An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Diversity as an Enabler of Innovation: Diversity remains a critical building block to unleashing innovation. While the impact of diversity factors alone on innovation mindset is significant, it is much higher when combined with a culture of equality. According to Accenture research, in the most-equal and diverse cultures, innovation mindset- their willingness and ability to innovate- is 11 times greater than in the least-equal and diverse cultures.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Shivani Vora.
Shivani leads Innovation for Accenture in North America and serves on the company’s NA Leadership Team. With more than 23 years of international experience in growth strategy and digital transformation, she helps clients unlock new value through digital disruption, human centered design, and emerging technology.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
Of course! For the last five years, I’ve been at Accenture where I am a trusted advisor to senior executives and Boards at large global companies and have led multi-year transformation programs to help them return to profitable growth. I currently lead Innovation for Accenture in North America. Prior to joining Accenture, I was Senior Vice President at Orange where I led International Development for the Enterprise business globally, which included both organic growth strategy and M&A.
On a professional front, what I enjoy most is taking hard business challenges and finding innovative solutions using a combination of technology and human ingenuity. I enjoy bringing together diverse viewpoints and multi-disciplinary teams (design + business + technology) to deliver break through results and experiences that fundamentally improve our lives and of those around us.
On the personal side, while I currently live in Chicago, with my husband, our two teenage boys, and a labradoodle, I have also called Paris and Mumbai home. When I am not working, I can be found rock climbing, kayaking or enjoying a long hike with friends.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
Yes! In my previous role, I worked out of the Paris office for a few years. As an anglophone from the U.S., I was accustomed to conducting business conversations in English, and continued this practice while in Paris. During my first couple of weeks, I presented everything in English — urging my French colleagues to read and speak back to me in English too. To my surprise, only one month in, my CEO leaned over the conference room table and said “Shivani, it’s been a month…we move to French.” From there, I started taking intensive French lessons and overnight, my meetings went from being 100% English to 100% French.
It dawned on me that with the privilege of being in Paris, came the responsibility to immerse in the culture. While making that cultural shift was hard at the time, it taught me a valuable lesson about flexibility and adaptability. My time in Paris proved to me that change is the only constant, and whether at work or in your personal life, you have to find ways to constantly learn, adapt, and grow in order to be successful.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
For our tenth wedding anniversary, my husband surprised me with a trip to South Africa. On that trip I visited Robben Island and the 8×7 feet damp concrete cell where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years as a political prisoner. His journey and the rights he fought for were truly motivational with words that moved me, “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
This quote is relevant to my life both figuratively and literally. In Mumbai, when I was 16, I slipped while crossing the street and was run over by a bus. My legs essentially acted as a speed bump, and the bus ran right over both my legs as I lay on the road. While the accident itself was horrific, my recovery was just as grueling, lasting for several years. I started my undergraduate education on crutches and eventually graduated to using a cane to assist me while walking across campus. I remember actively making the decision to continue my education and not let the accident affect my studies. I went on to graduate high school in the top ten in my state (from over 100,000 students).
It’s important to share another lens on the accident, which fueled a depression in me at a very young age. While my friends were living their teenage life, I was confined to a chair and needed help to walk. Thanks to my father, who acted as my personal therapist, I not only emerged stronger from this but also learned how to manage my mental health early in life.
Looking back, the accident and years to follow taught me two things, the first being that life is valuable. I look at life in a different way now, and I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore! The accident also taught me the value of resiliency, which I practice throughout my personal life and professional career to this day. Resilience became one of my “superpowers.” It is something I draw strength from and helps me get stronger and rise up like a phoenix from every challenge I face. Best said in Frida Kahlo’s words “At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”
What’s more, I also hold onto one unintentional side effect from the accident — I can now jest with my colleagues, “At our next meeting, don’t bother throwing me under the bus, I’ve already been there!”
