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First, assess whether the reference contains any valid content. If the reference contains no valid information, such as a 'page not found' message, then all statements should be considered 'unknown'.
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Below are the reference and statements:
<reference>
Value from
every angle
Annual Report

Fiscal 2024

The success of our strategy to be the reinvention partner of our
clients is reflected in our fiscal 2024 results, including record
bookings, earnings growth, margin expansion and significant
cash to shareholders, allowing us to deliver 360° value for all
our stakeholders.
Revenues

64.9B

New bookings

81.2B

$

$

An increase of 2% in
local currency and
1% in U.S. dollars

A 14% increase in local currency
and 13% increase in U.S. dollars,
with a book-to-bill of 1.3

Diluted earnings per share (Adjusted)

Operating margin (Adjusted)

$

11.95

15.5%

A 2% increase, after adjusting
FY24 GAAP EPS of $11.44 to exclude
business optimization costs of $0.51
per share and FY23 GAAP EPS of $10.77
to exclude business optimization costs
of $1.28 per share and an investment
gain of $0.38 per share. On a GAAP
basis, FY24 EPS increased 6%

An increase of 10 basis points,
after adjusting FY24 GAAP operating
margin of 14.8% and FY23 GAAP
operating margin of 13.7% to exclude
business optimization costs of 70
bps and 170 bps, respectively. On a
GAAP basis FY24 operating margin
increased 110 bps

Free cash flow

Cash returned to shareholders

8.6B

7.8B

$

$

Defined as operating cash flow of
$9.1 billion net of property and
equipment additions of $517 million

Defined as share repurchases of
$4.5 billion plus cash dividends
of $3.2 billion

For 12 months ended August 31, 2024

1

From our Chair
and CEO
Fiscal year 2024 demonstrated the resilience and
agility of our business model, the power of our scale
and reinvention in action.
The year was marked by a challenging market environment,
and we rapidly shifted to meet our clients’ need for large
reinventions—using technology, data, AI and new ways of
working—that utilize the scale and depth of our expertise
and ecosystem relationships.

2

Our clients turn to us for
our unique combination
of services across Strategy
& Consulting, Technology,
Operations, Industry X
and Song.
Our strategists and deep industry,
functional, customer and technology
consultants work hand-in-hand with our
clients and across services to shape and
deliver these reinventions. Our managed
services, our ability to harness AI to close
talent gaps and our strong expertise across
talent, change, HR and organizations
differentiate all our services.
At the same time, we saw AI emerge as
the new digital. Like digital, AI is both a
technology and a new way of working, and
its full value will only come from strategies
built on both productivity and growth.
And we believe it will be used in every
part of the enterprise. We also believe
the introduction of generative AI signifies
a transformative era that is set to drive
growth for us and our clients.

As part of this, data will continue to be
essential to building the digital core. We
expect that the work to prepare enterprise
data, which is the fuel for AI, will be an
increasing part of our growth.
To accomplish reinvention and take
advantage of AI, businesses need to focus
on talent, which includes accessing the
best people at the right time, place and
cost; being a talent creator to keep people
market-relevant; and unlocking the potential
of talent. We see talent as a top C-suite
agenda item.
Our launch of LearnVantage, which provides
comprehensive technology learning and
training services, helps our clients reskill
and upskill their people so they can be a
talent creator.

3

"Our successful strategy to lead
reinvention for clients, continued
investments in our business, and the
talent, dedication and commitment
of our 774,000 people allowed us to
achieve profitable growth and create
360° value for all our stakeholders."
Julie Sweet

4

Our ongoing investments

6.6B

1.2B

$

$

Deployed across 46 strategic
acquisitions to scale our business
in high-growth areas, add skills
and capabilities in new areas
and deepen our industry and
functional expertise

Invested in research and
development in our assets,
platforms and industry and
functional solutions

1.1B

$

Invested in learning and
professional development
of our people

5

Delivering results

Our success is reflected in our full fiscal
year bookings of $81 billion, representing
14% growth in local currency, with a
record 125 quarterly client bookings of
more than $100 million for the year, 19
more than last year, demonstrating our
agility to shift to meet our clients' need for
large reinventions.
We are proud to now have 310 Diamond clients, our largest
client relationships, an increase of 10 from last year,
expanding our base of deep client relationships and the
vantage point we have on the market.
We delivered revenues of $65 billion for the year,
representing 2% growth in local currency while continuing
to take market share on a rolling four quarter basis,
against our basket of our closest global publicly traded
competitors, which is how we calculate market share. We
expanded adjusted operating margin by 10 basis points and
delivered adjusted EPS growth of 2%, while continuing to
significantly invest in our business and our people with $6.6
billion in strategic acquisitions, $1.2 billion in research and
development and $1.1 billion in learning and development.

6

We generated free cash flow of $8.6 billion, defined
as operating cash flow of $9.1 billion net of property
and equipment additions of $517 million, allowing
us to return $7.8 billion of cash to shareholders. We
completed the business optimization actions we
announced in March 2023 to reduce structural costs
and create greater resilience.
In recognition of our strong brand, we were proud to
earn the No. 20 position on Kantar BrandZ’s prestigious
Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list—our highest
rank to date with an 11% increase in brand value to
$81.9 billion. We also earned the top spot on the World’s
Best Management Consulting Firms list by Forbes.
We continue to advance our talent strategy to attract,
retain and inspire outstanding people. We also continue
to work toward carbon emissions reduction and
removals, and we invest in our communities to help
them thrive and provide our people with vibrant places
to work and live.
Read on for more detail.

7

Continued to accelerate our
leadership in generative AI,
which we believe will be the most
transformative technology of
the next decade, delivering

3 billion

$

in new bookings for the year

8

Caring for our people and
our communities
We invested in our people
to continue to develop their
market-relevant skills and to
help us reinvent our services
using generative AI.
Our people had approximately 44 million
training hours this year, representing an
increase of 10% compared with fiscal
2023, predominantly due to generative
AI training. We also continue to steadily
increase our Data & AI workforce,
reaching approximately 57,000 skilled
Data & AI practitioners at the end of fiscal
2024, against our goal of doubling our
Data & AI workforce to 80,000 by the
end of fiscal 2026.
We promoted approximately 97,000
people around the world in fiscal 2024,
reflecting our commitment to providing
vibrant career paths.
Over the next decade, our talent strategy
is to have the best access to talent and
to unlock our people’s potential through,
among other actions, making our people
feel they are “net better off” for working
at Accenture and feel they belong and

can thrive. In addition, our leadership
in the market requires that we lead in
innovation, which requires access to broad
pools of talent that provide the variety of
perspectives, observations and insights
that are essential to continuously innovate.
These strategies benefit from a diverse
and inclusive workplace, and they earned
us the No. 1 spot on the FTSE (formerly
Refinitiv) Diversity and Inclusion Index
for the fifth time in seven years.
We continue to build on our strong
commitment to environmental
sustainability in how we operate our
business. During fiscal 2024, we received
SBTi approval for new net-zero greenhouse
gas emissions targets aligned with SBTi's
Corporate Net-Zero Standard.
Our long-term growth depends on thriving
communities. We completed our inaugural
Season of Impact, with over 81,000 of
our people participating in over 400
unique activities supporting social and
environmental causes—volunteering,
eco-action, social innovation and giving—
across our local offices and online. Overall,
Accenture people performed 75,000 hours
of service.

9

Growing our Data
& AI workforce

57,000

We reached approximately
57,000 skilled Data & AI
practitioners against our
goal of 80,000 by the end
of fiscal 2026

Promoted
our people

Invested in
our people

We celebrated
approximately 97,000
promotions, demonstrating
our continued commitment
to creating vibrant careers
and opportunities for
our people

training hours

97,000

44M

We delivered
approximately
44 million
training hours

10

Living our
Leadership Essentials
At the heart of our work are our Leadership Essentials, which foster
our clients’ trust as we help them both navigate tough macros and
reinvent. Our Leadership Essentials are critical to our long-term
resilience and growth, as they set the standard for what we expect
of our leaders at all levels, and they enable us to successfully create
more 360° value.

11

• Always do the right thing,
in every decision and action;

• Lead with excellence,
confidence and humility,
as demonstrated by being
a learner, building great
teams and being naturally
collaborative;

• Exemplify client-centricity
and a commitment to client
value creation;

• Act as a true partner,

to each other, our clients,
our ecosystem and our
communities—committed
to shared success;

• Care deeply for all our
people to help them achieve

their aspirations professionally
and personally;

• Live our unwavering
commitment to inclusion,
diversity and equality,
as demonstrated by personal
impact and overall results;

• Have the courage to
change and the ability to

bring our people along the
journey; and

• Actively innovate—seeking
new answers, applying a tech,
AI and data first mindset,
looking internally across
Accenture and outside—to
partners, competitors, startups, clients, academia and
analysts—to learn, respectfully
challenge our assumptions
and apply the innovation,
and cultivate and reward our
people for doing the same.

12

Thank You
To our clients, shareholders,
partners and communities:
thank you for your ongoing
support—we work every day
to earn your continued trust.
And I want to thank our 774,000 amazing
people around the world, whose talent,
dedication and commitment help position
us for continued success and allow us to
create even more 360° value for all.

Julie Sweet
Chair and Chief Executive Officer
October 10, 2024

13

Comparison of
Cumulative Total Return
August 31, 2019–August 31, 2024
Accenture vs. S&P 500 Stock Index and S&P 500 Information Technology Sector Index

The performance graph to the
right shows the cumulative total
shareholder return on our Class
A shares for the period starting
on August 31, 2019, and ending
on August 31, 2024, which was
the end of fiscal 2024. This is
compared with the cumulative
total returns over the same period
of the S&P 500 Stock Index
and the S&P 500 Information
Technology Sector Index. The
graph assumes that, on August
31, 2019, $100 was invested in
our Class A shares and $100 was
invested in each of the other two
indices, with dividends reinvested
on the ex-dividend date without
payment of any commissions. The
performance shown in the graph
represents past performance
and should not be considered an
indication of future performance.

$350

$300

$250

$200

$150

$100

$50

$0
2019
Accenture

2020
S&P 500 Index

2021

2022

2023

2024

S&P 500 Information Technology Sector Index

Indexed Prices as of August 31
2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Accenture

$100

$123

$175

$152

$173

$186

S&P 500 Index

$100

$122

$160

$142

$165

$209

S&P 500 IT Sector Index

$100

$158

$204

$175

$234

$324

14

Ad Age Agency Report

Disability:IN Disability
Equality Index

Human Rights Campaign
Corporate Equality Index
Earned a top score of 100 in all
countries surveyed: Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Mexico and the U.S.

AVTAR & Seramount Best
Companies for Women in India

Earned a top score of 100 for
8 consecutive years in the U.S.,
and most recently in all 8 countries
surveyed: Brazil, Canada, Germany,
India, Japan, Philippines, U.K. and
the U.S.

