Accenture has a talented and highly productive team of people from a wide range of cultural, educational and geographic backgrounds. Meet some of our high performers who are changing the way the world works and lives. Wendy Pienaar
Senior Executive, Financial Services Operating Group Greg Feinberg
Consultant, Products Operating Group Wendy Pienaar—Senior Executive, Financial Services Operating Group   Wendy Pienaar has been with Accenture since she graduated in 1995, except for the year she spent studying for a Master of Business Administration at the University of Cape Town. Currently she is the senior executive in charge of Banking in Accenture in South Africa's Financial Services group. Pienaar was born in 1971 in Durban and did her matric in 1989 at Bryanston High in Johannesburg. In 1993 she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in industrial psychology and sociology, followed by a Public & Development Management in business administration at Wits Business School in 1994. She regards Accenture as her mentor rather than employer, as the company and her love for her job have paid dividends in terms of her personal success.
Pienaar has been in the banking field since 1996 and is passionate about helping clients to formulate strategy—particularly around their client interfaces. She believes that Accenture has several roles to play in helping South African banking clients to achieve high performance:
- Strategic advisor. As a major global player in the financial services market, Accenture brings proven practices and strategic insights based on High Performance Business research from around the world to the local market.
- Preferred implementation partner. Accenture has decades of experience in managing large-scale IT and business process transformations, and is skilled at helping clients to realize the forecasted benefits. Accenture can also help South African banks overcome the skills shortage that is such a feature of the local market.
- Outsourcing. International banks increasingly use outsourcing as a distinct strategy to improve performance—a lead that local banks have tended to be slow in following. "Accenture has been proving the value of outsourcing as a pathway to achieve high performance," comments Pienaar. "Our experience in making outsourcing work will be invaluable in helping local banks simplify their internal systems to give them the ability to create differentiating services and products more quickly and easily—without adding complexity. This is going to be one of the keys to achieving competitive advantage in the banking market from now onwards."
Retaining young talent and senior women is a passion for Pienaar, who plays a strong role in local women's initiatives and works with all levels of women in Accenture to keep them engaged and fulfilled in their careers at Accenture. Pienaar spends much of her spare time involved in sporting and outdoor activities, competing in marathons and cycling. Daily exercise is an essential part of her strategy for balancing the pressures of a high-stress work life. She also travels within South Africa—"there are such beautiful places to see here," she says. She lives in Parktown North with her husband. "I get my own satisfaction from injecting passion and energy to help project teams exceed client expectations," Pienaar reflects. "At Accenture, we really focus on how well the team performs for the client rather than how well individuals perform." To Top Greg Feinberg—Consultant, Products Operating Group   No matter how intimidating the challenges that come his way at Accenture, Greg Feinberg never feels he has to face them alone.
"The lines of communication are always open here; there are no barriers and no formal hierarchies," says Greg, a Cape Town-based consultant with Accenture's Products Operating Group. "If you want to talk something over with anyone, be it a senior executive, senior manager or manager, you just pick up the phone or wander over to their desk. I think the level of communication and leadership at Accenture is something that makes us unique." This open-door culture also cuts right across national boundaries. "The great thing about being part of a global company is that you have the knowledge of the whole organisation behind you," he says. "For instance, on my first project in 2002 with National Brands, two Accenture people from our Spanish operation came out to work with the South African team. At Accenture, wherever you are located geographically, you are one company." Feinberg, who has a business science honours degree majoring in finance, is currently part of the project team delivering an enterprise resource planning solution for the Woolworths group. "What I love about retail is that you can see, touch and feel the impact of each project. If the jeans are available in the right sizes and the lettuce hasn't been sold out by 4 p.m., you know you've been part of the client's success." He has no regrets about abandoning his original career path for consulting. "I had chosen the chartered accountancy route and was on my way to doing my articles when I went to an Accenture talk just before I graduated. I liked what I heard and thought, hang on, there's something more out there!" For Feinberg, it's been a "whirlwind of a ride" ever since. "At Accenture, you're challenged every day and it's up to you to grab it, run with it and make it happen," he says. "This organisation gives you fantastic support and has all the methodologies and processes in place to help you deliver but there are no comfort zones. As soon as you've met your current goals, you're looking forward to the next challenge. It's exciting because you're growing and learning all the time." Stagnating is impossible, thanks to countless learning and training opportunities, he says. "Every day, at least 15 articles come through to my desktop that I would love to read, alongside scores of online expert discussions all over the world I can take part in. It's all at my fingertips, and all of it is high-quality information and research that I can really use when I need to." To Top |