Innovation and Opportunities: A Conversation with Michael Corcoran of Accenture

The emergence of the As-a-Service Economy is being enabled by waves of both technology and behavioral change, resulting in enterprises being able to rethink the way they develop business strategies and establish, and maintain, business relationships. As a result, the traditional concepts of items such as loyalty, risk management, and even enterprise/provider relationships themselves, are being discarded in favor of models that stress collaboration, shared risk/reward, an emphasis on outcome alignment, and true peer-to-peer partnerships.

At our recent HfS Working Summit (“The Rise of the As-a-Service Economy, May 12th, 2015 in Dallas, TX), we had the opportunity to sit down with Michael Corcoran, Senior Managing Director, Global Growth & Strategy Lead at Accenture. Michael shared his perspectives on how the As-a-Service Economy is disrupting the market and the role he envisions for Accenture moving forward.

His insights on how service providers must be willing to disrupt themselves if they want to generate innovative value and long-term loyalty in this market are solid advice for any provider.

A few key themes of our conversation include:

On the impact of As-a-Service: This is a true disruption – the current marketplace must pivot, and be willing to disrupt the FTE model, integrating new technology, the cloud and business process excellence on behalf of the customer.

Regarding the drivers of loyalty: Clients have the right to have short-term relationships – the As-a-Service Economy allows them to achieve this, placing a burden on providers to perform and be transparent. Loyalty is driven by the ability to plug in fast, provide results quickly, start small and grow fast, and deliver business results.

Discussing Enterprise and Provider Risks: Talent is fundamental to managing risks. The prevalence of new technologies and products are increasing enterprise risks and the requirement for emerging services, such as Security-as-a-Service – providers must be willing to shoulder this risk.

On how service providers enable innovation: Innovation requires partnerships, between providers and the enterprise, and the willingness of providers to take on the burden of technology and risks on their behalf, and bring clients the latest ground-breaking thinking. Transparency is critical, especially in innovation partnerships — it’s a joint decision that both parties must make.

Once again, we’d like to thank Michael and Accenture for their sponsorship of this Working Summit, and for sharing their insights with the HfS global community.