Andy Tay serves as Accenture’s Lead of Accenture Cloud First. Accenture Cloud First is a multi-service group that provides the full stack of cloud solutions spanning strategy, industry-specific cloud journeys, migration and modernization, and secure cloud management, as well as change and talent management to support continuous innovation. Andy is also a member of the Global Management Committee. In his role, Andy shapes Accenture’s thinking on cloud-based business innovation. He is extending the company’s leadership with Accenture’s ecosystem partners and investing in the capabilities, solutions, acquisitions and talent to keep Accenture at the forefront of the market. Andy also oversees Accenture’s partnerships with major and emerging players in public and hybrid cloud, data & AI, and software engineering.

John Shegerin: Do you have a suggestion for a Rockstar Impact Podcast guest? Go to impactpodcast.com and just click, be a guest, to recommend someone today. This edition of The Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information, on how ERI can help your business properly dispose off outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com. This episode of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Closed Loop Partners. Closed Loop Partners is a leading circular economy investor in the United States, with an extensive network of Fortune 500 corporate investors, family offices, institutional investors, industry experts, and impact partners. Closed Loop’s platform spans the arc of capital from venture capital to private equity, bridging gaps, and fostering synergies to scale the circular economy. To find Closed Loop partners, please go to www.closedlooppartners.com.

John: Welcome to another edition of the Impact Podcast. This is a special edition of the Impact Podcast because we’re going to be talking about some new subjects we’ve never touched on before. We’ve got Andy Tay with us. He’s the global lead of Accenture Cloud First. Welcome to the Impact Podcast, Andy.

Andy Tay: John, thank you so much. It’s absolutely great being here. I’ve listened to a couple of these, and they’re really, really impactful. I’m just super glad to join you today.

John: Well, we’re super glad you’re here. You’re going to be talking about these very, very relevant and timely and important issues that you’re an expert in, and I’m certainly not. But before we get there, I’d love you to share a little bit about the Andy Tay’s story. Where did you grow up? How did you get on this very important and relevant journey that you’re on? And how did you end up where you are today?

Andy: Oh gosh, that’s a long one. But I’ll try and keep it short and brief here, John. I was born and raised in Ghana, West Africa, to a Scottish mother and a Ghanaian father. And after a good few years in Ghana, they carted me off to a boys boarding school in Oxford in England. And then I did my school years there and my university years in Leicester, which is 100 miles north of London, played a bunch of rugby. I joined the consulting world with Price Waterhouse a good few years ago, just after university. Then I went on to do my master’s in Bristol in the UK, then joined Accenture, in the south of France. We have an engineering hub in the south of France, at the time it was a showcase center for the very best of our capabilities, to showcase our clients, but also to innovate. But we also had a team of people whose job it was to just fly around the world and fix the toughest or take on the toughest, hardest technical engineering problems. And I fell into that and thankfully Accenture invested in me, schooled me up from a newbie in technology to somebody who might be somewhat dangerous.

John: And for our listeners and viewers who aren’t familiar with Accenture, of course, one of the greatest brands in consulting on the planet, over 64 billion in revenue, over 740, 000 employees, and you serve over 120 countries.
So the reach and the visibility that your brand has and that, you know, vis-a-vis than you have because of what you do, is massive, is massive.

Andy: It’s sizable. We’re very intentional on our posture, working in a number of countries. It is broad, it is wide, but at the same time we’re very intentional in making sure that we can get our solutions to our clients as quickly as we can. So we cut through a lot of the churn, as you would imagine, in a large company of 750, 000 people. You would imagine that there could be some difficulties, but we’re very intentional in making sure that we get out of our own way.

John: So you’re the global lead for Accenture Cloud First. Can you just, on a macro basis, frame that up? What does that mean? What does your title mean? And what does being the global lead of that sector mean?

Andy: Well, the cloud is always evolving, so even I question sometimes, what does that mean? What is my rebuttal? I’m just kidding. As you know, John, the cloud has been something that’s been with us in the technology world for some time now. My job in Accenture now, is to really look at all aspects of the cloud business, the cloud sort of estate, so to speak. Working with our ecosystem partners, so that includes the hyperscalers, both on the public side and now increasingly on the private side, to help stitch together hybrid solutions. My job is to really bring the very best of Accenture capabilities, from our technology innovation areas, to our strategy, our consulting, all our capabilities. Bring the best of Accenture, marry it with the best of the hyperscaler and the technical partners in the world, and really be innovative in bringing solutions to our clients to help tackle their problems. Be it how do I get more revenue, or how do I drive more efficiency, or how do I… maybe think about sustainability in a different way, or how can I maybe attract more of my customers and drive upsell, cross-sell opportunities?

