Accenture has announced it has scrapped its global DEI (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion) goals following ‘an evaluation’ of its policy.’

This adds to a growing number of companies dropping, or considering dropping, their diversity targets in the light of the election of Donald Trump for his second term as President of the United States.

Accenture is by no means the only Tech company to have chosen to roll back from previous DEI commitments – a list which includes Google and Meta. However, others, including Apple and Cisco, have reconfirmed their commitments.

GlobalData has recently observed that in the Tech sector there has been an evolution in all aspects of ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) commitments, and that ESG has become more polarised by geography, with enterprises tending to adjust their speed to implement their targets, as well as re-addressing their targets per se.

The fact is that geopolitical uncertainty and challenging economic conditions are moving ESG, and DEI in particular, into a new phase.

Generally, European countries, governments, and people still tend to retain a more positive attitude, but there are clear signs of pushback in this region too.

Robert Pritchard, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData, comments: ‘The market is moving from faith to facts. There is still plenty of academic proof that ESG not only ‘does good’ but is also good for the bottom and top line. This academic proof is now having to be translated into commercial proof – so the Trump intervention has served to accelerate what was inevitably the next evolutionary stage of ESG.’

Accenture – a pragmatic response?

Accenture’s decision could be seen as a pragmatic response to the changing political landscape – and also an evolving corporate landscape – following the splurge of Executive Orders coming out of the White House. But it is also a stark U-turn for a company whose website still has a 360° value report which refers to ‘delivering (for)… our clients to achieve greater progress on inclusion and diversity, reskill and upskill our clients’ employees, help our clients achieve their sustainability goals.’

Inclusion & Diversity is still listed as one of the six ‘vital dimensions’ of Accenture’s 360° Value Meter. This is also the case across many corporations and organisations across every sector. It is clear the time has come for a re-evaluation of ESG (and therefore DEI) goals and strategies so their value can be better measured and justified in commercial terms.

It is probably the end of tick-boxes in DEI, but that does not signal the end of the potential value of DEI, just a new phase of implementation.