Among the top companies for
9 consecutive years; Hall of
Fame member since 2020

Ethisphere World’s Most
Ethical Companies

Accenture Song ranked No. 2
among the world’s biggest agency
companies, marking 9 consecutive
years on list

AVTAR & Seramount Most
Inclusive Companies Index in India
“Champions of Inclusion” for
6 consecutive years

17 consecutive years

Fast Company World
Changing Ideas

Brand Finance Most Valuable IT
Services Brands

Recognized in several categories
including Agriculture, Developing
World Technology, Experimental
and Nature

No. 1 for the 6th consecutive year
with a brand value of $40.5B

Forbes Global 2000
No. 170, marking 21
consecutive years on list

JUST Capital America’s Most
JUST Companies
No. 1 in our industry for 2
consecutive years and No. 3 overall,
marking 8 consecutive years on list

Kantar BrandZ 100 Most
Valuable Global Brands
No. 20 with a brand value of $81.9B,
marking 19 consecutive years on list

LATINA Style 50 Best Companies
for Latinas to Work for in the U.S.
No. 3, marking 11 consecutive
years among the Top 10

Awards & Recognition
Brandon Hall Group
Excellence in Human Capital
Management Awards
Top winner for 9 consecutive years;
recognized this year for DEI, Future of
Work, HR, Leadership Development,
Learning & Development, Sales
Performance, Talent Acquisition
and Talent Management

Forbes World’s Best
Management Consulting Firms

Stonewall India
Workplace Equality Index

Earned the top spot

Gold Employer for
4 consecutive years

Fortune Global 500
No. 211, marking 23 consecutive
years on list

Fortune Most Powerful Women

The Times Top 50 Employers
for Gender Equality in the U.K.
9 consecutive years

Business Group on Health Best
Employers: Excellence in Health
& Well-being Award

Chair and CEO Julie Sweet ranked
No. 4, marking 5 consecutive years
among the Top 4

TIME World’s Best Companies

Recognized for the first time

Fortune World’s Most
Admired Companies

TIME100 Most Influential People

Business Today India’s Best
Companies to Work For
No. 2, marking 13 consecutive
years among the Top 10

Cannes Lions
Accenture Song won 8 Lions,
including the prestigious Grand
Prix Film Lion

CDP Climate Change A List
Among top-scoring companies
for 8 years

No. 1 in our industry for 11 years
and No. 33 overall, marking
22 consecutive years on list

FTSE (formerly Refinitiv) Diversity
and Inclusion Index

No. 2, marking 2 consecutive years
among the Top 5

Chair and CEO Julie Sweet
recognized as an Innovator

Wall Street Journal
Best-Managed Companies

No. 1 for the 5th time in 7 years,
marking 9 consecutive years on list

No. 15 overall, and No. 1 in social
responsibility and No. 7 in customer
satisfaction, marking 7 consecutive
years on list

Great Place To Work® Best
Workplaces™

Workplace Pride Global
Benchmark

No. 10 on World’s Best Workplaces™;
No. 14 in Asia; No. 11 in Latin
America; Top 10 in 10 countries

Among the highest-scoring
companies for 9 consecutive years

15

Stock listing
Accenture plc Class A ordinary shares are traded on
the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ACN.

Available information
Our website address is accenture.com. We use our
website as a channel of distribution for company
information. We make available free of charge on the
Investor Relations section of our website (investor.
accenture.com) our Annual Report on Form 10-K,
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports
on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports as
soon as reasonably practicable after such material is
electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities
and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) pursuant
to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”). We also make
available through our website other reports filed
with or furnished to the SEC under the Exchange
Act, including our proxy statements and reports filed
by officers and directors under Section 16(a) of the
Exchange Act, as well as our Code of Business Ethics.
Financial and other material information regarding
Accenture is routinely posted on and accessible
at investor.accenture.com. We do not intend for
information contained in this letter or on our website
to be part of the Annual Report on Form 10-K. This
letter and our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended August 31, 2024 (including the
sections of our definitive proxy statement relating to
our 2025 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders
incorporated by reference), together constitute
Accenture’s annual report to security holders for
purposes of Rule 14a-3(b) of the Exchange Act.

Trademark references
Rights to trademarks referenced herein, other than
Accenture trademarks, belong to their respective
owners. We disclaim proprietary interest in the marks
and names of others.

Forward-looking statements and
certain factors that may affect
our business
We have included in this letter “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Exchange
Act relating to our operations, results of operations
and other matters that are based on our current

expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections.
Words such as “will,” “plan,” “believe,” "expect," "goal"
and similar expressions are used to identify these
forward-looking statements. These statements are not
guarantees of future performance and involve risks,
uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to
predict. Forward-looking statements are based upon
assumptions as to future events that may not prove to
be accurate. Actual outcomes and results may differ
materially from what is expressed or forecast in these
forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties
and other factors that might cause such differences,
some of which could be material, include, but are
not limited to, the factors discussed in our Annual
Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form
10-Q (available through the Investor Relations section
of our website at investor.accenture.com) under the
sections entitled “Risk Factors.” Our forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date of this letter
or as of the date they are made, and we undertake
no obligation to update them, notwithstanding any
historical practice of doing so. Forward-looking and
other statements in this document may also address
our corporate responsibility progress, plans and goals
(including environmental matters), and the inclusion
of such statements is not an indication that these
contents are necessarily material to investors or
required to be disclosed in the Company’s filings with
the SEC. In addition, historical, current and forwardlooking sustainability-related statements may be
based on standards for measuring progress that are
still developing, internal controls and processes that
continue to evolve, and assumptions that are subject
to change in the future.

Reconciliation of non-GAAP measures
This letter contains certain non-GAAP (Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles) measures that our
management believes provide our shareholders
with additional insights into Accenture’s results of
operations. The non-GAAP measures in this letter
are supplemental in nature. They should not be
considered in isolation or as alternatives to net income
as indicators of company performance, to cash flows
from operating activities as measures of liquidity, or
to other financial information prepared in accordance
with GAAP. Reconciliations of this non-GAAP financial
information to Accenture’s financial statements as
prepared under GAAP are included in this report.

All amounts throughout this letter are stated in U.S. dollars,
except where noted.
Some imagery in this document has been generated using
artificial intelligence technology.

16

Table of Contents
UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K
☑

Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

For the fiscal year ended August 31, 2024
Commission File Number: 001-34448

Accenture plc
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Ireland

98-0627530

(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)

(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

1 Grand Canal Square,
Grand Canal Harbour,
Dublin 2, Ireland
(Address of principal executive offices)
(353) (1) 646-2000
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class

Trading Symbol(s)

Name of each exchange on which registered

Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0000225 per share

ACN

New York Stock Exchange

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☑
No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934. Yes ☐ No ☑
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to
such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405
of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit
such files). Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or
an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth
company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer

☑

Accelerated filer

☐

Smaller reporting company

☐

Emerging growth company

☐

Non-accelerated filer

☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the Registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with
any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its
internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm
that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in
the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation
received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☑
The aggregate market value of the common equity of the registrant held by non-affiliates of the registrant on February 29, 2024 was approximately
$235,672,170,215 based on the closing price of the registrant’s Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0000225 per share, reported on the New York
Stock Exchange on such date of $374.78 per share and on the par value of the registrant’s Class X ordinary shares, par value $0.0000225 per
share.
The number of shares of the registrant’s Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0000225 per share, outstanding as of September 30, 2024 was
672,684,852 (which number includes 47,829,204 issued shares held by the registrant). The number of shares of the registrant’s Class X ordinary
shares, par value $0.0000225 per share, outstanding as of September 30, 2024 was 307,754.

Table of Contents
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the definitive proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A relating to the
registrant’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, to be held on February 6, 2025, will be incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K in
response to Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of Part III. The definitive proxy statement will be filed with the SEC not later than 120 days after the
registrant’s fiscal year ended August 31, 2024.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Page
Part I
Item 1.

Business

2

Item 1A.

Risk Factors

18

Item 1B.

Unresolved Staff Comments

32

Item 1C.

Cybersecurity

33

Item 2.

Properties

34

Item 3.

Legal Proceedings

34

Item 4.

Mine Safety Disclosures

34

Item 5.

Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

35

Item 6.

[Reserved]

36

Item 7.

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

37

Item 7A.

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

49

Item 8.

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

50

Item 9.

Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

50

Item 9A.

Controls and Procedures

50

Item 9B.

Other Information

51

Item 9C.

Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections

51

Item 10.

Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

52

Item 11.

Executive Compensation

52

Item 12.

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters

53

Item 13.

Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence

53

Item 14.

Principal Accountant Fees and Services

54

Item 15.

Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules

55

Item 16.

Form 10-K Summary

57

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Signatures

58

Table of Contents
ACCENTURE 2024 FORM 10-K

Part I

1

Part I
Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities
Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) relating to our operations, results
of operations and other matters that are based on our current expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections. Words
such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “likely,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,”
“positioned,” “outlook” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are
not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Forwardlooking statements are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Actual outcomes and
results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecast in these forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and
other factors that might cause such differences, some of which could be material, include, but are not limited to, the factors
discussed below under the section entitled “Risk Factors.” Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this
report or as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update them, notwithstanding any historical
practice of doing so. Forward-looking and other statements in this document may also address our corporate responsibility
progress, plans, and goals (including environmental matters), and the inclusion of such statements is not an indication that
these contents are necessarily material to investors or required to be disclosed in our filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. In addition, historical, current, and forward-looking sustainability-related statements may be based
on standards for measuring progress that are still developing, internal controls and processes that continue to evolve, and
assumptions that are subject to change in the future.

Available Information
Our website address is www.accenture.com. We use our website as a channel of distribution for company information. We
make available free of charge on the Investor Relations section of our website (http://investor.accenture.com) our Annual
Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports
as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange
Commission (the “SEC”) pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. We also make available through our
website other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC under the Exchange Act, including our proxy statements and reports
filed by officers and directors under Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act, as well as our Code of Business Ethics. Financial and
other material information regarding us is routinely posted on and accessible at http://investor.accenture.com and on the
Accenture 360° Value Reporting Experience (http://www.accenture.com/reportingexperience). We do not intend for
information contained in our website to be part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
The SEC maintains an Internet site (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other
information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. Any materials we file with the SEC are available on such
Internet site.
In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we use the terms “Accenture,” “we,” “our” and “us” to refer to Accenture plc and its
subsidiaries. All references to years, unless otherwise noted, refer to our fiscal year, which ends on August 31.