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
This is a tough question because I am surrounded by many role models, but if I had to select just one person, it would be my father. From a very young age, my father had a significant influence on me. He grew up in a household with an illiterate mother, which inspired his advocacy for female education. As a doctor himself, his goal in life was to provide my sister and me the best education money could buy. When I told him that I wanted to come to the US for a master’s degree, I had his full support.
My father also constantly encouraged me to go above and beyond what I thought I was capable of. He used to say, “be a cobbler, but be the best cobbler in town.” He pushed me to work hard and do my best while also striving for that balance between “reaching for the stars” and “staying grounded.” He also believed that as humans, we need to take care of our mind just as much as our body. As a tribute to my dad after he passed, I made a committed effort to deepen my learning on mindful meditation, a practice that he introduced me to years ago. Observing annual silence for at least 10 days as part of the self-observation technique taught through Vipassana, an ancient Buddhist form of meditation, is truly transformational — a practice I continue to this day!
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
At Accenture, we believe the innovation brings about diversity of thought and this diversity, in turn, fuels innovation! By creating a culture of equality and an environment where “out of the box” ideas are heard, Accenture encourages the search for new information and diverse perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. It is this diversity of thought and action that leads to enhanced value for our clients that makes Accenture stand out as a company.
Diversity enhances creativity and, in some cases, fuels creativity. Within our innovation teams, we celebrate different backgrounds and experiences. It adds fresh perspectives and encourages new, creative ways of thinking. A great example of this was this summer’s “North America Innovation Summer Olympics” — an event where we invited US Olympians to join us virtually from Japan to share their views on the role of innovation and diversity in sports. Listening to the ways in which Khalil Thompson and Francesca Russo had to innovate to stay competitive in fencing was motivational. Meanwhile, Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian’s quote on diversity in sport was inspirational, noting, “it’s important little girls see someone who looks like them.”
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
I am most excited about a new research project around innovation culture that we launched earlier this year. The piece will be published shortly. As part of this project, we surveyed more than 1,000 C-level executives at global companies, interviewed innovation experts and performed rigorous economic and statistical modelling along with case study research. What we found is that while companies are spending a lot of time in developing their innovation structures (the processes, tools and technologies that enable innovation), they are not seeing a return on investment from these innovation investments.
The reason, we discovered, is that instilling a mindset and behavior that encourages innovation is as important as providing the right innovation structures. Leading companies create a virtuous cycle of innovation structures, mindsets, and behaviours that work together to hardwire the organization for innovation. Working in unison, they fuel an innovation culture — and this culture in turn ensures strong financial performance and successful execution of a company’s ambition.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Influenced by my father, I have always been passionate about providing universal access to education. I even went so far as to make this passion a family affair. Working with my son, we established a program called “Technology in the Park” (TIP). Collaborating with Congressman Danny K. Davis, TIP was established to get kids off the streets and into the classrooms, especially in under-served areas in Chicago.
With support from sponsor companies and local volunteers, we have started to educate the youth in Austin, one of the communities with the highest crime and gun violence in Chicagoland. With a specific focus on teaching Computer Science, English and improving literacy, TIP aims to establish a fundamental educational base to empower Chicago’s youth.
TIP also aims to serve as a feeder into Accenture’s Apprenticeship Program, which works to close the skills gap in the U.S. by providing underserved groups greater access to careers. To date, our program has hired over 1,000 apprentices for Accenture positions across 35 U.S. cities.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a lead to an ongoing innovation mindset?. (Please share a story or example for each.)
Diversity as an Enabler of Innovation: Diversity remains a critical building block to unleashing innovation. While the impact of diversity factors alone on innovation mindset is significant, it is much higher when combined with a culture of equality. According to Accenture research, in the most-equal and diverse cultures, innovation mindset- their willingness and ability to innovate- is 11 times greater than in the least-equal and diverse cultures.
Diverse and Innovative Culture Starts at the Top: Of the Fortune 500 2021 CEOs, only 41 are women and only two of the 41 are Black. Setting and publishing diversity targets, holding the leadership team accountable and measuring progress are critical steps. Specific to my experience at Accenture, we’ve found that when leaders give employees the resources they need to innovate and the freedom to fail, companies are more successful.
