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A Commitment to Move Accenture’s talent and learning officer Rahul Varma hasn’t been afraid to start over and lean into the new, which has paved the way for significant learning and development innovation. BY BRAVETTA HASSELL
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ahul Varma was dead for two minutes. Literally, dead. He was in the early years of his career at Accenture as the international consultancy was in the midst of deepening its presence in India. He had been named the company’s first human resources director for India and was working around the clock to bring this fast-growing venture to life. Born with severe bronchial asthma, Varma’s condition worsened as Accenture expanded its India footprint from 200 people in 2001 to an astounding 40,000 employees by 2008. Having already suffered two bouts of asthma during this time, he experienced a third event while visiting New Delhi — collapsing in the midst of a meeting during the final attack. Colleagues rushed a passed-out Varma to the hospital where he went into cardiac arrest. Varma said he was gone for two minutes before regaining consciousness. “The reason I’m alive today is because of my Accenture colleagues. My association with Accenture and with our people is much deeper than what might appear at the surface,” said Varma, who today is Accenture’s talent and learning officer. His commitment to Accenture and his passion for developing talent are such that he’s never backed away when the company presents him with a new endeavor. Varma started with Accenture straight out of school in his home town of New Delhi, then to Mumbai, India, and on to Singapore before landing in New York. He has chosen to stay open to new ideas and ways of doing things, he said. Alongside that journey, he’s led the creation of learning and development programs intended to drive Accenture forward. Driving efforts like Varma’s at a company that employs 394,000 people takes boldness and unrestrained thinking, said Accenture Senior Managing Director for Talent Strategy Nate Boaz. “Rahul does all of this with humility and courage.”
24 Chief Learning Officer • May 2017 • www.CLOmedia.com
Innovations in Learning and Talent For Varma’s part, the chance to create opportunities for people and helping them do what they love is what has sent him from one country and one challenge to another. “From the very first day until almost 23 years later, that very purpose hasn’t changed,” Varma said. “But there’s a lot more clarity to it and there’s a lot more shape and form to it.” In creating Accenture Connected Learning, he sought to strike a balance between the advantages found in employees’ off-site learning and training and what he
“The reason I’m alive today is because of my Accenture colleagues.” — Rahul Varma, talent and learning officer, Accenture calls “learning all the time.” Whether through an in-person classroom or by way of an online application, multiple environments were needed. ACL, which was launched in 2015, includes physical classrooms that are virtually linked to one another across Accenture’s training network. In each classroom, tables are also “connected” to one another to facilitate learning and collaboration. ACL also includes Pinterest-like online learning boards that enable employees to access expert-curated information on different topics. On top of that are more than 100 professional communities for people based on work, skill and project area. “We want our people to have access to the very best learning when they need it and how they need it,” said Varma, who served as the company’s chief learning officer from 2011 to 2016. “(ACL) was not about bringing people to great learning. It was bringing great learning to people.” He was leading learning when in 2014 the company