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Item 1. Business
Overview
Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s
leading organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate
revenue growth and enhance services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We
are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 774,000 people serving
clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we
are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem
relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data
and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery
capability. Our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy &
Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with our culture of
shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients
reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360°
value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and
communities.
Fiscal 2024 Highlights
We serve clients and manage our business through three
geographic markets: North America, EMEA (Europe,
Middle East and Africa) and Growth Markets. These
markets bring together all of our capabilities across our
services, industries and functions to deliver value to our
clients.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2025, our Latin America market
unit will move from Growth Markets to North America.
With this change, North America will become the
Americas market and Growth Markets will become the
Asia Pacific market.
We go to market by industry, leveraging our deep
expertise across our five industry groups—
Communications, Media & Technology, Financial
Services, Health & Public Service, Products and
Resources. Our integrated service teams meet client
needs rapidly and at scale, leveraging our network of
more than 100 innovation hubs, our technology expertise
and ecosystem relationships, and our global delivery
capabilities.

$64.9B in revenues
Our revenues are derived primarily from Forbes
Global 2000 companies, governments and
government agencies.
We employed approximately

774,000 people
as of August 31, 2024.
We have long-term relationships and
have partnered with

our top 100 clients
for more than

10 years.

Fiscal 2024 Investments

$6.6B

$1.2B

$1.1B

across 46 strategic acquisitions

in research and development

in learning and professional
development

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During fiscal 2024, we continued to make significant investments—in strategic acquisitions, in research and development
(R&D) in our assets, platforms and industry and functional solutions, in patents and pending patents and in attracting,
retaining and developing people. These investments help us to further enhance our differentiation and competitiveness in the
marketplace. Our disciplined acquisition strategy, which is an engine to fuel organic growth, is focused on scaling our
business in high-growth areas; adding skills and capabilities in new areas; and deepening our industry and functional
expertise. In fiscal 2024, we invested $6.6 billion across 46 strategic acquisitions, $1.2 billion in R&D, and $1.1 billion in
learning and professional development, including 44 million training hours.

Our Strategy
The core of our growth strategy is to be our clients’ reinvention partner of choice, delivering 360° value to our clients, people,
shareholders, partners and communities. Our strategy defines the areas in which we will drive growth, build differentiation
and enable our clients to transform their organizations through technology, data and AI to create value every day. We aspire
to be at the center of our clients’ business and help them reach new levels of performance and to set themselves apart as
leaders in their industries.
We define 360° value as delivering the financial business case and unique value a client may be seeking, and striving to
partner with our clients to achieve greater progress on inclusion and diversity, reskill and upskill our clients’ employees, help
our clients achieve their sustainability goals, and create meaningful experiences, both with Accenture and for the customers
and employees of our clients.
We bring industry specific solutions and services as well as cross industry expertise and leverage our scale and global
footprint, innovation capabilities, and strong ecosystem partnerships together with our assets and platforms including
myWizard, myNav, SynOps and AI Navigator for Enterprise to deliver tangible value for our clients.
We help our clients use technology to drive enterprise-wide transformation, which includes:
•

building their digital core—such as moving them to the cloud, leveraging data and AI, and embedding security across
the enterprise;

•

optimizing their operations—such as helping our clients digitize faster, access digital talent and reduce costs as well
as through digitizing engineering and manufacturing; and

•

accelerating their revenue growth—such as through using technology and creativity to create personalized
connections, experiences and targeted sales at scale, leveraging data and AI, transforming content supply chains and
marketing and commerce models and helping create new digital services and business models.

Our clients turn to us to help them drive reinvention with our unique combination of services across Strategy & Consulting,
Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song. Our strategists and deep industry, functional, customer and technology
consultants work hand-in-hand with our clients and across services to shape and deliver these reinventions.
At the same time, we see AI as the new digital. Like digital, AI is both a technology and a new way of working, and its full
value will only come from strategies built on both productivity and growth. And we believe it will be used in every part of the
enterprise. We also believe the introduction of generative AI signifies a transformative era that is set to drive growth for us
and our clients.
To accomplish reinvention and take advantage of AI, businesses need to focus on talent, which includes: accessing the best
people at the right time, place and cost; being a talent creator to keep people market-relevant; and unlocking the potential of
talent.
Our managed services are strategic for our clients as companies seek to move faster, embrace AI and automation and
leverage our digital platforms and talent as well as reduce costs.
As clients reinvent, we believe that trends such as sustainability will continue to be forces behind their need to reinvent and
the outcomes of their reinventions.
We believe our strategy to deliver 360° value makes us an attractive destination for top talent, a trusted partner to our clients
and ecosystem, and a respected member of our communities.

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Key enablers of our growth strategy include:
Our People—As a talent- and innovation-led organization, across our entire business our people have highly
specialized skills that drive our differentiation and competitiveness. We care deeply for our people, and are committed
to a culture of shared success, to investing in our people to provide them with boundaryless opportunities to learn and
grow in their careers through their work experience and continued development, training and reskilling, and to helping
them achieve their aspirations both professionally and personally. We have an unwavering commitment to inclusion
and diversity.
Our Commitment—We are a purpose-driven company, committed to delivering on the promise of technology and
human ingenuity by continuously innovating and developing leading-edge ideas and leveraging emerging
technologies in anticipation of our clients’ needs. Our culture is underpinned by our core values and Code of Business
Ethics, which are key drivers of the trust our clients and partners place in us.
Our Foundation—Our Leadership Essentials set the standard for what we expect from our people. Our growth model,
which leverages our global sales, client experience and innovation, while organizing around geographic markets and
industry groups within those markets, enables us to be close to our clients, people and partners to scale efficiently. Our
enduring shareholder value proposition is also a key element of the foundation that enables us to execute on our
growth strategy through the financial value it creates.

Geographic Markets
Our geographic markets—North America, EMEA and Growth
Markets—bring together integrated service teams, which
typically consist of industry and functional experts, technology
and capability specialists and professionals with local market
knowledge and experience, to meet client needs. The
geographic markets have primary responsibility for building
and sustaining long-term client relationships; bringing together
our expertise from around the globe and collaborating across
our business to sell and deliver our full range of services and
capabilities; ensuring client satisfaction; and achieving
revenue and profitability objectives.
While we serve clients in locally relevant ways, our global
footprint and scale in every major country give us the ability to
leverage our experience and people from around the world to
accelerate outcomes for our clients.
Our three geographic markets are our reporting segments.
The percent of our revenues represented by each market is
shown at right.

Percent of Fiscal 2024
Revenue
Growth Markets
17%

EMEA
35%

North America
47%

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Services
We bring together skills, capabilities, industry experience and functional expertise to help our clients achieve tangible
outcomes and create 360° value.

Strategy & Consulting
We work with C-suite executives, leaders and boards of the world’s leading organizations, helping them reinvent every part
of their enterprise to drive greater growth, enhance competitiveness, implement operational improvements, reduce cost,
deliver sustainable 360° stakeholder value, and set a new performance frontier for themselves and the industry in which they
operate. Our deep industry and functional expertise is supported by proprietary assets and solutions that help organizations
transform faster and become more resilient. Underpinned by technology, data, analytics, AI, change management, talent,
learning and sustainability capabilities, our Strategy & Consulting services help architect and accelerate all aspects of an
organization’s reinvention.

Technology
We provide innovative and comprehensive services and solutions that span cloud; systems integration and application
management; security; intelligent platform services; infrastructure services; software engineering services; data and AI;
automation; and global delivery through our Advanced Technology Centers. We continuously innovate our services,
capabilities and platforms through early adoption of new technologies such as generative AI, blockchain, robotics, 5G, edge
computing, metaverse and quantum computing. We provide a range of capabilities that addresses the challenges faced by
organizations today, including how to achieve reinvention, manage change and develop new growth opportunities.
We are continuously innovating and investing in R&D for both existing and new forms of technology. Our focus in our
Accenture Labs includes furthering innovation beyond traditional boundaries, such as science and space technologies. Our
innovation hubs around the world help clients innovate at unmatched speed, scope and scale. We have strong relationships
with the world’s leading technology companies, as well as emerging start-ups, which enable us to enhance our service
offerings, augment our capabilities and deliver distinctive business value to our clients. Our strong ecosystem relationships
provide a significant competitive advantage, and we are a key partner of a broad range of technology providers, including
Adobe, Alibaba, Amazon Web Services, Blue Yonder, Cisco, Databricks, Dell, Google, HPE, IBM RedHat, Microsoft, NVIDIA,
Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, Pegasystems, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Snowflake, VMware, Workday and many others. In
addition to our mature partners, we invest in emerging technologies through Accenture Ventures. We push the boundaries of
what technology can enable and help clients get the most value and best capabilities out of platforms.

Operations
We operate business processes on behalf of clients for specific enterprise functions, including finance and accounting,
sourcing and procurement, supply chain, marketing and sales, and human resources, as well as industry-specific services,
such as platform trust and safety, banking, insurance, network and health services. We help organizations to reinvent
themselves through intelligent operations, enabled by SynOps, our cloud enabled platform that empowers people with data,
processes, automation, generative AI and a broad ecosystem of technology partners to transform enterprise operations at
speed and scale.

Industry X
We combine our digital capabilities with deep engineering and manufacturing expertise. By using the combined power of
digital and data we help our clients to reinvent and reimagine the products they make and how they make them. This
includes helping our clients to digitally transform how their capital projects are planned, managed and executed, from plant
and asset construction to public infrastructure, power grids and data centers. We collaborate closely with our platform and
software partners to help our clients achieve compressed transformations by redefining how their products are designed and
engineered, tested, sourced and supplied, manufactured, and serviced, returned and renewed. We also design,
manufacture, and assemble our own advanced automation equipment, robotics and other specialized commercial hardware
to support our clients’ operations. Through the use of data and transformative technologies such as AI and generative AI,
Internet of Things, artificial reality/virtual reality, advanced robotics, digital twins and metaverse, we help our clients reinvent
to achieve greater resilience, productivity and sustainability in their core operations and design and engineer intelligent
products faster and more cost effectively. And in doing so, we help them create new, hyper-personalized experiences and
intelligent products and services.

Song
We help our clients create new, hyper-personalized experiences and services that are intelligently designed to foster loyalty
and drive growth by making customer interactions more compelling, useful, and simple from initial interaction through
ongoing customer service. Our suite of services spans design, digital products, marketing, commerce, and customer service.
We create products and experiences that resonate deeply with users across multiple channels. We help brands amplify their
value, by making their propositions clear and inspiring to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Our commerce strategies are
designed to enhance sales effectiveness and create seamless buying experiences. Our customer service innovations help
make support more responsive and accessible. We bring cross industry expertise, underpinning these services with

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technology. We leverage the combined power of strategy, data and AI (including generative AI), ecosystem partnerships, and
our ability to scale and manage programs on behalf of our clients. By doing so, we enhance our creative processes, solve
client challenges more effectively, and provide solutions that are designed to be advanced, ethically sound and sustainable to
help our clients reinvent how they engage with their customers.

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Industry Groups
We believe the depth and breadth of our industry expertise is a key competitive advantage which allows us to bring clientspecific industry solutions to our clients to accelerate value creation. Our industry focus gives us an understanding of
industry evolution, business issues and trends, industry operating models, capabilities and processes and new and emerging
technologies. The breadth of our industry expertise enables us to create solutions that are informed by cross industry
experience. We go to market through the following five industry groups within our geographic markets.

