Accenture Managing Director, Melanie Cutlan

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

You work as a Managing Director at Accenture. What do you do in simple terms? Talk about your job.

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

 Yes, I’ve been here for 25 years, so I’ve done every job there is as a consultant.  However, as a consulting company, we come in and help. Specifically, Accenture aims towards the Fortune 500.  So, big companies determine where they need a new strategy, where they already have a plan, and they require an implementation partner to execute that strategy.  I have specialized in supply chain management, particularly in emerging technologies, and various variations of supply chains.  As a managing director, I get the chance to land a new client and ask them what their problem is, right?  And figure out how we could help.

You have this problem. Have you thought about this? The advantage of consulting, which is unique to the industry, is that I have visited all my peers and know what they are doing.  Like, I can compare what I like about different strategies. And like, when you’re doing a job, like, nobody, like you read about what your peers are doing, but you haven’t been behind the scenes to see it.  And so I really think it’s a privilege to be a consultant, because you get a chance to see the insider story.  Even our most junior staff members have the opportunity to participate in some of the most interesting conversations. There’s, I think, a privilege to the knowledge we get to see and experience, and the speed at which your career goes when in the course of a year you’ve worked for three different companies, and having that not be like job switching, right?  It’s like you came, you did a project, you figured out what they needed, you helped implement it, you met some success criteria, and you moved on to the next thing.  So, what I do every day is that sales metrics now drive me because I’m a leader.

In contrast to the rest of our employees, who are driven by making our clients happy. But I’m driven by sales metrics. It’s about knowing how to spend time with people who actually have problems that they’re willing to spend money to fix, versus those who want to talk about their problems, which is essentially free consulting. And so knowing how to judge that, but I think it’s really cool to be. And we are now 800,000 people, which is insane. So if a client says, here’s my problem, I’m like, we’ve got somebody for that.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

Does your job include structure? Is it structured or more flexible in what you do on a day-to-day basis?

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

 We have delivery methodologies for everything at the core. So, if you think of it, you probably have heard about the software delivery life cycle.  Like, there’s something like that for project life cycles everywhere we go. And that’s what’s consistent. But every day is different for me.  Every day is absolutely different. So, part of what is fun is figuring out where we are in this project today.  How do I leverage the methodologies and choose the right one to solve this problem tomorrow? It’s all about problem-solving.  And yes, we create lots of deliverables. Half of our teams work in PowerPoint. The other half works in code.  So it depends on where you sit.

I hold a degree in business with a concentration in CIS. So, I started on the more technical side.  And then they found it was really helpful that I could draw a PowerPoint picture of what the technologists were talking about.  That became my skill because I could explain it more easily in simple terms. So, there is little structure, but at its base is a rhythm of understanding how projects go through a life cycle, if that makes sense.  So that gives it some consistency.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

In school, we’re taught never to use AI under any circumstances. At my high school, AI is considered cheating. Although it can be beneficial in some cases, it’s also somewhat controversial. How does your Accenture use AI?

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

There’s nothing controversial about it once you’ve completed that education. People are paying money to have work done, and if it could be done by AI faster than humans would do it.  I hear that at every client I land at. And I think she’d be okay with me quoting her. One of my clients is Microsoft, and I’m helping them with their strategy around their supply chain.  And we had new people, those who were one, two, or three years out of college, working on these executive decks.  And there’s just a trend, like people like to put lots of words on a slide to make a point.  And then as they get more senior, they’re better at making it concise. The client literally said, ‘If you haven’t put it through Copilot and said,” go shrink this text by 50% “, do not give me a draft.’  Put it through AI and come back to me, don’t waste my time. You have tools, so go. That’s great.

