News round-up: Accenture, Towers Watson, Bain

Welcome to this Tuesday edition of the news round-up. This early week edition contains one of the great names of this new year: Babloo. My guess is that it's a reasonably popular name/nickname in India, but I'm fine with the world having a hearty laugh at the expense of my own idiocy. I'll let you discover the delightful context in which it appears as well as the rest of today's rundown, a veritable potpourri of all things consulting.

No Babloo here, just lots of money. Accenture made headlines earlier this week when it announced its Q3 results for this fiscal year, beating analysts' predictions that had already signaled further growth. When all is said and done, Accenture—which Bloomberg calls "the world's second-largest technology consulting company"—will have brought in between $6.3 and $6.5 billion in revenue, beating predictions that pegged the revenue metric closer to $6 billion. The firm brought in roughly that figure last quarter, a 17 percent increase from its predecessor; with robust growth persisting through Q3, Accenture's brass has good reason to be optimistic. "We are gaining market share, which is extremely important to us," offered CEO Pierre Nanterme. More than half of Accenture's revenue comes from consulting, which Bloomberg says is "getting a boost as businesses resume work on discretionary products and information-technology expansion." More: Accenture bagged a tidy little contract with the UK Ministry of Justice to provide/upgrade IT infrastructure at the massive government department. For £22 million, the firm's platform will "provide support for the management of human resources, payroll, finance, and procurement operations."

Towers Watson made an appearance this week when it unleashed on a new consulting unit in Turkey (note the capitalization; this is a strictly fowl-free post) called Towers Watson Danışmanlık Ltd. The new group, technically a wholly-owned subsidiary of Towers Watson, will operate out of Istanbul under the watchful eye of one Süha Alıcı, managing consultant. Now, steady thyself. Babloo Ramamurthy, the firm's EMEA head, explained the decision (yes!): "Turkey is now a large and rapidly-growing economy with an increasing demand for the services we offer. The opening of our new office in Istanbul is a significant step towards providing the full range of services that our growing client base there requires." Oh, nothing interesting there. You may have a cool name, Babloo, but you're just another suit beneath your flamboyant exterior. Towers Watson now has a truly ridiculous 156 offices across the world.

Our last topic for today is not a firm but a legitimate subcontinent: India. First up we hear from Bain, which appointed Ashish Singh as new chairman of Bain India. A founding partner, Singh is seen as the mastermind behind Bain India's rise from exotic satellite to bona fide rainmaker; in 2006, Consulting magazine named him one of the top 25 business consultants in the world. Paul Meehan, Bain's Asia-Pacific managing director, called Singh "an incredibly strong partner" and vowed to "reinforce our commitment to India" under his leadership. Other reports in India suggest that Deloitte is scouring Hyderabad for a suitable site for a brand-new Deloitte University facility. "According to the company officials, Deloitte’s board has decided to set up its university program in Hyderabad. We welcome their decision as it will benefit local youth," an Indian government spokesman said. The facility will be pretty cool: classrooms, fitness centers, an amphitheatre, a cyber cafe—Hyderabad ain't so bad after all (it might actually be terrible, had to make the joke work)! More important is the symbolic significance of the act; worldwide, Deloitte's only other University facility is in Dallas, Texas.

For more information:
Bloomberg
Business Week
Towers Waston expands in Turkey
Economic Times
Finance Buzz: Deloitte plans to set up university in Hyderabad