Communications, Media & Technology
FY24 Revenues of $10.8B
Percent of Group’s FY24 Revenue

40%

18%

42%

Communications & Media

High Tech

Software & Platforms

B2C and B2B communications service providers (both Enterprise technology,
fixed and mobile), MVNO (mobile virtual network
hardware, and associated
operators) and network infrastructure companies
manufacturing; consumer
inclusive of edge and IOT connectivity infrastructure,
technology, electronics,
cable and satellite communications, broadcasters and batteries, and associated
TV networks, gaming, print, online and traditional
manufacturing; network
publishing, entertainment, sports, content producers
equipment and device
(including studios), content aggregators and streaming providers and
live events (sports) and media infrastructure providers, manufacturers, data
integrated advertising agencies and creative
centers; semiconductor
including silicon design
and development,
foundries, capital
equipment, and
manufacturing; medical
equipment companies and
manufacturers

Cloud-based enterprise and consumer software
companies, large language model owners; both
subscription and ad-driven consumer platforms
spanning ecommerce, social, media, advertising and
gaming

Financial Services
FY24 Revenues of $11.6B
Percent of Group’s FY24 Revenue

69%

31%

Banking & Capital Markets

Insurance

Retail and commercial banks, mortgage lenders, payment providers, corporate and investment Property and casualty, life and annuities
banks, private equity firms, market infrastructure providers, wealth and asset management
and group benefits insurers, reinsurance
firms, broker/dealers, depositories, exchanges, clearing and settlement organizations,
firms and insurance brokers
retirement services providers and other diversified financial enterprises

Health & Public Service
FY24 Revenues of $13.8B
Percent of Group’s FY24 Revenue

31%

69%

Health

Public Service

Healthcare providers, such as hospitals,
public health systems, policy-making
authorities, health insurers (payers), and
industry organizations and associations

Defense departments and military forces; public safety authorities; justice departments;
human and social services agencies; educational institutions; non-profit organizations; cities;
transportation agencies; and postal, customs, revenue and tax agencies

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Our work with clients in the U.S. federal government is delivered through Accenture Federal Services, a U.S. company and a
wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture LLP, and represented approximately 37% of our Health & Public Service industry
group’s revenues and 17% of our North America revenues in fiscal 2024.

Products
FY24 Revenues of $19.6B
Percent of Group’s FY24 Revenue

46%

34%

20%

Consumer Goods, Retail & Travel Services

Industrial

Life Sciences

Food and beverage, household goods, personal care, tobacco,
fashion/apparel, agribusiness and consumer health companies;
supermarkets, hardline retailers, mass-merchandise discounters,
department, quickserve and convenience stores and specialty
retailers; aviation; and hospitality and travel services companies

Industrial & electrical equipment
manufacturers and industrial
suppliers; and construction, heavy
equipment, consumer durables,
engineering services, real estate,
freight & logistics, aerospace &
defense, automotive & mobility and
public transportation companies

Biopharmaceutical, medical
technology and distributors

Resources
FY24 Revenues of $9.1B
Percent of Group’s FY24 Revenue

29%

25%

46%

Chemicals & Natural
Resources

Energy

Utilities

Petrochemicals, specialty chemicals,
polymers and plastics, gases and
agricultural chemicals companies, as
well as the metals, mining, forest
products and building materials
industries

Oil and gas industries, including
upstream, midstream,
downstream, oilfield services,
clean energy and energy
trading companies

Power generators and developers, including nuclear, renewables
and other conventional generators; electric and gas transmission
and distribution operators, energy and energy service retailers;
water, waste and recycling service providers

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People
Overview
We are a talent- and innovation-led organization with approximately 774,000 people as of August 31, 2024, whose skills and
specialization are a significant source of competitive differentiation.
We serve clients at any given time in more than 120 countries, with offices and operations in 52 countries. The majority of
our people are in India, the Philippines and the U.S.
We have a culture of shared success, which is defined as success for our clients, our people, our shareholders, our partners
and our communities. That culture is built upon four tangible building blocks—our beliefs, our behaviors, the way we develop
and reward our people and the way we do business.

Our Beliefs and Behaviors
Our leadership essentials set the standard for what we expect of all our people:
•

always do the right thing, in every decision and action; •

•

lead with excellence, confidence and humility, as
demonstrated by being a learner, building great teams
and being naturally collaborative;

•

exemplify client-centricity and a commitment to client
value creation;

have the courage to change and the ability to bring our
people along the journey; and

•

actively innovate—seeking new answers, applying a
tech, AI and data first mindset, looking internally across
Accenture and outside—to partners, competitors, startups, clients, academia and analysts—to learn,
respectfully challenge our assumptions and apply the
innovation, and cultivate and reward our people for
doing the same.

•
•

act as a true partner, to each other, our clients, our
ecosystem and our communities—committed to shared
success;

•

care deeply for all our people to help them achieve
their aspirations professionally and personally;

live our unwavering commitment to inclusion,
diversity and equality, as demonstrated by personal
impact and overall results;

Listening to the voices of our people provides the input to ensure that they have the tools and resources to do their jobs and
the right learning opportunities, and that they experience a positive, respectful and inclusive work environment. We do this on
an ongoing basis across various channels, including surveys and forums. Among our people who participated in the Great
Place To Work® Trust Index Survey™, 78% agreed that “Taking everything into account, I would say this is a great place to
work.” Additionally, we are recognized as a top 10 place to work in 11 countries, representing more than 70% of our people.
Our purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity. Our strategy is to deliver 360° value for all our
stakeholders by helping them continuously reinvent. To drive reinvention, innovation must be at the forefront, which requires
us to attract, develop and inspire top talent. Talent is one of our most important areas of competitive differentiation. As part of
our talent strategy, we hire and develop people who have different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different lived
experiences. These differences ensure that we have and attract the cognitive diversity to deliver a variety of perspectives,
observations, and insights which are essential to drive the innovation needed to reinvent. To help achieve this diversity we
set goals, share them publicly, and collect data to measure our progress, continuously improve, and hold our leaders
accountable for ensuring we have the most innovative and talented people in our industry. This approach is a key driver of
our progress.
We recognize that some people come to Accenture having faced obstacles as an aspect of their identity or lived experience.
At Accenture, we are committed to harness these perspectives and ensure that all of our people have the opportunity to
thrive and unlock their full potential. We are a meritocracy. Our intention is to foster a culture and a workplace in which all of
our people feel a sense of belonging and are respected and empowered to do their best work and to create 360° value for all
our stakeholders.

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We are 48% women, compared to our gender parity goal by 2025. And, we are currently
30% women managing directors, in line with our 2025 goal. We are also working toward our
total workforce 2025 race and ethnicity goals in the U.S., the U.K., and South Africa, which
we announced in 2020.

We are

•

Women

In the U.S., African American and Black colleagues represent 12% of our workforce, in
line with our goal. Additionally, Hispanic American and Latinx colleagues represent
10% of our workforce, compared to our goal of 13%.

•

In the U.K., Black colleagues represent 6% of our workforce compared to our goal of
7%.

•

In South Africa, African Black colleagues represent 47% of our workforce compared to
our goal of 68%. Coloured colleagues represent 10% of our workforce, in line with our
goal.

We are committed to pay equity and have processes in place to compensate our people
fairly—across gender, race and ethnicity. Pay equity at Accenture means that our people
receive pay that is fair and consistent when considering similarity of work, location and
tenure at career level. We conduct an annual pay equity review. As of our last review,
which reflected pay changes effective December 1, 2023, we had dollar-for-dollar, 100%
pay equity for women compared to men in every country where we operate (certain
subsidiaries, recent acquisitions, countries with de minimis headcount and temporary
employees were excluded from the analysis). By race and ethnicity, we likewise had
dollar-for-dollar, 100% pay equity in the U.S., the U.K. and South Africa, which are the
locations where we currently have the data available to use for this purpose.

48%
compared to
our goal of 50% by
2025.

We are now

30%
Women
managing
directors
in line with
our goal of 30% by
2025.

The Way We Develop and Reward Our People
Our focus is to create talent and unlock the potential of our people, to create strong leaders, and to help them achieve their
professional and personal aspirations, while continuously pivoting to meet new client demands.
During fiscal 2024, we invested $1.1 billion in learning and professional development. With our digital learning platform, we
delivered approximately 44 million training hours, an increase of 10% compared with fiscal 2023, predominantly due to
generative AI training.
We have skills data for our people, enabling us to flexibly respond to shifting client needs while also recommending skillspecific training based on an individual’s interests. We upskill people at scale, while proactively defining new skills and roles
in anticipation of client needs. We also continue to steadily increase our Data & AI workforce, reaching approximately 57,000
skilled Data & AI practitioners at the end of fiscal 2024, against our goal of doubling our Data & AI workforce to 80,000 by the
end of fiscal 2026.
We are focused on rigorous, job-specific training through key industry certifications and partnerships with leading universities
around the globe. We also train our people on inclusion and mitigating unconscious bias.
We promoted approximately 97,000 people in fiscal 2024, demonstrating our continued commitment to creating vibrant
careers and opportunities for our people.
We balance our supply of skills with changes in client demand. We do this through adjusting levels of new hiring and
managing our attrition (both voluntary and involuntary). We believe people are drawn to our strong purpose, values and
reputation. For fiscal 2024, attrition, excluding involuntary terminations, was 13%, consistent with fiscal 2023. For the fourth
quarter of fiscal 2024, annualized attrition, excluding involuntary terminations, was 14%, consistent with the third quarter of
fiscal 2024.
Accenture’s total rewards consist of cash compensation, equity and a wide range of benefits. Our total rewards program is
designed to recognize our people’s skills, contributions and career progression. Base salary, bonus and equity are tailored to
the market where our people work and live. Certain rewards, like equity and bonuses, are opportunities for our people to
share in the overall success of our company. As our people advance in their careers, they have greater opportunities to be
rewarded. Accenture’s equitable rewards go beyond financial rewards and include health and well-being programs that care
for our people.

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The Way We Do Business
At Accenture, our people care deeply about doing the right thing. Together, we have proven that we can succeed—providing
value to our clients and shareholders and opportunities for our people—while being a powerful force for good. Our shared
commitment to operating with the highest ethical standard and making a positive difference in everything we do is what we
believe differentiates Accenture. We believe in transparency, that transparency builds trust, and that we must earn the trust of
our clients, our people, our partners and our communities each and every day.
Our Code of Business Ethics is organized into six fundamental behaviors: Make Your Conduct Count; Comply with Laws;
Deliver for Our Clients; Protect People, Information and Our Business; Run Our Business Responsibly; and Be a Good
Corporate Citizen. It applies to all our people—regardless of their title or location. With our Code of Business Ethics, we want
to help our people make ethical behavior a natural part of what we do every day—with each other, our clients, our partners
and our communities.
Accenture’s commitment to and focus on our people and culture has generated significant recognition, including No. 1 on the
FTSE (formerly Refinitiv) Diversity and Inclusion Index for the fifth time in seven years; Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical
Companies for 17 consecutive years; and ranking No. 10 among 25 companies on Great Place To Work® World's Best
Workplaces™.

