As David Droga steps down, we revisit the instant he stepped up

Back then, he sat down with Accenture’s outgoing CEO Brian Whipple for a dialog with The Drum. It was once supposed to mark his arrival – however, studying it now, it additionally seems like a map for what adopted.

In the interview, Droga laid out his view of what creativity can do when you’re taking it significantly. Not simply making advertisements however making exact have an effect on.

Take the ‘Tap Project,’ the initiative he introduced with Unicef again when Droga5 was once slightly out of diapers. It began with a unfastened glass of water in a diner. “I thought, ‘I’m not paying for this, but what if I was? What if I could actually get people in the US to pay for tap water?’” he recalled.

That concept resulted in eating places throughout New York – after which the rustic – including not obligatory $1 donations for faucet water to their expenses. It went on to lift tens of millions and helped Unicef carry blank consuming water to over part one million folks. All from an concept that have compatibility on a serviette.

In the similar dialog, Droga informed Whipple: “Clients don’t just come to us because of the creative. The creative gets all the glory, but strategy is our secret sauce.” That stability – massive middle, transparent head – has been a relentless theme all the way through his time at Accenture.

Since taking the reins in 2021, he’s helped Accenture Song (then Accenture Interactive) develop from $12.5bn to $19bn in income. He’s additionally introduced in combination 40+ acquisitions underneath one emblem and driven creativity into puts specialists don’t in most cases cross. The consequence? An organization as at ease speaking emblem reality with The New York Times as it’s designing apps for brand new mums with Kimberly-Clark.

But now, 5 years on, Droga is moving to a brand new function as vice-chair of Accenture. Less of the day by day, extra of the big-picture pondering. Or, as he put it in a up to date Wall Street Journal interview: “I’m happy to catch my breath, because I’ve been sprinting since I was 18.”

Taking the baton is Ndidi Oteh, who recently runs the Americas trade and turns into CEO of Accenture Song, whilst Nick Law has stepped up as inventive technique and enjoy lead. Two massive brains, no scarcity of ambition.

As for Droga, don’t be expecting him to vanish. If anything else, this subsequent section may well be the place he will get to return to doing what he does easiest: dreaming up the sorts of concepts that sound too easy to paintings – till they do.