John: Understand. So let’s then talk about… it’s not a day that I don’t open up my browser, any of us open up our browser or flip on the telly and watch Bloomberg, or any of the other great networks, and we don’t hear about AI or generative AI and things of that such. How does what you do tie into this seemingly new, but it’s not a new, I mean, technological revolution, the technological revolution dates back, of course, but this new generation of technology that is on everyone’s mind, on the stock market’s mind, and you have the rise of Nvidia and all this other stuff, and also Sam Altman and what he’s doing. How does all that fit within the ecosystem that you work and advise in?

Andy: It’s sort of slap bang in touching absolutely every aspect of what I do and what my team does. If you think about that wave of innovation that you.. as you said, you put on your TV or your radio and it’s generative AI here and even on your phone-

John: It’s all there.

Andy: If you think about that, we’ve focused on an element that we’re calling the digital core, and that’s really around the foundational elements of a company maybe in a three-core distinct groups. And the first group is digital foundation, what is your infrastructure? How are you thinking about the cloud, how are you managing across your full estate? And what about your security postures? Cyber security, big, big area. And how do you integrate all your systems? So that’s foundational layer. My team will go in and help our clients think about that. And then the second layer is really around, once you’ve got that foundation, how do you now think about the data and the AI? Where is your AI? What should the. AI be doing and what is it doing? How do you measure it? How do you ensure perhaps bias is taken out of your system and all of that. Our team will engage to bring the best AI capabilities to our clients and the best data thinking, best practices to our clients and help them think about that. Then the third layer will be the digital platforms that can sit on top of that data and AI platform, which itself sits on top of that digital foundation. Right across that stack of digital core, my team operates across up and down, but also right across and bringing all the very best of our ecosystem partners to our clients.

John: Let me get this straight though. Typically, when we talk about expertise or greatness in any industry, and obviously for you to ascend to the leadership that you have at Accenture, as the global lead of Accenture Cloud First, you are an expert, you’re flat out an expert. And to me, when someone becomes an expert, it’s because of their ability, let’s just call it what Jordan and Brady and all the greatest sports icons that we know. But this also goes in business, it’s about pattern recognition. How are you able to integrate your expertise and have the ability to hold in one part of your brain, the pattern recognition to understand what to apply to a new Accenture client or an existing Accenture client that needs the digital core type of consulting that you do and your team does. But at the same time hold the suspended animation that the ever changing and fast changing nature of generative AI and what’s going on in the technology world, because it seems as though… I’m 62 now, Andy, it seems as though technology is changing. You know, Moore’s law is almost out the window and it’s changing at breathtaking speeds. How do you keep your expertise? Understanding that you are the expert and your team are the experts, and Accenture is the expert at Digital Core, and all the things that you just laid out that you guys do so well, but also stay the expert when the technology that you’re consulting on is ever changing and so fast.

Andy: John, that’s such a powerful question. Thanks for asking that. You know, pattern recognition, yes, absolutely. As you mentioned, in these great sports people, they will see the pattern that they’ve already calculated what their next response is. But I would also argue, John, that the best sports people out there also have pattern adoption. They can quickly see new patterns that are emerging and adjust, and the only way they learn to adjust is by learning. And that’s what we in Accenture really focus on. We consistently focus less on being the expert and more on just being learners. We invest strongly in our people, when generative AI boom happened, we had already been investing about $3 billion in our AI capabilities, investing in the partnerships I spoke about, investing in the solutions that we pre-build for our clients and investing in our people. How do we maybe go to a client and apply the best practice or see new patterns and adjust and build new practice? I would say it’s really a mix of keeping that digital core element right at the fore and always working on it, always, always working on it, harvesting best practices. But also looking at the impact on the workforce and people, it’s so super important to look beyond the technology and to see what will it enable people to do? What are the impacts on processes? So it goes beyond technology. Lastly, I’d say it’s important for our clients and what we find works really well for ourselves, is this constant reinvention is becoming the strategy, the go-to strategy. If you have a strategy, it’s best to have a strategy of constant reinvention, which allows you to have in the DNA of your team and your people and your culture, one of always learning and being able to adopt and adapt new technologies. It’s a bit scary if you think of all the technology innovations coming at you, but like with all things in life, just staying with it, constantly staying with it and constantly learning allows you to then bring the very best to your clients. And that’s what I’m getting at.