Our Health, Safety and Well-Being
We are committed to creating a place where people can be successful both professionally and personally. We take a holistic
view of well-being—including physical, mental, emotional and financial well-being—providing specially defined programs and
practices to meet our people’s fundamental human needs.

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Environmental Sustainability
We help our clients together with our ecosystem partners, to define, measure and achieve their environmental, social and
governance goals by connecting sustainability with their transformation agendas across their strategy and operations to make
their value chains more sustainable.
We have a strong commitment to environmental sustainability in how we operate our business, and we hold ourselves
accountable to clear and measurable objectives. For example, in 2020, we established a 2025 carbon removal goal—
previously referred to as our 2025 net-zero emissions goal—and we are on track to achieve this goal.
Our environment goals discussed below span three areas: reducing and removing our carbon emissions, moving toward zero
waste and planning for water risk.

Our Goals to Reduce and Remove our Carbon Emissions
Our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions primarily
result from business travel and purchased goods
and services, since we have 100% renewable
electricity in our facilities.

We are on track to achieve our 2025 carbon removal goal
and we set new goals for the future...

We continue to work toward our 2025 carbon
removal goal by first focusing on reductions
across our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and then
removing any remaining emissions through
nature-based carbon removal projects.

Fiscal 2030 Near-term Targets

SBTi-Approved Net-Zero Targets

80%

55%

We are a signatory to the UN Global Compact
Business Ambition for 1.5°C Pledge, committing
to do our part to keep global warming below 1.5°
Celsius in alignment with the Paris Agreement
and the criteria and recommendations of the
Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

reduction of absolute Scope
1 and 2 GHG emissions
from fiscal 2019 base year.

reduction of Scope 3 GHG
emissions per unit of
revenue from fiscal 2019
base year.

In 2018, we established a SBTi 2025 near-term
emissions reduction target, which we have
surpassed. During fiscal 2024, we received SBTi
approval for net-zero GHG emissions targets
aligned with SBTi's Corporate Net-Zero
Standard, including new near-term and long-term
reduction targets.

90%

90%

reduction of absolute Scope
1 and 2 GHG emissions
from fiscal 2019 base year.

reduction of absolute Scope
3 GHG emissions from
fiscal 2019 base year.

Fiscal 2040 Long-term Targets

Our Actions to Reduce Carbon Emissions
Our approach to carbon reduction in support of our goals includes:
•

Maintaining 100% renewable electricity. In 2023, we achieved our goal of 100% renewable electricity in our facilities
and we maintained this in fiscal 2024. As we do not own our facilities and procure most of our energy from the grid, we
purchase renewable electricity contracts equivalent to the amount of electricity we consume. Going forward, we plan to
maintain 100% renewable electricity in our facilities. As we purchase renewable electricity, we also support the generation
of more renewable sources of electricity.

•

Enabling low carbon business travel. We continue to use technology to facilitate more cost and carbon-efficient
delivery for our clients and our business and have implemented an internal carbon price on travel to encourage climate
smart travel decisions. In addition, we have developed analytics and reporting focused on our business travel emissions
so that we can share emissions data with our clients as part of our delivery activities.

•

Engaging our suppliers. We are working with our suppliers to reduce our Scope 3 emissions. Our goal is that 90% of
our key suppliers disclose their environmental targets and the actions being taken to reduce emissions by the end of
2025. We are on track to meet this goal, with 89% of key suppliers disclosing their targets and 96% disclosing the actions
they are taking to reduce their emissions. Key suppliers are defined as vendors that represent a significant portion of our
2019 Scope 3 emissions.

Carbon Removal
•

Nature-based carbon removal. To address our remaining emissions, we are investing in nature-based carbon removal
projects to remove carbon from the atmosphere. We plan to begin applying carbon removal credits in fiscal 2025. Our

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nature-based carbon removal projects will also support and respect the universal principles of the UNGC in the relevant
areas of human rights, labor, environment, anticorruption and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Moving Toward Zero Waste
•

Addressing e-waste and office furniture. We have a goal of reusing or recycling 100% of our e-waste, such as
computers and servers, as well as all our office furniture, by the end of 2025. During fiscal 2024, we reused or recycled
nearly 100% of our e-waste relating to computers, servers and uninterruptible power supply devices. We continue to
refine our processes, leverage our asset tracking system and work with vendors to help us extend the life cycle of our
furniture, including through refurbishment and reuse or recycling.

•

Eliminate single-use plastics in our office locations. During fiscal 2024, we continued to meet our goal of eliminating
single-use plastics in our office locations by purchasing reusable and plastic-free items.

Planning for Water Risk
•

Mitigating the potential impacts of climate change-related water risk. Although Accenture is not a water-intensive
company, to safeguard our people and operations we are developing water resiliency action plans to reduce the impact of
climate-related flooding, drought and water scarcity on our business and our people in high-risk areas. We have
completed plans for approximately 90% of our facilities in high-risk areas.

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Global Delivery Capability
A key differentiator is our global delivery capability. We have one of the world’s largest networks of centers with deep
capabilities in Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, that allows us to help our clients create
exceptional business value. It brings the right people at the right time to our clients from anywhere in the world—both in
physical and virtual working environments—a capability that is particularly crucial as business needs and conditions change
rapidly. Our global approach provides scalable innovation; standardized processes, methods and tools; automation and AI;
industry expertise and specialized capabilities; cost advantages; foreign language fluency; proximity to clients; and time zone
advantages—to deliver high-quality solutions. Emphasizing quality, productivity, reduced risk, speed-to-market and
predictability, our global delivery model supports all parts of our business to provide clients with price-competitive services
and solutions.

Innovation and Intellectual Property
We are committed to developing leading-edge ideas and leveraging emerging technologies and we see innovation as a
source of competitive advantage. We use our investment in R&D—on which we spent $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion and $1.1 billion
in fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively—to help clients address new realities in the marketplace and to face the future
with confidence.
Our innovation experts work with clients across the world to imagine their future, build and co-create innovative business
strategies and technology solutions, and then scale those solutions to sustain innovation. We harness our unique intellectual
property to deliver these innovation services.
We have a global portfolio of patents and pending patent applications covering various technology areas, including AI, cloud,
metaverse, cybersecurity, blockchain, automation, extended reality, analytics and quantum. We leverage patent, trade secret
and copyright laws as well as contractual arrangements and confidentiality procedures to protect the intellectual property in
our innovative services and solutions. These include our proprietary platforms, software, reusable knowledge capital, and
other innovations. We also have policies to respect the intellectual property rights of third parties, such as our clients,
partners, vendors and others.
We believe our combination of people, assets and capabilities, including our global network of more than 100 innovation
hubs, makes Accenture one of the leading strategic innovation partners for our clients. We have deep expertise in innovation
consulting including strategy, culture change and building new business models through to long-term technology innovation,
which creates the products and markets of the future.
This is all supported by our innovation approach, which includes Accenture Research, Accenture Ventures and Accenture
Labs as well as our Studios, Innovation Centers and Delivery Centers. Our research and thought leadership teams help
identify market, technology and industry trends. Accenture Ventures partners with and invests in growth-stage companies
that create innovative enterprise technologies. Accenture Labs incubate and prototype new concepts through applied
research and development projects. Within this, we incubate and apply emerging technology innovation to business
architectures, including blockchain, metaverse, extended reality and quantum.
To protect Accenture’s brands, we rely on intellectual property laws and trademark registrations held around the world.
Trademarks appearing in this report are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Accenture Global Services Limited,
Accenture Global Solutions Limited, or third parties, as applicable.

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Competition
Accenture operates in a highly competitive and rapidly changing global marketplace. We compete with a variety of
organizations that offer services and solutions competitive with those we offer—but we believe no other company offers the
full range of services at scale that Accenture does, which uniquely positions us in a highly competitive market. Our clients
typically retain us on a non-exclusive basis.
Our competitors include large multinational IT service providers, including the services arms of large global technology
providers; off-shore IT service providers in lower-cost locations, particularly in India; accounting firms and consultancies that
provide consulting, managed services and other IT services and solutions; solution or service providers that compete with us
in a specific geographic market, industry or service area, including advertising agency holding companies, engineering
services providers and technology start-ups; and in-house IT departments of large corporations that use their own resources
rather than engage an outside firm, such as global capability centers ( “GCC’s”).
We believe Accenture competes successfully in the marketplace because:
•

We are focused on creating 360° value, which we
define as delivering the financial business case and
unique value a client may be seeking, and striving to
partner with our clients to achieve greater progress on
inclusion and diversity, reskill and upskill our clients’
employees, help our clients achieve their sustainability
goals, and create meaningful experiences, both with
Accenture and for the customers and employees of our
clients;

•

We continuously invest in advanced tools, methods
and platforms, and the highly specialized skills of
our people, to create repeatable industry and cross
industry solutions and assets, that can scale at speed,
leveraging our deep experience, knowledge and insights
across industries, functions and services, often with our
ecosystem partners;

•

Our industry-leading innovation approach—including
Accenture Research, Accenture Ventures and Accenture
Labs as well as our Studios, Innovation Centers and
Delivery Centers—reflects our commitment to
continuous innovation and enables us to rapidly identify,
incubate, and scale emerging technology solutions for
our clients;

•

We are a trusted partner with long-term client
relationships and a proven track record for delivering
from strategy to execution, on large, complex programs
at speed that drive outcomes and tangible value;

•

We provide a broad range of services bringing
together our capabilities at scale and have a significant •
presence in every major geographic market, enabling us
to leverage our global expertise in a local context to
deliver the best solutions, and our managed services
help companies move faster by leveraging our digital
platform and talent and reduce costs;

•

•

The breadth and scale of our technology
capabilities, combined with our strong relationships
with our technology ecosystem partners, enable us to
help clients transform and re-platform in a sustainable
way at speed;
We have deep industry and cross-industry
expertise, which enable us to accelerate value as
clients transform their products, customer experiences
and optimize their operations;

•

We have deep experience in AI, having embedded AI
across our worldwide service delivery approach for more
than a decade, and are making significant investments
in solutions at scale to help our clients responsibly
advance and use AI, and generative AI, to develop new
strategies, operating models, business cases and digital
core architecture, enabling them to achieve greater
growth, efficiency, and resiliency, while accelerating
value; and
Our goal is to recruit the most talented people in our
markets, and we have an unwavering commitment to
inclusion and diversity, which creates an environment
that unleashes innovation, and a world-class learning
organization that helps us continuously invest in the
development of our people, and we believe our strategy
to deliver 360° value makes us an attractive destination
for top talent, a trusted partner to our clients and
ecosystem, and a respected member of our
communities.