You’re new to your career, and you’re going to learn, but AI has already learned. So, no, you don’t get to go through the normal iteration of learning.  Like, and I thought it was the best example of like, she’s like, don’t waste my time. Like tools can do this.  And I think it’s across the board. Like, I get frustrated sometimes with some of our new employees, and like, like part of the reasons why we take meeting minutes in a lot of these meetings is so I could like then dump them into a folder and be like, AI, give me a summary of like the last three weeks’ worth of meetings, right?  I don’t need someone to look at it any more than I could do myself. So, it’s expected.  I use it all day, every day. And the amount, can I, can I sidebar on the cool, fun part of it?  Like agentic AI and agents that act autonomously, right? However, we’ve all had bots and chatbots, and similar technologies. But when agents communicate with other agents to complete tasks for our clients, I think that’s going to be really interesting. 

My personal theory is that you’ll see a significant difference, where many departments won’t call and will hesitate to contact another department for a question.  And like we have now, bots for every department. And when the bots start realizing that the most efficient way to get this done is to call the other department and get a piece of it, and then call another department and get a piece of it.  And when the bots start working together and orchestrating, which is what we’re building for clients, I think you’ll actually see a huge productivity increase.  And just as we did with boring RPA years ago. And no one was ever sad that the like copy-paste job went away, just as no one was ever sad about their job, which involved looking at the scanned image of a document and typing it into another system, as if nobody cared that the job existed. Like, and so it’s a lot of that that’s going to happen.  And so, I think you have to unlearn what school has taught you.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

Is there anything that you studied in college that you think contributed to your success? Or on the other side, is there anything that you may regret not studying something that you wish you had learned more about?

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

  I believe, and this is unique for a woman in tech who graduated so long ago, that my degree exactly prepared me to be a consultant.  As I did, I followed their instructions. It was an accounting information systems class, and they said to meet a local company, identify a problem, and use technology to solve it by the end of the semester.  And like, I went off and did that. And like, yes, I had taken some tech courses, so I knew what tech could do.  And like, I had all the pieces. However, I literally did what I was hired to do later.  Um, and so I do think having a curriculum, if you know, and I didn’t even know what consulting was at the time, right?  Like people, I would ask myself in college, ‘What do you want to do?’ I like, I’m not sure.  I enjoy working with computers, and I’m interested in solving problems in a way that people do. I was like, I don’t know. I want to.  I got bored, and I realized quickly that writing code all day wasn’t fun.

I loved the concepts.  I loved the capabilities. I loved knowing where the edges were of things like that, how far could you push it?  And so I steered my classes and adjusted my class loads to focus on what I enjoyed more, which was discussing the potential benefits and how they could create valuable outcomes.  So, I don’t know. I think it’s, my advice would be, it’s okay to change your major a bunch because you’re going to take classes you think you love, and you’re going to get there and be like, that was fun for the first few weeks.  And then, to me, it was like rinse and repeat, with no thank you. I liked the more practical, hands-on approach, but ultimately, it’s whatever drives you because you have to love what you do.  And I, like, I do love what I do. There are parts of my job that I dislike, such as completing time reports.  But like, there’s like, you got to love what you do because it’s just, you spend time in it. Yeah, for sure.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

Could you talk about your first jobs out of college and how you got to where you are now? 

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

I went straight to Accenture out of college, which is crazy. And so they, like, you know, on-campus interviewing and all of that crazy process.  They landed us in St. Charles, Illinois, for our big training session three weeks ago. And, as we learned right away, nobody leaves at the end of the day until the whole team has gone, which fosters teamwork and culture.  And I think it’s sad because I don’t think companies do that as much as, like, they leaned in for us.  Because, like, I see new talent come in and I’m like, oh, they left before their boss left. Like, that’s not cool.  Like, you stay until everybody leaves, right? Like, and so that, that culture, that, like, just some of that training helped in, like, setting me up for success. 

I was just a developer in the beginning. Like, started. I also want to mention that I hold a technical degree, and I’m more than happy to be helpful.  And I remember some of the first times when there was a huge defect in the code that wasn’t going to be fixed in time for a deadline.  And like, I had to tell the executives the so what of what happens if this thing doesn’t work right.  Right. And they’re like, oh, you can talk to people. So you’re not just a tech person, like most of the people on the tech team would be, who would say, ‘ Line five is wrong, and you have to change this. ‘  And like, they would jargon it like crazy. And so I just discovered where my strengths lay and leaned on them.

