that in companies with these factors, women were five times more likely to advance to direct or a senior manager and men were two times more likely. And so it really is about when she rises, all rise. And that is probably one of the most exciting things about the research. It's pretty, it's really interesting. We just had Lisa on from the modest. Yeah. I would never have thought of clothing and dress as such a significant factor, but you've got that identified in that third bucket that you mentioned. And in fact, it's the number one attribute. So what are some of the other surprises that kind of come out of the research? Well, I think one of the surprises was that companies that as part of comprehensive action that implemented maternity leave only, it actually had a negative effect on women's advancement but where companies implemented parental leave. So it was for men and women, it eliminated that negative bias. And it really goes to the importance that these policies and actions in the focus need to be about women and men. And when you start putting women too much in a category, like flex time is a mommy track, as opposed to flex time being something that men and women commonly do, it really changes how it feels to, does it feel inclusive every day at work? Right. Yeah, so companies really need to, I think what the research showed very strongly is that companies need to look at programs, policies, practices, and environment that levels the playing field rather than isolating any particular gender or other form of diversity. But it's interesting, kind of, law of unintended consequences. I think that panel that you were on earlier, one of the gentlemen said, since the not me, you know, that there's been reports of, for me too, excuse me, a lot of hashtags today, that there's been people doing men scared of mentoring maybe, that they weren't before. I don't know how true that is, but it is kind of interesting to think, are there some kind of counterbalances, as you said, if it's just maternity and not parental leave that need to be thought about, that probably people aren't thinking it through that far. Well, and I think one of the things, as we saw in the research, is that it's not about also one action, and so the way that companies really create a culture of equality is it's a combination of these factors. And you said something when we first started, that I think is really important, and that was, you said, well, it's really commonly known that diversity is important, and I think that people do need to understand that we are optimistic about where we are today, because as a company, we're constantly in the C-suite, right? We serve in the U.S. three-fourths of the Fortune 500, and as much as we're talking as a leader in digital disruption and artificial intelligence, the conversation quickly turns to people, to talent, to diversity, and so if there's a real business lens that's on this, and that's the context in which we're operating. Right, and we go to Grace Hopper, we do a ton of women's events, as well as large conventions, and most people, I think, hopefully have figured it out, that it's not just about doing the right thing, it's about actually having better business outcomes. You get better outcomes with diversity of opinions, diversity of teams. You think about things that you just wouldn't think about, and you don't have that same experience, you know, everybody has a bias from where they come from, so you want to get some other people that have different points of view, different lenses to look at things, so it is really important. But why do you think things feel like they're changing now? What's important about, you know, March 8, 2018, versus, say, a year ago when you started doing some of this research? Is it the tipping point that it feels like, or? I think there's a couple of factors that are coming together right now. First of all, we're living in the digital age, and the digital age is all about innovation, and innovation fast, and as you just said, you cannot innovate without diversity. Diversity is a form of, you're able to tap into creativity, and it's a source of competitive advantages for organizations in this age, but also what's happening in culture around the world, the Me Too movement, as well as other things that are occurring for women around the world, and it's a moment in time where a movement can really start to happen, and I think companies who look at culture as an accelerator of change are going to be the winners. Right, so what impacted bold leadership? We had from the Golden State Warriors on earlier, and I think there's, you know, what's great about sports teams is we all get to see them do their business, and we get to see the score sheet at the end of the day. We don't necessarily get to see that in other companies, but really a fantastic example of new leadership coming in, made bold sweeping changes, probably a little bit of luck, which most success stories have, but significant top-down culture change. So how do you see cultures changing with bold leadership in old line companies? Can the old guard flip? Do they need to bring in new blood? How are people executing bold leadership? Well, first of all, I do think that it's not about old line, it's not about young, it's really about leadership, and so it's very dependent on who is the CEO and what kind of a board we have, and so we don't, both of us don't subscribe to the idea that you have to be born digital to be, you know, have great culture, yeah, to be digital, and I would say that one of the key things we saw in the study was around transparency of goals, and we talk a lot at Accenture about transparency creates trust, and so when you think about how do you change a culture, you know, bold leadership has been part defined in the research by the willingness to set public goals and to be transparent, and that creates the trust of your employees and the trust of the people you want to attract, and what I often will say that is, you know, when we put out our statistics in the US, we're the first professional services firm, it wasn't that we had phenomenal statistics, but the fact that we were willing to put them out created trust that we were trying to change, and it helped people want to be a part of that change. I mean, you know that, you guys are in this business, right? If you can't measure it, you can't improve it. It's interesting. You need a board of organization, puts out a self-assessment, we do their show in Grace Hopper to have companies, again, not necessarily that they're going to score high, but at least they recognize the problem, they're trying to measure it, they're trying to set a baseline and make moves. We've heard that from Brian at Intel, you know, Intel's making moves, and you guys have made a very definitive statement, right, a line in the sand at 2025, you're going to hit 50%, right? I believe that's the goal. And not only do we say that we're going to do it, but we're doing something about it. And a lot of companies will, you know, say they want to achieve gender equality, but it's actually the actions that you take every single day. And then, of course, reporting on your progress, whether it's what you wanted to see or not, just the full transparency around the scorecard is important. Yeah, it's so critically important, because again, if you can't measure it, you can't change it. So, great event here. As you look forward into 2018, I still can't believe we're recording the way into the year. It shocks me. What are some of the priorities for 2018? If we sit down here again a year from now, where will you have moved on that measure? What are some of the things that are your top priorities around this initiative this year? Well, I know for me, we certainly are trying to make sure that we continue to make progress, but I also think there's a growing conversation about the intersectionality of diversity, and so it's women in color, it's race in the workforce. And so, we're a global company, but certainly in the U.S., which is part of the business I lead, we are not only focusing on gender, but the intersectionality of diversity and on race. Yeah, and I think just broadening the conversation from gender diversity to true equality for all is really the big push for us here at Accenture Now. I think it's essential that no part of our organization or no individual gets left behind, and that's what we're really focused on. That's great, and so I want to thank you for having us and wish you well in 2018, and really a fantastic event and a super initiative. Come back in 2019 and we'll show you our progress. Exactly. Julie, she's Ellen, I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE from International Women's Day at the Accenture event in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching.