Accenture
Liz Tinkham is the global managing director for the management consulting organization in the communications and high tech group at Accenture.
Working for Accenture for more than 25 years, she has focused particularly on customer relationship management and data service strategy. Twenty-one of her 25 years has been spent with her current group. Her career has taken her from Chicago, San Francisco, and Florham, NJ. According to a company profile at Accenture.com's career site, one of the most challenging aspects of her professional life has been trying to keep up with the constant changes in the markets and technology. She credits her success with willing to be flexible in roles and assignments and not trying to over-design what she will do next.
Tinkham has earned a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio. She also serves on the board of The Enterprising Kitchen and the Women's Board of the Adler Planetarium.
Last Updated: Fri, Apr 9, 2010
| Category | Title | Author/Speaker | Organization | Length | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video | The Mistake Made by Most Start-ups | Polly Sumner · Liz Tinkham | Salesforce & Accenture | 01:58 | 03/2010 |
| Video | Magic in Simplicity | Polly Sumner · Liz Tinkham | Salesforce & Accenture | 02:13 | 03/2010 |
| Video | Learning from Failure | Polly Sumner · Liz Tinkham | Salesforce & Accenture | 02:15 | 03/2010 |
| Video | No Idea Is a Dumb Idea | Polly Sumner · Liz Tinkham | Salesforce & Accenture | 02:31 | 03/2010 |
| Video | Biggest Challenge of a CEO of a Start-up | Polly Sumner · Liz Tinkham | Salesforce & Accenture | 03:29 | 03/2010 |
| Video | Entrepreneurship in Large and Small Companies | Polly Sumner · Liz Tinkham | Salesforce & Accenture | 03:39 | 03/2010 |
| Video | Success and Failure Drive Innovation (Entire Talk) | Polly Sumner · Liz Tinkham | Salesforce & Accenture | 54:33 | 03/2010 |
| Podcast | Success and Failure Drive Innovation | Polly Sumner · Liz Tinkham | Salesforce & Accenture | 56:49 | 03/2010 |
The problem most startups have when they take their product or service to the big companies? "The big companies can't figure out how to make it mundane enough to interoperate with all of the complexity they have," answers Liz Tinkham, a global manager at Accenture. She says that a start-up may have the best piece of new technology ever, but if it doesn't work easily with other technology, it's just too hard to get larger companies to adopt the service or product.
"There's magic in simplicity," asserts Poly Sumner, chief adoption officer at salesforce.com. When you make things simple, she says people will use them. "Look at the iPhone," she says, pointing out the relationship between innovation and simplicity in the tech industry. Accenture's Liz Tinkham adds that this simplicity becomes even more important when writing a solid business proposal. The idea needs to be communicated concisely to have any success, she says.
For Polly Sumner, recovering from failure is a lesson that you first learn as a child. She says that playing sports as an adolescent stresses the important fact that when you lose a game, you need to get back and play harder. "When you fail the first time and win the second time, the win is much sweeter," says Sumner.
Polly Sumner, chief adoption officer at salesforce.com, observes that entrepreneurship thrives in companies where people believe "no idea is a dumb idea." It's something important to her, and she advises anyone interviewing for a job to check out whether the company is interested in new ideas. "I never interview a person... without asking," she says, "?What's an idea you've had that you think could work here?'" If you look at entrepreneurs who receive venture capital money, she believes that you'll see people who are not afraid of taking a risk on an idea.
The size difference between a large company and a startup didn't faze her, says salesforce.com?s Polly Sumner, the biggest challenge as a CEO of a start-up was learning how lead all departments of a company (i.e., marketing, product development) towards a single target. To do so, she believes it first requires a period of self-assessment for the CEO to realize how through what type of lens they use to examine problems. Once they understand their "DNA make-up," they can build a team that complements their skill sets and broadens their vision. "In entrepreneurialism, you need to remember to keep your lens wider," Sumner stresses.
Salesforce.com's Polly Sumner believes that many people define entrepreneurship as starting your own business. She argues that there is a lot of entrepreneurism that occurs in larger companies. Not only confined to the area of product development, she points out that innovation can occur in any area, such as marketing or finance.
Accenture's Liz Tinkham interviews salesforce.com's Polly Sumner about entrepreneurship that occurs in both large and small companies. They both agree that innovation and risk-taking occur in any-sized company where the culture emphasizes "no idea is a dumb idea." Sumner advises young entrepreneurs to not fear risk: every failure teaches you a valuable lesson, and once learned, success is that much sweeter.
Accenture's Liz Tinkham interviews salesforce.com's Polly Sumner about entrepreneurship that occurs in both large and small companies. They both agree that innovation and risk-taking occur in any-sized company where the culture emphasizes "no idea is a dumb idea." Sumner advises young entrepreneurs to not fear risk: every failure teaches you a valuable lesson, and once learned, success is that much sweeter.