Have you ever read Strengths-Based Leadership? I’d recommend it. I loved that it was always about leaning into your strengths instead of trying to fix your deficiencies.  Yeah.

That’s what drove me: I’m not going to focus on what I’m not good at. If you, as a woman in business, focus on what you’re not good at, you’ll get steamrolled everywhere you go, because somebody will point out that they’re better at it.  And instead, it’s fine if you’re really good at something, and do it really well and forget about everything else, because it kind of works itself out.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker:

How do you balance mental health and or personal well-being with work?

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

It’s funny. I pinged somebody at 2 o’clock today. I said I had a meeting that was canceled, and I feel anxious.  I’m going for a walk. I’ll see you in half an hour. Like, they’re just, I’ve done it better at times than others, for sure, right?  I’m not going to say I’m perfect at it, but mental health is real. It’s interesting, and there’s now a more open conversation in the workforce about mental health.  And like, hey, you need to protect your time. I appreciate the notion that life requires margins. If you take an old sheet of paper with margins around it, you’ll need room to scribble in the margins and have a little life.  And if you don’t leave, like most jobs will take everything you give it. And that’s different, I don’t know.

I see a lot of interns, and I have a lot of interns right now, and they really struggle with working too much or not working enough.  And, in fact, I actually see more people not working enough. If nobody’s watching me, I’m not doing anything. And I’m like, that’s not really how the corporate world works, right?  As expected, especially in the work-from-home mentality, where you’re expected to deliverables and get them done.  And if you’re not looking, it’s not like it’s time off, right? Like the so building, you have to earn the right to build that flexibility.  You know what I mean? I mean, I can take my kids to the dentist at two because everyone else knows I’ve worked plenty of hours this week, right?  Like, and not to worry about it, and be flexible. So I don’t know. It’s up to you to set your own boundaries and make time for yourself.  And, you know, I’m a big faith person. So my day starts with faith and ends with it. And that’s what matters.  And the rest of it is work.

I often introduce myself at large forums, such as those focused on faith, family, and work.  And I work like crazy. Just imagine how much I have of the first two, right? It always gets people to chuckle, like, ‘Oh, she’s dedicated to her work. And if that’s only the most, third, most important thing in her life, like I imagine what the rest is, right?  And I, it tends to make people feel like they can trust me to talk to me about other things too.  Which makes work more fun. Like, you can make work really impersonal if you let it. Like in whatever your jobs are.  It can be super impersonal, or you can decide that people used to say ‘work-life balance,’ and I always said I want ‘work-life integration,’ because I want to work with people I enjoy, as they are part of my life.  They’re not just my eight-to-five. That’s where my best friends come from, all in that kind of setting.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker:

The following couple of questions are about being a woman in business, specifically. So the first one is, how do you see new opportunities arising for women in your field?

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

There are opportunities everywhere. I still have a few old-school leaders who will tell me, ‘Oh, you know, they needed a girl.’  You need to attend the meeting. Like, I still get that occasionally, which drives me absolutely up the wall.  And I had one leader who said, ‘Oh, we need, you know, we can’t have another man, all right, a man panel.’  And so like, we’re going to have you come. That’s not okay. Like, like, that’s not okay.  How about women bring a different perspective? And like he used to say, he needed me to come to a meeting to get my gentler side of things.  And so, after a while, I literally went to him and said, ‘I need you to bring your gentle side.’

I know you’re capable. However, please show up as the empathetic boss instead of the boss who’s going to tell everybody what to do. It was like, I know you’re capable. Men are just as capable as we are of being empathetic and having a softer, gentler delivery, and they can also listen to different details, but they don’t lead with that.  And so I’ve actually flipped it to coaching the men around me, saying, ‘ Today, I’m going to bring my hard skills, and you’re going to see me be super direct, and you’re going to get that. ‘ But, like, I need you to show up and be, hey, this sucks.  We’re in this situation. Everybody’s got to work harder this week, whatever it is. I need you to be the empathetic one so I can be the driver.  And, like, we have to be able to take turns. And so, part of women having a seat at all those tables sometimes involves teaching the people around us how to work with us, which is surprising that we still have to do that.  But at least we have the chance to.

