Accenture has reportedly started calling its nearly 800,000 employees “reinventors” as it seeks to position itself as a leader in artificial intelligence.
The company’s chief executive, Julie Sweet, has already started referring to staff by the new label, and the industry is now calling for the term to be used more widely.
The “Reinventor” label stems from a June reorganization across Accenture that combined Strategy, Consulting, Creative, Technology, and Operations into a single division called “Reinvent Services.”
The rebranding effort comes three years after the company renamed its interactive division to Accenture Song, with the company aiming to play a leading role in the global creative advertising industry. The rebranding was widely ridiculed.
“The people who brought us the Accenture song now have a ‘reformer’ and staff will be fed up with it,” said Damon Collins, co-founder of marketing agency Joint. “If they think this move will be supported by a lot of employees and customers, they’re going to do something else. This is a very unusual corporate panic, and they’re really misdirecting Nvidia chips.”
The new tag for consultant is the latest in a long list of unusual jargon that big companies are foisting on their employees. Some technology workers are called “ninjas,” “growth hackers,” and “evangelists.”
Weird job titles are also popular in media and entertainment industries, such as Walt Disney, where the technical experts who design and build theme parks are called “Imagineers.”
WPP founder Martin Soler adopted the nickname ‘Senior Monk’ when he orchestrated the acquisition of digital creative company MediaMonks, where he referred to his staff as ‘monks’.
Apple’s in-store technology helpers are called “geniuses,” while Mother, a London-based advertising agency whose clients include KFC, gives the title “Mother” to executives who oversee project operations between clients and staff.
Accenture’s push for “reinventors” comes amid a move to increase its focus on AI capabilities. Sweet told investors in September that the consulting firm would “fire” employees who don’t get the hang of using AI in the workplace.
The New York-based group said it was training staff in the basics of generative AI, but that employees would be shown the door for “based on our experience, this is not a viable way to acquire the necessary skills.” As part of the reorganization, the company laid off 11,000 employees, leaving 791,000 employees.
The company also reportedly built a version of its internal human resources website that refers to staff as “innovators” rather than “workers,” according to the Financial Times.
Undertaking a rebrand to fundamentally change the perception of a traditional company can be risky.
Jaguar realized this last year when it announced its entry into the electric car market with the polarizing Miami Pink concept model, a marketing strategy envisioned by none other than Accenture Song.
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Gonzalo Brujo, Interbrand’s global chief executive, said the introduction of such a major role change would be confusing for staff who are used to knowing Accenture’s hierarchy and career progression paths.
“I would be wary of these kinds of names. I totally understand why they would want to do that, but it doesn’t apply to all 800,000 employees,” he said. “There are geniuses at Apple. They’re really skilled and knowledgeable about what they do. And the imaginers at Disney have a call to action: ‘Give the Dream.’
“The name of being a true innovator is really something that is bestowed on very few people. Maybe this is a cool thing when you’re interviewing to find new talent, but then you see internal backlash from employees who may be over-promising about what it means to be an innovator. The reality is that everyone has a different role, and very few people become true innovators.”
Accenture was spun out from the now-defunct accountant Arthur Andersen in 1989, then rebranded and works with thousands of companies around the world, providing IT and business strategy consulting and outsourcing.
The company benefited from massive demand for technology consulting after the pandemic, but its New York-listed shares have slumped this year after President Donald Trump ordered U.S. government agencies to review spending at large consulting firms.
The company reported a 7% annual rise in sales to $69.7bn (£52.7bn) for the year ended August, but warned investors that growth would likely slow next year due to US federal spending cuts. It has lost more than a quarter of its market value ($155 billion) so far this year.
Accenture has been contacted for comment.
