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For women in STEM, the barriers to climbing to the top of the ladder are still immense. But for Shalini Jugessur, it was precisely this challenge that inspired her own journey.
“In engineering schools, usually the proportion of women is pretty low,” she explains.
“In my own class there were only 10 girls out of 80. Then when I joined the information systems department of a petroleum company, the number of women were pretty low, especially in managerial or leadership positions.
“So basically I kept looking for role models. I kept looking for people who had in my view ‘achieved’ career-wise. I read a lot of spotlights within Accenture and outside of those women who had made it career-wise, but who also had a fulfilled family life. I was literally in awe.”
Born and raised in Mauritius, Jugessur left home to study engineering in France before beginning her career in the petroleum industry. While her qualifications were grounded in engineering, it was information systems that captured her interest, setting her on a path that would define her professional life.
“For me, it was the chance of the lifetime to actually do something, have an impact and drive a company.”
When the opportunity arose to return home and join Accenture Mauritius in 2009, it seemed like the next logical step.
“At that time Accenture was pretty small in Mauritius, I believe we were close to 300 people,” she explains.
“What started with a team of 300 people has grown into a vibrant community of 3,500 reinventors in Mauritius. Fifteen years ago I used to think that in a company of 300 people with just a few clients, I’d do a quick run around it and then go back to Europe. It so happened that as the company grew, I had opportunities to manage bigger projects, get bigger clients and then in technology things always move.”
Jugessur flourished within the company, and in 2019 she was appointed Managing Director of Accenture Technology in Mauritius.
“When I got offered the position, it was the first time that our technology business had appointed a woman in this position,” she recalls.
“I felt proud and was very happy that the glass ceiling that everyone mentioned actually did not exist. And if I had made it, it meant that any woman around me could make it someday too.
“That was one of the things that helped me say yes to the position. But also for me, it was the chance of the lifetime to actually do something, have an impact and drive a company.”
For Jugessur, leadership has become an ongoing exercise in balancing competing priorities: attracting graduates, reskilling employees, recruiting internationally and continually adapting the business to meet client demand.
“The biggest problem in Mauritius is availability of talent because it’s a small population, a small island,” she explains.
“It’s like juggling a lot in your hands, between having a batch of new graduates who have gone through distant learning and you need to re-shift, readapt and retrain them in a way. Juggling between people who leave the country and go settle out of Mauritius.
“But it’s also pushing and going to the African continent to find talent and bring it to Mauritius. But this is probably what I do best; push and find solutions that I probably couldn’t think about a few years ago.”
It’s this same mentality that courses throughout Accenture and shapes the way they develop as a company.
“We say that the only constant in our industry is change,” she says.
“So things change all the time. We get to learn new things, new clients, and then we get to innovate all the time. It’s about reinventing the way we operate every time and right now everyone is talking about AI and the way it would drastically change the way we live and the way we operate our businesses.”
AI is reshaping each and every industry at extraordinary speed, forcing organizations to rethink not only the services they provide but how they deliver value. For Jugessur, AI is not simply another technological evolution, it represents a fundamental shift in the business model itself.
“AI is moving faster than the speed at which organizations can adapt,” she admits.
“For me, that’s one of the challenges I am currently going through. New assets, new tools come out every day and new solutions come out every day. Readapting my organization is one of the things I’m doing right now just because things are changing very, very fast.
“We are moving out of the full-time equivalent model, using AI to augment our capabilities and even replacing some of our basic work that we used to do.”
“AI is moving faster than the speed at which organizations can adapt.”
Preparing for that future requires significant investment in learning and development, something Jugessur believes has long differentiated Accenture from its competitors.
“I think that in Mauritius we’re probably one of the few companies who invest so much in new technologies, in reskilling, in upskilling, in training programs,” she says.
“We just reorganize ourselves to reflect our client buyer values. Our organization is now in a way that if you are a CIO, you would be talking to our digital core group. If you are a chief security officer, you would be talking to our security group. If you are chief marketing officer, you’ll be talking to our marketing group. If you’re CFO, you’ll be talking to our finance group.
“So we have massively changed the way we operate. And we did that because every business, every industry, every client is also at a point where they need to reinvent themselves and their businesses in order to stay in the game.”
Alongside commercial success, the organization has embedded social responsibility deep into its operating model through initiatives supporting people with disabilities, female entrepreneurs and disadvantaged communities.
“We have helped over the years and we have partnered with numerous non-governmental organizations where we have actually equipped people with disabilities with the technology that can help them build skills,” she explains.
The company’s Learning to Earning program provides technology, infrastructure and training to help participants build meaningful careers, while environmental partnerships and collaboration with government on Mauritius’ national AI strategy reflect a commitment to strengthening the country’s long-term competitiveness.
“That’s what differentiates us from our competitors,” she emphasizes. “It’s not just our expertise. It’s the fact that we invest heavily in training our people and then it’s the impact that we make on the societal and environmental front and collaborating with the government to advance the strategy of the country.”
Equally important are the relationships that sustain the business itself. Around half of Accenture Mauritius’ clients have remained with the organization for more than a decade, while approximately one-third have partnered with the business for over 15 years.
“It’s very important for us to build long term relationships,” Jugessur says of these key partnerships with local suppliers such as property developers NeXTeracom.
“When you work at Accenture, having that trust with your client is actually an obsession.”
“Every business, every industry, every client is also at a point where they need to reinvent themselves and their businesses in order to stay in the game.”
Creating this environment of trust, transparency and authenticity is key to both Jugessur and Accenture’s driving philosophy.
“That is also an obsession to me, creating a workplace where everyone feels they belong,” she says. “We don’t only aim to create financial returns for ourselves, but provide a broader experience, whether it is for our clients, for our workforce, for the ecosystem we’re operating and our partners.
“When we look at it from a broader perspective and not only the financial perspective, but on value, on the people, on the workforce, on the environment where we operate, it’s an approach that probably would reinforce our long-term presence and existence rather than just a spot like that.”
Now, after 17 years working with Accenture Mauritius, Jugessur has grown and evolved alongside the company.
“I’m very grateful to Accenture because I’ve spent 17 years learning so many things,” she enthuses.
“There are so many challenges that I’ve come to that have shaped my own progression and the person that I am. I’ve had opportunities being in Mauritius and working on totally different geographies. Accenture offers such a broad spectrum of career opportunities.”
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