WWCode Podcast #44: Kathryn Ross – Partner, Managing Director, Accenture

Grecia Castaldi, Program Manager, Digital Community at Women Who Code interviews Kathryn Ross, Partner, Managing Director, and Black Founders Development Program Lead at Accenture. They discuss the company culture at Accenture, what drives Kathryn’s passions, and the positive impact that her work with the Black Founders Development Program has had on the community it serves.

 

Grecia Castaldi, Program Manager, Digital Community at Women Who Code interviews Kathryn Ross, Partner, Managing Director, and Black Founders Development Program Lead at Accenture. They discuss the company culture at Accenture, what drives Kathryn’s passions, and the positive impact that her work with the Black Founders Development Program has had on the community it serves.

Tell us about your professional journey.

 

It's been 28 years. I had a mentor a few years ago, he's since retired from Accenture. He gave a presentation once that really resonated with me, one that I think really represents my career journey. He called it the three Ps. When you start your journey the first thing that you're looking for is a promotion. The promotion comes with knowledge and experience. For me, it was all about technology. I cut my teeth at Accenture on early workflow, and customer relationship management type of capabilities, and got to the point where I was known within the firm for having those capabilities. The second thing that you seek as you mature in your career is power. Power isn't necessarily over other people, but it's the power to make decisions and solve problems. The third P is purpose. Once you have achieved promotion and have the power, how do you use that? That's the purpose. That's what drives me in my current role as the Open Innovation Lead and the Black Founders Lead.

 

Tell us more about what you currently do and more about yourself.

 

The theme, the thread, throughout my entire career has been technology, and how to make the world a better place. One of the things that are at the heart of my job as an open innovation lead is starting to look at the marketplace for technology software to understand what are the best capabilities out there that solve some of the world's biggest challenges. Our clients come to us from every industry that you can think of, whether it's life sciences or supply chain. We put traditional technology with the startups with some muscle in terms of building interconnections between those capabilities. That drives new innovation and enables clients to achieve their business goals.

 

The second thing that drives me is the Black Founders Development Program within the software community. Less than 1% of the venture capital dollars goes to Black founders. How do I provide them with a platform in which they have the opportunity to be in front of more clients, more VCs, and more technology partners that they could potentially partner with that helps them drive their business? If we can do that and they drive their business and their business grows, they offer more jobs to the community in which they serve. I think that's fundamentally what we're trying to do from an economic standpoint. I've now figured out how to meld the two sides of my job into one daily effort.

 

 

How is it to work at Accenture? Tell us about the culture of this company.

 

Accenture has 700,000 plus people. When I joined, it was 29,000 people. Every organization has its own culture, whether they are internal-facing or external-facing. I think the thread at the core of Accenture is our core values. It’s about respect for the individual. It's about serving our clients and bringing one global Accenture together. Even now, what allowed me to start the Black Founders Program was a commitment from our leadership to drive change in the marketplace. The culture of Accenture is, about how we as individuals continue to drive our daily job, but also be part of the communities that we serve or are part of to drive change within those communities. 

 

Tell us what women can do to find a safe workplace where they can stay for many years, grow professionally and experience many different roles. 

 

Safety is defined in a variety of different ways, and it's probably very individual to each person. You want to find a place where your teammates are competitive, but it's not negative, where you're having fun. When you are interviewing for a role, interview the interviewer. Do you want to work with them? Can you meet the people that you're going to work with? Know what questions you want to ask in the interview. I always tell people, "Look for what you want, define it first, make sure you understand what drives you, and then go look for that. As they're interviewing you, you interview them." I like when it's not a huge team, but a smaller team and everybody sort of knows each other. There's competition, but it's a friendly competition, and it's fun. 

 

Do you have advice for women who are looking for a mentor or a coach? 

 

If you just started your first job or you've been in it for 20 years, you need a mentor and a coach at every point in time in your career. A mentor is someone who you go to for advice. A coach is someone who can position you for roles. You need both. It is the net that catches you if you're falling, but it's also the net that lifts you up when you're ready to go to that next level. Make sure that you have those people, both within your organization as well as outside of it. 

 

How did you find your passion and drive? 

 

I'm not necessarily looking for future promotion, but I am looking to make an impact. I have the benefit of having a wonderful coach. I've come from a family of entrepreneurs. I saw the difficulties that they had. As part of my work role, they asked me to start our inclusion and diversity agenda for this team. It was a fairly new team, small, but as we grew, we wanted to make sure that inclusion and diversity was at the heart of everything that we did. 

 

We started looking at the numbers and saw how little VC dollars were flowing to the under-represented communities, not just Black founders, women, LGBTQ, Hispanic, Latinx, etcetera. It was eye opening. I found something that personally and professionally can have an impact on a community. 

 

What are some of your hobbies? 

 

I have teenage sons. One of my favorite things to do is play tennis. It was actually one of the saving graces during covid because we could go outside and play tennis when we couldn't go into gyms or anywhere else. That's brought us together more as a family. I love to travel. I'm a reader, I love to learn new things. I love technology. 

 

What is your pro tip for women in technology? 

 

Network. From day one, before you even take that first job, your college professors, the people who are in your college classes with you, it's your network. These are the people who can let you know, about new job openings at their companies, new opportunities that are popping up, and new things that you should be aware of within your company. Have mentors and coaches, and also expand and create your network.