John: And also, I’m going to backtrack and say, “yeah, good for you.” I think you’re so right because as I threw out Jordan and Brady…but as you said, Brady was the… how do we say this, the right way. The platinum version of a quarterback, maybe 10 years ago, the great adopter Mahomes is probably now the new platinum version. And boy, nobody knows how to reinvent himself on a regular basis like a Mahomes. So I understand what you mean about constant learning, constant reinvention, being open and flexible to new changes and reapplying what you learned recently and not getting stuck in legacy ideas, legacy processes and procedures. If you’ve just joined us, we’ve got Andy Tay with us today. He’s the global lead of Accenture Cloud First. At Accenture, you can find Andy and all of his colleagues and what they’re doing at Accenture Cloud First at www.accenture.com. Andy, that leads me then to the recent research you’ve done on the rate of change affecting businesses and what they need for continuous reinvention. What you just said is critical to Accenture staying as the experts, as the great learners and then the reappliers of what they’ve learned to their client base. What did you learn in that research? And what’s now the new norm for your practice when you’re consulting to all the great clients that you do around the world?

Andy: Well, firstly, there’s… you mentioned Mahomes… Yeah, I’ll maybe take you to my world, which is a little bit of rugby, for me, it would be Dan Carter. One of the things that I’ve always learned when watching Dan Carter over the years, is his ability to adjust on the field of play in every single game, regardless of who the opposition is, he’ll find something. I think, the first thing we’ve learned over the years is invest in people. If you invest in people, you get the best innovations and the best solutions that you can bring to your clients. As I mentioned, we invested over 3 billion over 3 years ago, doubling our AI talent to I think it’s north[?] of 80, 000 people now, then also standing up as a center for advanced AI. This intentional, whether we call it intentional investment or something else, is the first thing we learned, is invest in a very intentional manner on your people and have them constantly learning. The other thing I would say that we have picked up on is, companies who have been equally intentional in building their digital core over the years and really investing not just on the technology but also on their people are the ones who have seen a sort of increase in value. Our research indicates that those in the very top quartile of our research indicates that if you get it right, if you apply the 3 concepts of boosting your investment, balancing your investment, and driving this intentional focus. If you get that right, you can drive up both your revenue, but also your profitability because you drive greater efficiencies. I think this constant reinvention, the very intentional lens on different aspects of your business, including your people, your process, and your technology is super, super important. And it’s something that we’ve been really focused on over the last few years.

John: And Walk us through, without giving away names, of course, or brands, walk us through how it really works in the real world. Either an existing Accenture client or a new Accenture client, and you and your team are put onto it because they need help with regards to everything you do at Accenture Cloud First, digital core and everything that means. Explain how it works, Fortune 50 company, Fortune 25 company, Fortune 100 company. Explain, are you first with the C-suite? Are you first with the SISO? I mean, who are you with first, convincing them and showing them this is the path, we know the path forward, we’ve done this so many times, we’re really good at this, here’s a potential path for you. Where does the process start and how does it evolve?

Andy: We pride ourselves on bringing the best of Accenture wherever we place the catch. So just in your sports analogy, the ball comes to you on the ground or the ball comes to you in the air, we still respond with the very best of extension. So it doesn’t really matter if it comes from the CISO or the CEO or the CIO.

John: Got it.

Andy: From our perspective, the very first thing we do, John, is to try and really understand the client’s challenge, the client’s objective and what they’re pushing for in terms of their vision. We then will assemble the very best team as we understand it in terms of bringing the best of capabilities to our client. And that might bring people who are familiar with that client’s industry, or people who are familiar with the technologies, the capabilities and the consultative skills needed for that industry. Then we’ll sort of really start tackling, solutioning and really thinking about what’s the right solution for this client? What technologies, what business processes, how do we ensure the right culture, what do we need to do around their people, what do we need to do around their people? What do we need to do around their ecosystem of partners? And on and on. And look at it from a 360 degree lens of value that you need to bring to the client, be it financial or sustainable. I know that’s a big area of yours. We think about the holistic solution for the client and really have a customized solution for the client, which may bring things that we’ve built before in, but we’ll wrap it with a level of customization for that context of the client. When you stitch all that together, you then have a solution which would maybe urge the client to constantly embrace change, that would be one of the things that we will always ensure. We’ll push them to ensure they’ve got alignment in their leadership, both on the technical leadership and also their business side. We’ll push them to ensure we’ve got or they’ve got the right modern digital core as we touched on. The right strategic ecosystem partnerships are coming in to bring the best innovations. Then you’re just working and constantly working to fine tune, and that’s really the important thing. It’s, as you would know in your sports analogies, it’s that constant grind, but also the tweaks that you make as the game goes on, really adjusting as the game goes on.