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Information About Our Executive Officers
Our executive officers as of October 10, 2024 are as follows:
Angela Beatty, 53, became our chief leadership and human resources officer in September 2024.
From April 2022 to September 2024, Ms. Beatty was our global lead for talent, rewards and
employee experience. From 2015 to 2022, she served in a variety of other leadership roles in
human resources at Accenture, including as the lead for total rewards. Prior to joining Accenture,
Ms. Beatty spent 15 years with Towers Watson (now Willis Towers Watson) as a consultant and
ultimately practice leader for the rewards, talent and change business. Ms. Beatty has been with
Accenture for 9 years.

Melissa Burgum, 52, became our chief accounting officer in September 2022 and has served as
our corporate controller since September 2021. Prior to that, Ms. Burgum served as our assistant
corporate controller from December 2016 to September 2021 and as controller for Accenture
Federal Services from May 2013 to December 2016. Prior to joining Accenture, Ms. Burgum held
controllership roles at two public companies and was previously an auditor and consultant for Arthur
Andersen. Ms. Burgum has been with Accenture for 11 years.

Atsushi Egawa, 59, became our co-chief executive officer—Asia Pacific and chief executive officer
—Japan in September 2024. Since September 2015, Mr. Egawa has served as our market unit lead
in Japan. Prior to September 2015, Mr. Egawa led our Products industry group in Japan. Prior to
that role, he led our Consumer Goods business in Japan. He has partnered closely with numerous
global clients on their digital transformations and was integral in the opening of Accenture’s
Innovation Hub in Tokyo. Mr. Egawa has been with Accenture for 35 years.

Mauro Macchi, 59, became our chief executive officer—EMEA in September 2024. From
September 2021 to September 2024, Mr. Macchi served as our market unit lead for Italy, Central
Europe and Greece. From March 2020 to September 2021, Mr. Macchi served as the Strategy &
Consulting lead for Europe. Previously, he served as our Financial Services lead for Europe from
November 2019 to March 2020, Financial Services lead for Italy, Central Europe and Greece from
October 2017 to October 2019 and global Banking industry lead for Strategy from March 2015 to
September 2017. Mr. Macchi has been with Accenture for 34 years.

KC McClure, 59, became our chief financial officer in January 2019. From June 2018 to January
2019, she served as managing director—Finance Operations, where she led our finance operations
across the entirety of our businesses. From December 2016 to May 2018, she served as our finance
director—Communications, Media & Technology. Prior to assuming that role, she served as our
head of investor relations from September 2010 to November 2016, and from March 2002 to August
2010, she served as our finance director—Health & Public Service. Ms. McClure has been with
Accenture for 36 years.

Ryoji Sekido, 57, became our co-chief executive officer—Asia Pacific and chief executive officer—
Asia Oceania in September 2024. From April 2023 to September 2024, Mr. Sekido served as our
Technology lead for Growth Markets. Prior to March 2023, Mr. Sekido served as the Technology and
Cloud First lead for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. In his earlier roles, he led several industry
and technology teams and served as the Financial Services client service group lead and the
Financial Services technology consulting lead for APAC. Mr. Sekido has been with Accenture for 32
years.

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Manish Sharma, 56, became our chief executive officer—North America in September 2023 and
our chief executive officer—the Americas in September 2024. Prior to that, Mr. Sharma served as
our chief operating officer from March 2022 to September 2023. From March 2020 to March 2022,
Mr. Sharma served as our group chief executive—Operations. From September 2016 to March
2020, Mr. Sharma served as the group operating officer for Operations. From January 2009 to
September 2016, Mr. Sharma was our senior managing director for Accenture Operations Global
Delivery and Solution Development and global sales lead for Accenture Operations Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO). Previously, he led our BPO operations in the Asia Pacific region. Mr.
Sharma has been with Accenture for 29 years.
Julie Sweet, 57, became chair of our Board of Directors in September 2021 and has served as our
chief executive officer since September 2019. From June 2015 to September 2019, she served as
our chief executive officer—North America. From March 2010 to June 2015, she served as our
general counsel, secretary and chief compliance officer. Prior to joining Accenture in 2010, Ms.
Sweet was a partner for 10 years in the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, which she joined as
an associate in 1992. Ms. Sweet has been with Accenture for 14 years and has served as a director
since September 2019.

Joel Unruch, 46, became our general counsel in September 2019 and has served as our corporate
secretary since June 2015. Mr. Unruch also served as our chief compliance officer from September
2019 to January 2020. Mr. Unruch joined Accenture in 2011 as our assistant general counsel and
assistant secretary and also oversaw ventures & acquisitions and alliances & ecosystems practices
for our legal group. Prior to joining Accenture, Mr. Unruch was corporate counsel at Amazon.com
and previously an associate in the corporate department of the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore
LLP. Mr. Unruch has been with Accenture for 13 years.

John Walsh, 60, became our chief operating officer in September 2023. From March 2020 to
September 2023, Mr. Walsh served as our chief strategic accounts and global sales officer. From
November 2019 to March 2020, he served as our group chief executive—Communications, Media &
Technology. He served as senior managing director—Communications, Media & Technology in
North America, from 2013 to 2019. Mr. Walsh has been with Accenture for 38 years.

Organizational Structure
Accenture plc was incorporated in Ireland on June 10, 2009 as a public limited company. We operate our business through
subsidiaries of Accenture plc.
The Consolidated Financial Statements reflect the ownership interests in Accenture Canada Holdings Inc. held by certain
current and former members of Accenture Leadership as noncontrolling interests. The noncontrolling ownership interests
were less than 1% as of August 31, 2024. “Accenture Leadership” is comprised of members of our global management
committee (our primary management and leadership team, which consists of approximately 50 of our most senior leaders),
senior managing directors and managing directors.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors
In addition to the other information set forth in this report, you should carefully
consider the following factors which could materially adversely affect our business,
financial condition, results of operations (including revenues and profitability) and/or
stock price. Our business is also subject to general risks and uncertainties that may
broadly affect companies, including us. Additional risks and uncertainties not
currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial also could materially
adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or stock
price. Risks in this section are grouped in the following categories: (1) Business Risks;
(2) Financial Risks; (3) Operational Risks; and (4) Legal and Regulatory Risks. Many
risks affect more than one category, and the risks are not in order of significance or
probability of occurrence because they have been grouped by categories.

Business Risks
Our results of operations have been, and may in the future be, adversely affected by volatile,
negative or uncertain economic and geopolitical conditions and the effects of these conditions
on our clients’ businesses and levels of business activity.
Global macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions affect us, our clients’ businesses and the markets they serve. Volatile,
negative and uncertain economic and geopolitical conditions have in the past undermined and could in the future undermine
business confidence in our significant markets and other markets, which are increasingly interdependent, causing our clients
to reduce or defer their spending on new initiatives and technologies, and resulting in clients reducing, delaying or eliminating
spending under existing contracts with us, which negatively affects our business. Growth in some of the markets we serve
has slowed and could continue to slow, or could slow in other markets or stagnate or contract, in each case, for an extended
period of time. Because we operate globally and have significant businesses in many markets, an economic slowdown in any
of those markets could adversely affect our results of operations.
Ongoing economic and geopolitical volatility and uncertainty and changing demand patterns affect our business in a number
of other ways, including making it more difficult to accurately forecast client demand and effectively build our revenue and
resource plans, particularly in consulting. Economic and geopolitical volatility and uncertainty is particularly challenging
because it may take some time for the effects and changes in demand patterns resulting from these and other factors to
manifest themselves in our business and results of operations. Changing demand patterns from economic and political
volatility and uncertainty, including as a result of increasing geopolitical tensions, inflation, economic downturns, changes in
global trade policies, global health emergencies and their impact on us, our clients and the industries we serve, have in the
past had a negative impact and could in the future have a significant negative impact on our results of operations. For
example, some of these conditions slowed the pace and level of client spending, particularly for smaller contracts with a
shorter duration and for our consulting services during fiscal 2024. Clients continue to prioritize large-scale transformations,
which convert to revenue over a longer period.

Our business depends on generating and maintaining client demand for our services and
solutions, including through the adaptation and expansion of our services and solutions in
response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings, and a significant reduction in such
demand or an inability to respond to the evolving technological environment could materially
affect our results of operations.
Our financial results depend in part on the demand for our services and solutions, which could be negatively affected by
numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control and unrelated to our work product. As described above, volatile,
negative or uncertain global economic and political conditions and lower growth or contraction in the markets we serve have
adversely affected and could in the future adversely affect client demand for our services and solutions. Our success
depends, in part, on our ability to continue to develop and implement services and solutions that anticipate and respond to
rapid and continuing changes in technology and offerings to serve the evolving needs of our clients. Examples of areas of
significant change include digital-, cloud- and security-related offerings, which are continually evolving, as well as
developments in areas such as AI, including generative AI, augmented and virtual reality, automation, blockchain, Internet of
Things, quantum and edge computing, infrastructure and network engineering, intelligent connected products, digital

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engineering and manufacturing, and robotics solutions. As we expand our services and solutions into these new areas, we
may be exposed to operational, legal, regulatory, ethical, technological and other risks specific to such new areas, which may
negatively affect our reputation and demand for our services and solutions.
Technological developments may materially affect the cost and use of technology by our clients and, in the case of cloud,
data and AI solutions, could affect the nature of how we generate revenue. Some of these technological developments have
reduced and replaced, in whole or in part, some of our historical services and solutions and will continue to do so in the
future. This has caused, and may in the future cause, clients to delay spending under existing contracts and engagements
and to delay entering into new contracts while they evaluate new technologies. Such technological developments and
spending delays can negatively impact our results of operations if we are unable to introduce new pricing or commercial
models that reflect the value of these technological developments or if the pace and level of spending on new technologies
are not sufficient to make up any shortfall.
Developments in the industries we serve, which may be rapid, also could shift demand to new services and solutions. If, as a
result of new technologies or changes in the industries we serve, our clients demand new services and solutions, we may be
less competitive in these new areas or need to make significant investment to meet that demand. Our growth strategy
focuses on responding to these types of developments by driving innovation and making strategic investments in
acquisitions, joint ventures and adjacencies to our current offerings that will enable us to expand our business into new
growth areas. If we do not sufficiently invest in new technology and adapt to industry developments, or evolve and expand
our business at sufficient speed and scale, or if we do not make the right strategic investments to respond to these
developments and successfully drive innovation, our services and solutions, our results of operations, and our ability to
develop and maintain a competitive advantage and to execute on our growth strategy could be adversely affected.
In a particular geographic market, service or industry group, a small number of clients have contributed, or may, in the future
contribute, a significant portion of the revenues of such geographic market, service or industry group, and any decision by
such a client to delay, reduce, or eliminate spending on our services and solutions have had and could in the future have a
disproportionate impact on the results of operations in the relevant geographic market, service or industry group.
Many of our consulting contracts are less than 12 months in duration, and these contracts typically permit a client to
terminate the agreement with as little as 30 days’ notice. Longer-term, larger and more complex contracts, such as the
majority of our managed services contracts, generally require a longer notice period for termination and often include an
early termination charge to be paid to us, but this charge might not be sufficient to cover our costs or make up for anticipated
ongoing revenues and profits lost upon termination of the contract. Many of our contracts allow clients to terminate, delay,
reduce or eliminate spending on the services and solutions we provide. Additionally, a client could choose not to retain us for
additional stages of a project, try to renegotiate the terms of its contract or cancel or delay additional planned work. When
contracts are terminated or not renewed, we lose the anticipated revenues, and it may take significant time to replace the
level of revenues lost. Consequently, our results of operations in subsequent periods could be materially lower than
expected. The specific business or financial condition of a client, changes in management and changes in a client’s strategy
are also all factors that can result in terminations, cancellations or delays.

