Time for a change

After five fun and challenging years I’m stepping down today as Accenture’s Global Banking Lead. I’m delighted to be passing the baton to the fantastic Mike Abbott who I’m confident will do great things to take the Accenture Banking business forward over the coming years.

I will be staying with Accenture but will be taking a step back into a part-time role focused on senior client coverage and thought leadership. I’d like to take a moment to thank all my Accenture colleagues, ecosystem partners, and clients who have made the last five years such a rich and rewarding experience. When I was offered the role, I was skeptical that a career strategy consultant would be a good fit for a technology-oriented firm like Accenture; but it turned out to be a great personal and professional decision for me. I’ve learned a huge amount, have seen many new colleagues become friends, and have come to fully appreciate how effective technology transformation will separate the leaders from the laggards in the retail and commercial banking industry over the next decade.

While I will continue in a part time capacity with Accenture, with the rest of my time I’m going to try something very different and attempt to write a book about the role of Scottish immigrants during the American Civil War. For nearly 40 years I’ve been fascinated by the struggles of a still young American Republic to reconcile the egalitarian promise of the Declaration of Independence with the harsh reality of slavery. I’m also a proud first-generation Scottish immigrant to the United States, following in the footsteps of hundreds of thousands of us who’ve made our way across the Atlantic over the last 400 years. My intent is to combine these passions by writing a new (and somewhat revisionist) history of the 79th New York Infantry, a regiment that was composed almost exclusively of first-generation Scots who volunteered to fight for the Union.

While I’m very proud of my decades of work as a consultant and professional services leader, I have to say I’m looking forward to diverting at least some of my time from hot takes on the banking industry towards a long, slow take on a narrow slice of history. Having helped steer professional services firms through open and often choppy waters, I think I’m going to enjoy a deep dive into the calm pond of the national archives to see what truths and insights I can bring to the surface. One of my writing heroes is Robert Caro, whose magisterial multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson displays a rigor and discipline that leaves no stone unturned to illuminate the historical truth. As I start to chip away some of the tartan and bagpipes sentimentality and “brave highlanders” mythology that has grown like barnacles on the history of the 79th New York, I can only aspire to that level of thoroughness and insight.

I’m confident that under Mike’s leadership my colleagues in Accenture Banking will continue to redefine professional services through a combination of strategic insight and technological sophistication and I look forward to continuing to play my part in helping the retail and commercial banking industry re-invent itself for the post COVID-19 world.

Thanks again to everyone who has made my tenure as Accenture’s global banking lead such a great experience.

Alan