John: Right. Talk a bit a little about the C-suite though. I’m a CEO of a relatively small company, comparatively speaking to the companies that you’re used to consulting to, but I talk to a lot of C-suite folks in my industry, outside of my industry, and because of the show around the world. When they start thinking about technology and AI, I hear different reactions. First is they’re scared, so two things that happen when folks get scared, either they freeze and don’t do anything or they lean into their fear and they bring someone like Andy Tay and his team on and Accenture on to help them work through it and come up with solutions. Secondarily, I hear a lot of folks come to me and say,” I’m working with a great person like Andy or a great company like Accenture,” or pick another brand. And they’re working with us-

Andy: Is there another one?

John: -I’m not sure. Let’s say there’s not. But then they worry about, are they doing enough as their board of directors, as they’re as fiduciaries as they are, they have a board and they have investors and they’re worried, are they doing enough given all the changes that are happening? Or are they doing too much? So how do you coach? Because at the end of the day, you’re a master coach. Really, if we’re gonna keep going back to sports, you’re a coach on these adjustments. What’s the balancing act on sticking to the core mission and never forgetting that the mission is the mission. But also, as you said, being open and coaching them to embrace enough change so they could stay relevant and, as you say, drive more profits and drive more revenue, which at the end of the day, every CEO wants to do.

Andy: It’s amazing. Isn’t it Sports? How it transcends everything. It’s truly amazing-

John: It does.

Andy: -Yes, we’re a coach, but we’re also maybe a player coach.

John: Right, right.

Andy: And as you do, you sometimes take your team, in this case, the C-suite, and you go, you have them see another team play and so they can learn. We will bring the best of our capabilities and experiences from their industry, but also from outside their industry to walk them through, what others have done to succeed. But also to show them what others have done when they failed and what they haven’t done. We will show, so this is the player side of it, we will maybe show their teams, do it with them and work with them. Now we’re amping up their teams and their capabilities. Or we’ll take them to another client and have them see live, and this might be client to client discussions. Now they sort of have a network of like-minded people who are going through that journey. There are sort of mechanisms that we’ll employ. But really, I think the biggest thing that we try and do, John, is to have our clients know that the best success is simply to start and to embrace that change. Just literally staying back could be the death of you. If you don’t do something, it could literally be the death of you. Leaning into the change, leaning into that fear, and again, it’s something that we all perhaps would tell our kids, “lean into that fear.” Sometimes what you imagine is a bit too… It doesn’t really exist, you know, the fear or the concern. We’re seeing increasingly in all our research, in all our empirical evidence and all our work with our clients, the clients who embrace the change, who really focus on both hardening their modern digital estate, but also employing a constant strategy of reinvention, also being very intentional around their people and investing in their people. It’s those clients that are seeing stronger gains on value, the value for their stakeholders and their shareholders, be it on the revenue side or the efficiency side, or engagement or their own people, where their people now have richer experiences. We recently worked with one of the world’s leading fast food retailers, who was looking at how do we… and they were, I would say, forward thinkers in thinking around, “Okay, today we’ve got food traffic coming into our store to order something and the food traffic leaves, but tomorrow it’s a car that’s driving around. And the next day, it’s a car that has intelligence to tell the driver where to go. And should I place the order for you ahead of you going there? And do you want a hot coffee with that or whatever it is.” They were forward thinking in, “how is the experience of our customers changing and how do we change the ability for our workers to serve those customers and the experiences.” Now you have the concept of edge AI, not just cloud in a data center, but cloud at the edge. You have AI coming in to pre-inform you that, “John is coming in for his favorite fast food, lunch menu thing. And you have a car that’s informing you and then and all of that. You’re telling your experiences have changed. Being able to sort of articulate for C level, but your clients, that changing world and how others are reaping benefits is super important. And the only way sometimes to do that is not by just telling them, but by showing them. Having them go and actually see it live in another, it could be another industry as well.

John: Got it. You know, because of where you sit, you get to have the beauty and the enjoyment of never being bored, because I assume you get to consult to so many different industries. And really learn about those industries, which only makes your experience as both a business expert and leader even richer. Where’s an industry that you haven’t yet been asked to tackle that you’re excited, hopefully, that you get the call one day to be able to go and tackle that industry.