Risks and uncertainties related to the development and use of AI could harm our business,
damage our reputation or give rise to legal or regulatory action.
We are increasingly applying AI-based technologies, including generative AI, to our services and solutions, to how we deliver
work to our clients, and to our own internal operations. In addition, we are creating new offerings to implement AI solutions
for clients. We have made significant investments in AI and are continuing to incur significant development and operational
costs to develop and deploy our AI services and solutions for ourselves and for our clients. If we fail to continue to develop
leading AI services and solutions, including generative AI, we may lose our leadership position in this area and fail to realize
the anticipated benefits of our investments in AI.
AI technologies are complex and rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition, including from our own clients, who
may develop their own internal AI-related capabilities, which can lead to reduced demand for our services or solutions. As
these technologies evolve, some services and tasks currently performed by our people will be replaced by automation,
including AI-enabled solutions, which will lead to reduced demand for our services and/or adversely affect the utilization rate
of our professionals, if demand for those services is not replaced by demand for new services. Leveraging AI capabilities for
our internal functions and operations presents additional risks, costs, and challenges, including those discussed in these risk
factors.
The development, adoption, and use of AI technologies is still in the early stages and involve significant risks and
uncertainties, which may expose us to legal, reputational and financial harm. AI algorithms and training methodologies may
be flawed and datasets may be overbroad, insufficient, or contain biased information. Moreover, the use of AI may give rise
to risks related to harmful content, accuracy, bias, intellectual property infringement or misappropriation, defamation, data
privacy, cybersecurity and health and safety, among others, and also bring the possibility of new or enhanced governmental

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or regulatory scrutiny, litigation or other legal liability, or ethical concerns that could adversely affect our business, reputation,
or financial results.
Evolving rules, regulations, and industry standards governing AI may require us to incur significant costs to modify, maintain,
or align our business practices, services and solutions to comply with US and non-US rules and regulations, the nature of
which cannot be determined at this time and may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Several jurisdictions where
we operate are considering or have proposed or enacted legislation and policies regulating AI and non-personal data, such
as the European Union’s AI Act and the U.S.’s Executive Order on AI. These regulations may impose significant
requirements on how we design, build and deploy AI and handle non-personal data for ourselves and our clients or limit our
ability to incorporate certain AI capabilities into our offerings.
While we aim to develop and use AI responsibly and attempt to identify and mitigate ethical and legal issues presented by its
use, we may be unsuccessful in identifying or resolving issues before they arise. Any failure to address concerns relating to
the responsible use of AI technology in our services and solutions may cause harm to our reputation or financial liability and,
as such, may increase our costs to address or mitigate such risks and issues.

If we are unable to match people and their skills with client demand around the world and
attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, our business, the utilization rate
of our professionals and our results of operations may be materially adversely affected.
Our success is dependent, in large part, on our ability to keep our people with market-leading skills and capabilities in
balance with client demand around the world and our ability to attract and retain people with the knowledge and skills to lead
our business globally. We must hire or reskill, retain and inspire appropriate numbers of talented people with diverse skills,
backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences in order to serve clients across the globe, respond quickly to rapid and
ongoing changes in demand, technology, industry and the macroeconomic environment, and continuously innovate to grow
our business. For example, if we are unable to hire or retrain our employees to keep pace with the rapid and continuous
changes in technology and the industries we serve, we may not be able to innovate and deliver new services and solutions
to fulfill client demand. There is competition for scarce talent with market-leading skills and capabilities in new technologies,
and our people have been directly targeted because of their highly sought-after skills and this will likely continue.
There is a risk that at certain points in time, as a result of technological developments or changes in demand, we may have
more people than we need in certain skill sets or geographies or at compensation levels that are not aligned with skill sets. In
these situations, we have engaged, and may in the future engage, in actions to rebalance our workforce, including reducing
the rate of new hires and increasing involuntary terminations as a means to keep our supply of people and skills in balance
with client demand. In some countries we are required by local law to consult with employee representative bodies such as
works councils, which may constrain our operational flexibility and efficiency in balancing our workforce with client demand
and make us less competitive. In addition, while an immaterial percentage of our global workforce is currently unionized, the
unionization of significant employee populations could result in higher costs and other operational impediments.
At certain times and in certain geographical regions, we will find it difficult to hire and retain a sufficient number of employees
with the skills or backgrounds to meet current and/or future demand. In these cases, we might need to redeploy existing
people or increase our reliance on subcontractors to fill certain labor needs. If we are not successful in these initiatives, our
results of operations could be adversely affected.
If our utilization rate is too high or too low, it could have an adverse effect on employee engagement and attrition, the quality
of the work performed as well as our ability to staff projects.
We are particularly dependent on retaining members of Accenture Leadership with critical capabilities. If we are unable to do
so, our ability to innovate, generate new business opportunities and effectively lead large and complex transformations and
client relationships could be jeopardized. We depend on identifying, developing and retaining top talent to innovate and lead
our businesses. This includes developing talent and leadership capabilities in markets where the depth of skilled employees
may be limited. Our ability to expand in our key markets depends, in large part, on our ability to attract, develop, retain and
integrate both leaders for the local business and people with critical capabilities.
Our equity-based incentive compensation plans and other variable cash compensation programs, as well as promotions, are
designed to reward high-performing individuals for their contributions and provide incentives for them to remain with us. If the
anticipated value of such incentives or the pace of promotions does not materialize because of company performance or
volatility or lack of positive performance in our stock price, or if our total compensation package is not viewed as being
competitive, our ability to attract and retain the people we need could be adversely affected. In addition, if we do not obtain
the shareholder approval needed to continue granting equity awards under our share plans in the amounts we believe are
necessary, our ability to attract and retain people could be negatively affected.

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We face legal, reputational and financial risks from any failure to protect client and/or
Accenture data from security incidents or cyberattacks.
We are dependent on information technology networks and systems to securely process, transmit and store electronic
information and to communicate among our locations around the world and with our people, clients, ecosystem partners and
vendors. As the breadth and complexity of this infrastructure continues to grow, including as a result of the increasing
reliance on, and use of, mobile technologies, social media and cloud-based services, as more of our employees continue to
work remotely, and as cyberattacks become increasingly sophisticated (e.g. deepfakes and AI generated social engineering),
the risk of security incidents and cyberattacks has increased. Threat actors may leverage emerging AI technologies to
develop new hacking tools and attack vectors, exploit vulnerabilities, obscure their activities, and increase the difficulty of
threat attribution. Such incidents could lead to shutdowns or disruptions of or damage to our systems and those of our
clients, ecosystem partners and vendors, and unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or confidential information, including
personal data and proprietary business information. In the past, we have experienced, and in the future, we may again
experience, data security incidents resulting from unauthorized access to our and our service providers’ systems and
unauthorized acquisition of our data and our clients’ data including: inadvertent disclosure, misconfiguration of systems,
phishing ransomware or malware attacks. In addition, our clients have experienced, and may in the future experience,
breaches of systems and cloud-based services enabled, managed or provided by us. To date these incidents have not had a
material impact on our or our clients’ operations; however, there is no assurance that such impacts will not be material in the
future, and such incidents have in the past and may in the future have the impacts discussed below.
In providing services and solutions to clients, we often manage, utilize and store sensitive or confidential client, Accenture or
other third-party data, including customer and other personal data and proprietary information, and we expect these activities
to increase, including through the use of AI, the Internet of Things and analytics. Unauthorized disclosure or use of, denial of
access to, or other incidents involving sensitive or confidential client, vendor, ecosystem partner or Accenture data, whether
through systems failure, employee negligence, fraud, misappropriation, or cybersecurity, ransomware or malware attacks, or
other intentional or unintentional acts, could damage our reputation and our competitive positioning in the marketplace,
disrupt our or our clients’ business, cause us to lose clients and result in significant financial exposure and legal liability.
Similarly, unauthorized access to or through, denial of access to, downtime or other incidents involving, our software and IT
supply chain or software-as-a-service providers, our or our service providers’ information systems or those we develop for
our clients, whether by our employees or third parties, including a cyberattack by computer programmers, hackers, members
of organized crime and/or state-sponsored organizations, who continuously develop and deploy viruses, ransomware,
malware or other malicious software programs or social engineering attacks, has and could in the future result in negative
publicity, significant remediation costs, legal liability, damage to our reputation and government sanctions and could have a
material adverse effect on our results of operations — see risk factor below entitled “Our business could be materially
adversely affected if we incur legal liability.” Cybersecurity threats are constantly expanding and evolving, becoming
increasingly sophisticated and complex, increasing the difficulty of detecting and defending against them and maintaining
effective security measures and protocols.
We are subject to numerous laws and regulations designed to protect this information, including privacy and cybersecurity
laws such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the United Kingdom’s GDPR, U.S. states’
recent comprehensive privacy legislation, as well as various other U.S. federal and state laws governing the protection of
privacy, health or other personally identifiable information and data privacy and cybersecurity laws in other regions, and
related contractual obligations. These laws and regulations continue to evolve, are increasing in complexity and number and
increasingly conflict among the various countries in which we operate, which has resulted in greater compliance risk and cost
for us. Various privacy laws impose compliance obligations regarding the handling of personal data, including localization of
data and the cross-border transfer of data, and significant financial penalties for noncompliance. For example, failure to
comply with the GDPR may lead to regulatory enforcement actions, which can result in monetary penalties of up to 4% of
worldwide revenue, orders to discontinue certain data processing operations, civil lawsuits, or reputational damage. If any
person, including any of our employees, negligently disregards or intentionally breaches our established controls with respect
to client, third-party or Accenture data, or otherwise mismanages or misappropriates that data, we could be subject to
significant litigation, monetary damages, regulatory enforcement actions, fines and/or criminal prosecution in one or more
jurisdictions. These monetary damages might not be subject to a contractual limit of liability or an exclusion of consequential
or indirect damages and could be significant. In addition, our liability insurance, which includes cyber insurance, might not be
sufficient in type or amount to cover us against claims related to security incidents, cyberattacks and other related incidents.