Employee Loyalty as a means to Stay Ahead: A recent CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workforce Survey found that nearly 80% of workers say that they want to work for a company that values diversity, equity and inclusion. In order for companies to retain the most innovative talent in today’s competitive workforce, corporations must prioritize diversity at all levels of the organization.
Understanding the Impact of Shopper Behaviors: Retailers’ I&D practices are making an impact on shoppers’ behaviors more than ever. According to Accenture Research, 41% of shoppers tell us that they have shifted at least 10 percent of their business away from a retailer that does not reflect how important I&D is to them. Furthermore, ethnic minorities and younger shoppers report a higher incidence of I&D-driven switching in the last 12 months. To assess consumer values, teams must embrace diverse, innovative thinking.
Reward for Risk Culture: In my day to day, I work with senior executives to shed light on how the culture of the company must change to foster innovation and encourage growth. Oftentimes, simple factors like encouraging employees to take risks leads to new opportunities and creative thinking. What’s more, we know that employees in the most-equal cultures are less afraid to fail.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
At Accenture, I’ve been lucky to both partner with and learn from leaders who care and follow servant leadership. Leading by example, Julie Sweet and Ellyn Shook are taking concrete actions to close the perception gap and paving the way for other leaders to follow.
When it comes to workplace culture, we are at an inflection point. There is a large gap between what leaders think is going on and what employees say is happening on the ground. Two thirds of leaders (68 percent) feel they create empowering environments — in which employees can be themselves, raise concerns and innovate without fear of failure — but just one third (36 percent) of employees agree. In addition, employees care increasingly about workplace culture and believe it’s important to help them thrive in the workplace (reported by 77 percent of women and 67 percent of men).
Their voices are rising, loud and clear, while a growing number of companies recognize the importance of equality. I call on others to enable a workplace in which risks are rewarded, and diversity and innovation pave the way.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
Businesses have had to pivot fast amid the disruption caused by the pandemic. But it is only the latest disruption in a sea of constant change created, among others, by the adoption of advanced digital technologies, emerging social change, and higher consumer expectations. To beat disruption, leading companies need to create a culture of innovation and inclusion when leading large teams.
Accenture’s Innovation Culture Research analyzed 1.3 million Glassdoor reviews of 287 North American companies with revenues above $3B using Natural Language Processing. The results were used to develop/compute an Innovation Culture Score in the form of an index and then mapped their Innovation Culture Scores to the S&P CapitalIQ revenue of the last 5 years. Our research confirms that companies that foster a strong culture of innovation are rewarded by a higher growth rate and financial performance. The advice to business leaders who manage large teams is to embrace innovation, as it is the main source of disruption — and consequently, the antidote to being displaced.
Leaders can foster this culture of innovation among their large teams and diffuse it throughout the organization by aligning on Innovation’s role in supporting the organizational vision; demonstrating leadership commitment by role modeling and inspiring others to lead the change; encouraging behavioral experimentation and creating a strong reward and recognition program that showcases the ideal innovation mindsets and behaviors.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?
This is a fantastic question! For a while, I have admired Serena Williams. As someone who is constantly looking for opportunity to learn a new sport or challenging my physical limits, I am inspired by the grit and determination that helped her to achieve 23 Grand Slam titles! She served as a source of inspiration for me when I was training for one of the hardest through hikes I have done in my life — the Selvaggio Blu.
Growing up in Compton, CA, Serena has faced racism and sexism throughout her career and continues to be an advocate for diversity and equality through her role as the Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
Most recently, I have been inspired by her transparency on the topics of motherhood and mental health. Allowing others the space and grace needed to deal with such topics, which are further amplified due to the pandemic and providing them a platform to share and learn is indeed powerful.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow Accenture on Twitter @Accenture or LinkedIn @Accenture; and you can find me on LinkedIn.
Thank you for these excellent insights. We wish you continued success in your great work.
Accenture’s Shivani Vora On How Diversity Can Increase Innovation was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
