Excellence in Client Service
Pallavi Verma
Managing Director
Accenture
Amid a brutal recession and tight state and local budgets, Pallavi Verma often accomplished what seemed impossible—substantial cost savings and additional revenue.
In the last year alone, Verma "found" $80 million in additional revenue for a hard-pressed state budget; $40 million in savings for New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and $25 million in annual IT savings for a large university.
"I've never got so many calls from clients and potential clients than I have these last few years asking us to bring them our best ideas and save them money," says Verma, Accenture's Managing Director, Revenue, Finance & Administration, Canada and U.S. State & Local Government. "When you can go into a client and help them figure out how to increase revenue or reduce costs so they can continue with their programs and their mission, that's satisfying."
Verma likes to tell a story about work she did for a New York agency more than ten years ago. "I recently saw the client again and they said this was the most useful work they ever got from a consultant," she says. "That's what motivates all of us in this field; making that kind of client impact."
Within Accenture, Verma is known as the "turnaround master," and is often dispatched to get difficult projects back on track. Her technique: she reads people as expertly as she reads data. "A characteristic that differentiates me, I think, is my ability to read an audience and see what motivates them," she says. "The most important thing you can bring to the table is that the client feels like you are listening to them and understand their problem."
This level of understanding, she says, has helped make her a successful consultant. "I've always been interested in psychology and have even thought about it as a second career someday," she says. "But, that's far off in the future."
—J.K.
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