For a lot of years, I don’t know how many boardrooms I walked into where I was the only girl, and I had to be escorted by a man.  It’s just this message. And nobody trusted me. And I got excellent at introducing myself within the first three minutes, so they should listen to me, unlike everybody else who was just saying, ‘Hey, I’m Bob.’  I’ve done this 18 more times, so you should listen to me. And, like, I’ve done all these things.  And they’re like, oh, crap.  Maybe we should listen to her. Like. Yeah. There’s a lot of both. So it still exists, but it’s better. It’s certainly better. And I think it’s just about learning to recognize it, work with it, and use it as a strength.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

Who did you turn to for advice or guidance when you were starting your career and moving up the corporate ladder?

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

 One thing I always did was straightforward. I always picked somebody I worked with and said, ‘Who’s just like, I would literally, on each project I was on, say, whose job do I want someday?’  And then I’d meet them. And it was always five clicks ahead of me, right? Not like the immediate next job.  And I would go sit down with him for coffee and say, ‘I want your job someday.’ Tell me how to get it.  And all of a sudden, they became, I’m going to make a mini me.

I have people come and say, ‘I want you to mentor me.’ What do you want to do?  They’re like, I don’t If somebody comes and says, I want to be you someday. I’m like, okay. Hey, here’s what I did.  Here’s what I learned. Here’s that, like that I know, right? Like everybody knows their own journey and the mistakes they made along the way, but nobody knows your random and ambiguous one.  I want a little of this. I want a little of that. I always pick somebody and tell them, ‘I want your job someday.  It was so funny how it flipped around. Um, just a really like, I don’t know. And I learned about their journey, and I listened, taking notes. They also got invested in helping me make the following moves, which became interesting.  Cause they’re like, now you’re my shadow. So I have to help you become active.

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

My final question is, what advice do you have for girls who are looking to start in business after college?

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

Courage. It’s all about courage. Um, are you going to get a million nose? A million hard things.  And I don’t know. What I found interesting is that I once led a team of around 300 people.  And the men would come to me more frequently and talk about how they felt like they weren’t worthy of the role they were given.  And have that internal dialogue of, ‘I’m not good enough for this role.’ And you put me in something that’s too senior.  And I’m not ready. And I’m not good at it. Like, I need help. And I need help. And like, I’m not good enough.  And my peers are all like winning. And in every women’s group I’d attend, the women would discuss how they didn’t experience that internal dialogue of being nervous, and how they believed only women had this problem.  And I was like, guys, like all of your men peers also have this problem, but they’re not sitting in a room together talking about it.  So nobody knows that men also have the same insecurities. And that, like, to me, like, leveled the playing field of like, just be courageous and take chances and you’re going to make mistakes and that’s okay. 

Business is, and I have always stayed outcome-driven.  You can get stuck in the process and the cycle of anything, but if you’re focused on what you want your business to achieve, what do you want your business to do? Where is the actual, like, if you don’t have tangible goals that you’re aiming towards, you’re going to get stuck in the, well, today was hard, or, you know, I had an employee that didn’t show up, or, you know, I was trying to get enough sales. I didn’t, like, whatever your business metrics are and whatever portion of business you’re doing.  But if you stay outcome-focused, you’re like, ‘ Oh, I can pivot to that. ‘ It keeps you out of the weeds sometimes so you can stay confident and courageous.  

Girl Money Talks, Annette Walker

Thank you very much for speaking with me. I really appreciate all of the insight.

Accenture, Melanie Cutlan

It’s awesome. And I’d love to help amplify your stories, too. Thank you. All right. Reach out anytime. I’m excited.