The situation
Capgemini acquired Altran in 2020. I could sense that some Altran employees were worried about their place in the new organisation. I was responsible for internal communications during the transition, working with the communications department and the teams involved.
What I did
The role demanded both a big-picture view and close attention to detail. At first, every message had to go out to both Altran and Capgemini addresses. I didn't run the migration myself, but I tracked its progress with the technical teams: our ability to communicate depended on it. For the brand launch, I led the design of the Capgemini Engineering Playbook, with the communications department, a colleague from the team and contributors from marketing. It brought together the histories of both companies, the rationale for bringing them together, their expertise, and the views of employees, clients and analysts. The hardest part was bringing very different perspectives and materials into one coherent story.
What it produced
The Playbook went out to every team at the brand launch, including those of the acquired companies. Earlier, the Joint Deals Challenge, which I coordinated, had rewarded contracts won together by Altran and Capgemini teams, before they even shared an email domain.
What I took from itWhat people do together carries more weight than what they're told.