Andy: Oh, that’s a good one. I think they are maybe… stretch that as well. Sustainability is an area that I’ve always wanted to just learn more and understand more. Because I’m in my industry right now, seeing elements where, we have this concept, where it’s sustainability by technology. That’s using technology innovation to drive sustainable outcomes. But we’ve also got this concept of sustainability in technology and with generative AI using all the data, it has to sit somewhere. And there has to be power that’s allowing that data to traverse from one system to your computer screen, that consumes energy. This concept of sustainability in technology or sustainability by technology, it’s something that I have to say increasingly fascinates me. I know that’s an area of interest to you. Please know that you are ahead of your time in knowing a space. I will tell you, John, it’s a space that we address it and we’ve looked at it for many years. So personally, as a company, we’re ahead of it. But personally, it’s something that I want to double down on.

John: Well, it’s fascinating you say that because when you were speaking about… as your mentorship and coaching and leadership with other leaders around the world or C-suite folks, and you’re pushing them along when they come to you for help, like you said, the worst thing they could do is in action, because they could quickly become irrelevant and go away. The same thing goes with sustainability now. Sustainability now has become just another term for resiliency. As you point out, the digital core and everything that you’re doing, there’s no organization without the suite of services that you’re offering and that you’re advising them to do and do well without those, they’re gonna be irrelevant also quickly and they’re not gonna be resilient for sure. So there’s a great analogy between sustainability and what you’re doing at Accenture Cloud First, a tremendous. Talk a little bit about that subsector in what you do on cybersecurity. We’ve had three of the biggest breaches in the history of the world in the last 90 days. They used to be cover stories and headlines, no longer. Is cybersecurity still the threat to organizations, nation states and homeland security as it was 4 or 5 years ago? Or is that waning, or is it just not getting the publicity you used to, but still as important as ever before?

Andy: No, with any technology wave, the threat just increases because sometimes the early adopters are the nefarious actors. And if community don’t embrace those technology waves and really figure out how to work with them, blockade or counteract those nefarious actors, you start losing out. For us we’ve setup a security practice that invests strongly in cybersecurity capabilities and people, processes and technologies to bring all of that to our clients to safeguard them. We do that not just ourselves, oftentimes in the world of security, if you do it yourself, you actually, you’re open up to vulnerabilities. So we do it in a very intentional way with our partners, our ecosystem partners. We will work with them to bring the best of their technology capabilities around security and we’ll bring our experience around an industry and the potential gap areas, marry that together to ensure that we help our clients have a safer environment. But yes, cybersecurity is a massive threat, John. I think the other thing that’s interesting in the recent research we found, was that AI is actually now a top contributor to technical debt. And when you think of technical debt, you think of things like mainframes and, “Oh my gosh, it’s old, it’s got COBOL language and I don’t have any developers.” So it sort of sits there and it becomes this monolithic cost base. Now with Gen.ai and with AI, we can actually now take all those technologies, apply it to things like mainframes and modernize them. But because the technology is moving so fast, oftentimes you can actually use it wrong or the standards are not right or whatever it is. And so it helps you, but then it’s actually bad code or you’ve applied it on a wrong process, you haven’t actually reinvented the process, all that stuff. And you still have that technical debt. It’s a different form of risk, but it’s definitely an area, in addition to cybersecurity, it’s definitely an area that we’re encouraging our clients to be really thinking about that as they build their digital cores, as they boost their investments in their estate. Having them to think about that strategic investment, but then importantly, how they balance their investments and ensure that they address not just the new, but really that technical debt, so number of areas. It’s a fascinating space. I’m never bored, if anything, I wake up every day wondering, “Oh my gosh, what’s going on?” And you’re absorbing as fast as you can. I’m ever glad.

John: Since you’re much more of an expert than I am and most of our listeners, give us a little bit about what’s going on. We look down from a linear perspective, I look down a hallway, and I see what I see down the hallway. But they say great leaders and people with really super intelligence in the sector can see around the corner. Give us a little bit about what’s to come around the corner in the coming months and years ahead from what you’ve heard or see or have anecdotal or both scientific knowledge of?

