 
James Arnott is a senior executive in Accenture's South African Resources operating group, and for the past 10 years has fulfilled a key role in the Utilities and Energy sector. He has a good understanding of the strategic issues pertaining to organisation transformation, human performance, customer relationship management and shared services. Arnott joined Accenture in 1994 and is responsible for sponsoring Accenture's Human Performance Service Line and Human Performance capability within the Spain, Africa, Portugal and Latin America (SAPLA) region. He is also the sponsor the SAPLA region's Utility Retail Community of Practice. He has a vast experience in information systems and financial, commercial and human resources processes. His career highlights in management and technology consulting include a relationship with Eskom, the electricity utility giant. Eskom provides more than 95 percent of South Africa's and 60 percent of Africa's electricity. Arnott and his team have helped the utility with the implementation of customer relationship, billing, finance, materials management, human resources and insurance systems and solutions. In addition, his teams are actively involved in the restructuring of the South African electricity supply industry, with a specific focus on the distribution segment. More recently, Arnott is working with a number of South Africa's largest energy companies to deal with strategic issues in the areas of cost containment, transformation, financial management and supply chain. This has resulted in the development of new business units based on shared services, enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations and supply chain strategies. Arnott also sponsors Accenture's local recruiting initiatives and actively works with Accenture's human resources department to shape the company's annual graduate and experienced recruitment programmes. He indicates that Accenture is always in the market for capable individuals with awillingness to learn and work in a team-based environment. He says Accenture is able to build solid and long-term relationships with its clients because it does not compromise on quality and has the ability to draw upon the best expertise to ensure client delivery. Arnott describes himself as an action-oriented person. He was born in Iran in 1972 and completed his schooling at St Johns College in 1989. He was conferred with a B.Econ degree with majors in economics and management at Rhodes University in 1993. He currently represents Accenture on the University's Information System and Business School's Board of Advisors. Arnott says he chooses to listen to music that he grew up with, like Pink Floyd, Dire Straits and Crowded House. He is quite taken with some of the emerging South African bands like Freshly Ground and believes that this music is reflective of the changes that we see about us daily. He plays golf and likes fly fishing. His main hobby is reading, especially books about leadership and management. But nothing makes him happier than spending quality time with his children, watching them learn and experience the world around them for the first time.  To Top
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