Altran Americas:
Strengthening Culture and Cohesion
Across Organizations
Challenge
In 2019, I was engaged on a fractional basis to lead Communications for Aricent, a leading engineering and R&D services business based in the U.S. The organization was navigating a period of significant change following Altran’s acquisition of Aricent, a company with a strong legacy culture and highly committed workforce. Shortly thereafter, Altran itself agreed to be acquired by Capgemini, setting the stage for a second major integration and eventual rebranding as Capgemini Engineering.
As employees experienced multiple ownership changes, organizational transitions, and brand transformations within a relatively short period, uncertainty increased across the business. Questions about culture, leadership, career opportunities, and the future direction of the organization affected morale and confidence. At the same time, leadership needed to bring together employees from different corporate, geographic, and operational cultures while improving business performance.
Approach
I was brought in by the CEO of Aricent (later Altran Americas) to enhance internal communications, increase leadership visibility, and help build a more cohesive culture across the North America business, which included a large engineering workforce based in India.
Following a comprehensive assessment, I developed an integrated internal communications strategy focused on strengthening employee connection, reinforcing organizational values, and creating greater clarity around the company’s direction and priorities. Key initiatives included:
• Elevating the company’s weekly newsletter to improve relevance, readability, and readership
• Increasing leadership visibility through regular CEO communications, including blogs, emails, and video messages
• Launching “Five Questions With,” a leadership-profile series designed to introduce and humanize members of the senior leadership team
• Creating “Race@Work,” an internal speaker series focused on cultural awareness, inclusion, and dialogue across the organization
• Strengthening communication around the company’s vision, values, and evolving identity during a period of significant change
Outcome
As the strategy was implemented, participation and readership increased across multiple channels. Newsletter readership and intranet traffic grew significantly, employee feedback became more positive, and the company’s Glassdoor ratings improved, including a rise in CEO approval ratings from 86% to more than 90%.
The assignment ultimately evolved from a fractional communications leadership role into a full-time position, which later expanded to include responsibility for Marketing across the Americas region.