Andy: Well, I think sometimes, back to our sports analogies, the great leaders maybe don’t see around the corner, but they know there’s a corner coming. [laugh] Yes, sir-

John: So true

Andy: -And so they’re so getting ready. And that’s why we say, “We can’t predict the future.” But that’s why we say it is just so, so, so critically important to build that digital core because it gets you to a point where you are reinvention ready. You can now adjust, you can pivot, you’re very clear on your infrastructure, you’re very clear on how to…you can see and control the observability and the visibility of your state. You’re very clear on where your data is, where your AI is, what your security postures are. You’re very clear. And if something hits you, you now know the position of your players on the field, and you can adjust accordingly. And that’s our key focus. We’ve released chapter one of our digital core. We’ve got chapter two coming out, I think, in the early autumn. That will look a little bit more at some of those people aspects, the culture and all of that. We’re just super excited because we also think that you can get your systems ready, you can get your processes ready, but you won’t win unless you get your people ready.

John: Andy, I’m going to take you out of your Accenture Cloud First hat right now, and I’m going to put you in the husband and dad and global citizen. And-

Andy: Wow. Okay. Maybe getting me uncomfortable.

John: -And you look like someone and we haven’t spent time in together, but today just spending this time together. You look like you’ve mastered that, people either master fear or fear overcomes them. And you seem to have mastered overcoming any fear things that have come your way in this world. So when you’re talking to your children or your spouse and they’re asking you, “Dad, what about this? What about that? And Is Musk right or Altman right? Is AI going to be dangerous to us in 2029? Or is there going to be machine learning that actually is then smarter and have more intelligence than human beings? Or is Altman right? We’re going to use it for the greater good. Or is a combination thereof more right? Are we supposed to be afraid of AI or have a healthy fear of it? Or are we supposed to be leaning in and embracing it and learning everything we can about it and just say, there’s nothing to fear, but fear itself because we don’t even know where we’re gonna end up with it.” How do you balance, you know, the fear-mongering that’s going on about AI and the beauty and all the great things, as you already know, from your business hat, AI can really do and new technology can really do for both an organization and for the world at large and for even just your family members who get to enjoy using it to make more interesting and better lives and better education for themselves?

Andy: I’ll answer it by staying out of my cloud world. My daughter is a competitive soccer player. She’s in a week’s time, the U-20 Women’s World Cup kicks off.

John: Isn’t it?

Andy: And she’s going to be a part of that. She’s going to compete in that.

John: Congratulations. That’s awesome.

Andy: And so I have every single day, an element of fear questioning coming at me. It’s, “Oh, my gosh, dad, what do I do in this situation?”

John: Right.

Andy: “This team that we’re about to play is top 5 in the world,” whatever it is. And I again don’t have the answers, but what I do know from my years of being African in Africa, being European in Europe, and now being American in America, with a multinational family is you just have to “Lean in to the change, lean in to the differences ,lean in to perceived fear and give it a go. You can just keep calm and carry on,” is the old British saying. And to try and do it with a little bit of swagger, because if you stand still, you’ve already lost.

John: Wow. What’s your daughter’s name, by the way?

Andy: Alex Tate.

John: Alex Tate. So where is this the soccer… where’s the World Cup going to be happening that we can watch?

Andy: It’s in Bogota, Colombia.

John: “And dad, are you going? Dad are you down there?”

Andy: Yeah, right now, my main goal, my main aspiration is the 168 hours of work, I’m doing it with full on fever. And then after that, I’m on a plane to Bogota and I’m going to lose my voice cheering on my [inaudible]

John: Alex Tate. Well, we’re going to be rooting for…and one thing, you know, Andy, is I love having great people and that represent great brands, iconic brands like you on the show. What I typically do is I invite them on, I say, “Listen, you come on. And, you know, when we talk about sustainability, I say sustainability is a journey with no finish line.” Well, the same can be said about what you’re doing at Accenture Cloud First. You and I know this is an evolution, there is no finish line. It’s so exciting. It’s ever-changing. So what I offer to you and what I would love for you to do is a year from now, 6 months from now, whatever it makes sense. I want you to come back on and you and I will pick up from where we left off today and then you’re going to be able to share with our audience, our listeners and our viewers what’s changed since we spoke last and the evolution and we get to track it a little bit because I think that tracking is really important for everybody out there because everyone’s trying to make sense of this now. This is such a critical and important topic and it truly has to go to the future health of our organizations, especially the organizations that you get to advise around the world. So Andy, thank you not only for your time today, but thank you and all your colleagues at Accenture for making the world a better and more resilient place. Thanks again for everything you do.

Andy: Thanks, John. It’s been a joy and it’d be my pleasure to come back and spend time with you. It’s an absolute joy. Thank you so much.

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