The markets in which we operate are highly competitive, and we might not be able to compete
effectively.
The markets in which we offer our services and solutions are highly competitive. Our competitors include:
•

large multinational IT service providers, including the services arms of large global technology providers;

•

off-shore IT service providers in lower-cost locations, particularly in India;

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•

accounting firms and consultancies that provide consulting, managed services and other IT services and solutions;

•

solution or service providers that compete with us in a specific geographic market, industry or service area, including
advertising agency holding companies, engineering services providers and technology start-ups and other companies
that can scale rapidly to focus on or disrupt certain markets and provide new or alternative products, services or delivery
models; and

•

in-house IT departments of large corporations that use their own resources, rather than engage an outside firm, such as
the growing number of companies that are setting up global capability centers (“GCC’s”).

Some competitors may have greater financial, marketing or other resources than we do and, therefore, may be better able to
compete for new work and skilled professionals, may be able to innovate and provide new services and solutions faster than
we can or may be able to anticipate the need for services and solutions before we do. Our competitors may also team
together to create competing offerings.
Even if we have potential offerings that address marketplace or client needs, competitors may be more successful at selling
similar services they offer, including to companies that are our clients. Some competitors are more established in certain
markets, and may make executing our growth strategy to expand in these markets more challenging. Additionally,
competitors may also offer more aggressive pricing or contractual terms, which may affect our ability to win work. Our future
performance is largely dependent on our ability to compete successfully and expand in the markets we currently serve. If we
are unable to compete successfully, we could lose market share and clients to competitors, which could materially adversely
affect our results of operations.
In addition, we may face greater competition due to consolidation of companies in the technology sector through strategic
mergers, acquisitions or teaming arrangements. Consolidation activity may result in new competitors with greater scale, a
broader footprint or offerings that are more attractive than ours. New services or technologies offered by competitors,
ecosystem partners or new entrants may make our offerings less differentiated or less competitive when compared to other
alternatives, which may adversely affect our results of operations. The technology companies described above, including
many of our ecosystem partners, are increasingly able to offer services related to their software, platform, cloud migration
and other solutions, or are developing software, platform, cloud migration and other solutions that require integration services
to a lesser extent or replace them in their entirety. These more integrated services and solutions may represent more
attractive alternatives to clients than some of our services and solutions, which may materially adversely affect our
competitive position and our results of operations.

Our ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on our reputation in the
marketplace.
We believe the Accenture brand name and our reputation are important corporate assets that help distinguish our services
and solutions from those of competitors and also contribute to our efforts to recruit and retain talented employees. However,
our corporate reputation is susceptible to material damage by events such as disputes with clients or competitors,
cybersecurity incidents or service outages, internal control deficiencies, delivery or solution failures, compliance violations,
government investigations or legal proceedings. We may also experience reputational damage from employees, advocacy
groups, regulators, investors and other stakeholders that disagree with the services and solutions that we offer, the clients or
markets that we serve, or the ways in which we operate our business. Similarly, our reputation could be damaged by actions
or statements of current or former clients, directors, employees, competitors, vendors, ecosystem partners, joint venture
partners, adversaries in legal proceedings, legislators or government regulators, as well as members of the investment
community or the media, including social media influencers and advocacy groups.
There is a risk that negative or inaccurate information about Accenture, even if based on rumor or misunderstanding, could
adversely affect our business. Damage to our reputation could be difficult, expensive and time-consuming to repair, could
make potential or existing clients reluctant to select us for new engagements or could negatively impact our relationships with
ecosystem partners, resulting in a loss of business, and could adversely affect our recruitment and retention efforts. Damage
to our reputation could also reduce the value and effectiveness of the Accenture brand name and could reduce investor
confidence in us, materially adversely affecting our share price.
Our brand and reputation are also associated with our public commitments to various corporate environmental, social and
governance (ESG) initiatives. Our disclosures on these matters and any failure or perceived failure to achieve or accurately
report on our commitments, could harm our reputation and adversely affect our client relationships or our recruitment and
retention efforts, as well as expose us to potential legal liability. In addition, positions we take or do not take on these issues
may be unpopular with some of our employees, our clients or potential clients, our investors, legislators or government
regulators, as well as members of the media, or advocacy groups, which may impact our ability to attract or retain employees
or the demand for our services. We also may choose not to conduct business with potential clients or discontinue or not
expand business with existing clients due to these positions.

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If we do not successfully manage and develop our relationships with key ecosystem partners
or if we fail to anticipate and establish new alliances in new technologies, our results of
operations could be adversely affected.
We have alliances with companies whose capabilities complement our own. A very significant portion of our revenue and
services and solutions are based on technology or software provided by a few major ecosystem partners. See “Business—
Services.”
The business that we conduct through these alliances could decrease or fail to grow for a variety of reasons. The priorities
and objectives of our ecosystem partners may differ from ours. They offer services and solutions that compete with some of
our services and solutions. They may also form closer or preferred arrangements with our competitors.
Some of our ecosystem partners are also large clients or suppliers of technology to us. The decisions we make vis-à-vis an
ecosystem partner may impact our ongoing alliance relationships with other members of our ecosystem.
Our ecosystem partners may at times be impacted by global events, the changing macroeconomic environment and supply
chain or service disruptions, as well as rapid increases in demand for their products and services, any of which may impact
their ability to provide their products and services within our expected timeframes or at anticipated prices. In addition, our
ecosystem partners may also experience reduced demand for their technology or software, including, for example, in
response to changes in technology, which could lessen related demand for our services and solutions.
We must anticipate and respond to continuous changes in technology and develop alliance relationships with new providers
of relevant technology and services. We must secure meaningful alliances with these providers early in their life cycle so that
we can develop the right number of certified people with skills in new technologies. If we are unable to maintain our
relationships with current partners and identify new and emerging providers of relevant technology to expand our network of
ecosystem partners, we may not be able to differentiate our services or compete effectively in the market.
If we do not obtain the expected benefits from our alliance relationships for any reason, we may be less competitive, our
ability to offer attractive solutions to our clients may be negatively affected, and our results of operations could be adversely
affected.

Financial Risks
Our profitability could materially suffer due to pricing pressure, if we are unable to remain
competitive, if our cost-management strategies are unsuccessful or if we experience delivery
inefficiencies or fail to satisfy certain agreed-upon targets or specific service levels.
Our profitability is highly dependent on a variety of factors and could be materially impacted by any of the following:
Pricing pressures have had and may continue to have a negative impact on our profitability. The rates we are able to
charge for our services and solutions are affected by a number of factors, including:
•

general economic and political conditions;

•

our clients’ desire to reduce their costs;

•

the competitive environment in our industry;

•

the introduction of new technologies (such as generative AI), services or products by competitors, which could reduce
our ability to obtain favorable pricing and impact our overall economics for the services or solutions we offer;

•

our ability to accurately estimate our service delivery costs, upon which our pricing is sometimes determined, including
our ability to estimate the impact of inflation and foreign exchange on our service delivery costs over long-term
contracts; and

•

the procurement practices of clients and their use of third-party advisors.

Our profitability could suffer if we are not able to remain competitive. The competitive environment in our industry
affects our ability to secure new contracts at our target economics in a number of ways, any of which could have a material
negative impact on our results of operations. The less we are able to differentiate our services and solutions and/or clearly
convey the value of our services and solutions, the more risk we have in winning new work in sufficient volumes and at our
target pricing and overall economics. Competitors may be willing, at times, to take on more risk or price contracts lower than
us in an effort to enter the market or increase market share.

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Our profitability could suffer if our cost-management strategies are unsuccessful, and we may not be able to
improve our profitability. Our ability to improve or maintain our profitability is dependent on our being able to successfully
manage our costs, including taking actions to reduce certain costs and optimize our business. Our cost management
strategies include maintaining appropriate alignment between the demand for our services and solutions and the workforce
needed to deliver them. If we are not effective in managing our operating costs in response to changes in demand or pricing,
or if we are unable to cost-effectively hire and retain people with the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver our services
and solutions, particularly in areas of new technologies and offerings and in the right geographic locations, we may incur
increased costs, which could reduce our ability to continue to invest in our business in an amount necessary to achieve our
planned rates of growth and our desired levels of profitability.
If we do not accurately anticipate the cost, risk and complexity of performing our work or if third parties upon whom
we rely do not meet their commitments, then our contracts could have delivery inefficiencies and be less profitable
than expected or unprofitable. Our contract profitability is highly dependent on our forecasts regarding the effort and cost
necessary to deliver our services and solutions, which are based on available data and could turn out to be materially
inaccurate. If we do not accurately estimate the effort, costs or timing for meeting our contractual commitments and/or
completing engagements to a client’s satisfaction, our contracts could yield lower profit margins than planned or be
unprofitable.
Moreover, many of our contracts include clauses that tie our ultimate compensation to the achievement of agreed-upon
performance standards or milestones. If we fail to satisfy these measures, it could significantly reduce or eliminate our fees
under the contracts, increase the cost to us of meeting performance standards or milestones, delay expected payments or
subject us to potential damage claims under the contract terms, any of which could significantly affect our profitability. We
also have a number of contracts in which a portion of our compensation depends on performance measures such as costsavings, revenue enhancement, benefits produced, business goals attained and adherence to schedule. These goals can be
complex and may depend on our clients’ actual levels of business activity or may be based on assumptions that are later
determined not to be achievable or accurate and could negatively impact our profit margins if not achieved. Similarly, if we
experience unanticipated delivery difficulties due to our management, the failure of third parties or our clients to meet their
commitments, or for any other reason, our contracts could yield lower profit margins than planned or be unprofitable.
We are increasingly entering into contracts for large, complex client engagements to transform our clients’ businesses. These
deals may involve transforming a client’

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</reference>

<statements>
1. In response, consultancies have expanded their internal learning and development programs, shifting from voluntary educational modules to mandatory, firm-wide certifications
2. Accenture increased its Data & AI workforce to approximately 57,000 practitioners by the close of fiscal 2024, continuing toward its stated goal of 80,000 certified AI professionals by the end of fiscal 2026
3. The firm delivered 44 million training hours across its workforce in fiscal 2024—a 10% increase over the previous year—driven primarily by generative and agentic AI training
4. Accenture’s overall firm revenue performance was $64.9 Billion (FY2024).
5. Accenture’s direct AI bookings included $3.0 Billion in GenAI bookings (FY24).
6. Accenture had 310 Diamond-tier enterprise accounts.
7. Accenture’s financial disclosures highlight this transition: the firm generated $3.0 billion in new generative AI bookings in fiscal 2024, closing 125 quarterly client commitments valued at $100 million or more.
</statements>

Begin the assessment now. Output only the JSON list, without any conversational text or explanations.