A Series of Forbes Insights Profiles of Thought Leaders Changing the Business Landscape: Tim Bridges, CEO, North American Application Services, Capgemini...
Capgemini is one of the world's foremost providers of consulting, technology, outsourcing services and local professional services. The company employs more than 130,000 people across 40 different countries and positions itself as a partner in helping its clients transform in order to improve their performance and competitive positioning. In order to accomplish that goal, the company is committed to activities around corporate responsibility, sustainability and diversity. These activities have several objectives: talent acquisition and retention, community development and regional empowerment and diversity of thinking that leads to innovation – all of which they believe drive business growth.
North America is Capgemini’s second largest market, accounting for 21% of its worldwide business, with more than $2 billion in revenue coming from the U.S. alone in 2013. Its North America Application Services CEO, Tim Bridges, is a strong advocate for its Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability (CR&S) activities and sees it as central to his growth strategy. “We’ve acknowledged that we need to be a workplace of choice. In the line of business we’re in, we’re about talent and people. So being a workplace of choice is fairly critical. The second is becoming part of the community – we need to be part of the fabric, part of the community of North America; and the third and more practical objective, is that the world of consulting is changing, requiring new ways of thinking,” says Bridges.
Digital is now the new agenda. And as the thinking goes, it takes different thought patterns and different ways of thinking and behaving. By investing in these programs, you get diversity of thought. You bring different talent to the table that maybe is a non-traditional talent that offers rich thinking and new solutions. “It truly is a practical matter for us, as it probably is for any service industry. We link our future – our top line and bottom line – to these particular initiatives and certainly, it should be good enough to do it just for altruistic reasons. But, for us, it’s a course of business, too,” says Bridges.
Altruism certainly is a noble attitude for any corporation, but charitable activities alone don’t add business value. “We have stockholders and we have to find new patterns of growth. So the workplace of choice is really one of attracting the best talent, and to the millennials of today, that’s important. They make their selection of who they want to work for based upon whether the company has a social conscience and social responsibility profile,” says Bridges.
While Capgemini has a worldwide commitment to its CR&S initiatives, the company implements them from a local business perspective, where they feel they can have the most impact. “We've learned a lesson that you can’t architect it too much from a top down approach. What we do is enable the local offices. Each city gets involved with different charities and different outreach programs. It’s up to the local area leaders as to what they want to do, where they want to go. We enable it through the corporate agenda. For example, we have a program called “Capgemini Cares Day” which is dedicated to community service, and we’ll put resources, money and leadership behind it,” says Bridges. So it’s not just the personal pet projects of the CEO.
The company doesn't have a formal way of tracking the success of its CR&S programs, but they do have an internal education process to ensure these activities are connected to their business objectives. “We have an awareness program that we've put our leaders through, so they can see that connection. They can see examples of that link, but it’s more subjective versus objective measurement. We have a CR&S focus worldwide and we have a leader in James Robey, who is based in the U.K. and is committed to driving these initiatives. However, we tend to be more decentralized in our approach than maybe our peers in the industry. We allow each country to take on its own approach because we serve a wide variety of geographies and a wide variety of industries. What’s important to them is also important to us, as well,” continues Bridges.
The proof of the impact of this approach comes in the company’s continuing growth. For Capgemini, its North America operation is often seen as the guidepost because it’s where some of the big global trends tend to start. “North America’s still a big engine of growth for Capgemini, and now, with Europe coming on a rebound, our European practice certainly looks better this year than it did last year and the year before. In North America, we outgrew our nearest competitors. We had a pretty good year last year given all the challenges with the economy. We had a 7.9 percent revenue increase in North America in the last quarter of last year. We consider ourselves the leader in growth right now and Capgemini has recently expanded into new markets in Asia,” says Bridges.
“We want the best talent and we want to work with customers and clients that share some of the same values we do so we can drive joint wins together. If they want a collaborative community-driven approach, they come to Capgemini. We believe our clients are moving in this direction as well, and by aligning ourselves to the values of our clients, it follows that we’ll be selected more often. It truly does transcend the organization, at many different levels; not only with the charity work but the diversity inclusion and other areas. Our company takes it very seriously. It’s a competitive weapon for us,” concludes Bridges.
