A well-controlled trajectory. That’s the image Sunstice (formerly FuturMaster) gives, and rightly so. More than 30 years in business, steady and controlled growth, with almost no fundraising rounds.
Their secret? Teams that are mostly technical, highly committed, and deeply rooted in day-to-day operations.
And above all: strong employee loyalty and high tenure, which clearly reflects the company’s stability and solidity.
The last few years have brought many changes to the company, which now has to rise to the challenge of a brand-new phase of more sustained growth.
In 2024, everything changes within just a few months:
FuturMaster is acquired by an investment fund.
Shortly after, the company welcomes a new CEO.
And around the same time, FuturMaster (which becomes Sunstice) acquires a company from the start-up ecosystem.
These changes and this new organization are meant to accelerate growth, improve performance, and develop the company’s profitability.
At the end of 2024, the executive committee meets to define the fundamentals and values that will guide the company toward these new objectives.
Problem: the direction is clear. But the starting point is fuzzy. And it is in this context that Joséphine Damelincourt, the company’s new HR VP, arrives.
“The change in shareholders and CEO triggered a very rapid transformation. We knew what we wanted to change, but not exactly where we were starting from. We needed a clear benchmark.”
Joséphine Damelincourt, HR VP at Sunstice
The challenge, initially an HR one, then becomes intimately linked to performance and the need becomes clear: to make the real culture objective, measure the gaps between reality and vision, and sketch out a concrete trajectory for teams in their day-to-day work.
Objective: move from a “stated” culture to true performance management
The culture is thought through, the values are written down, and the expected behaviors are defined. But the blockage is clear: none of it is measured or made objective.
The company and its culture remain at a declarative stage, with intentions, but few concrete elements to understand the reality of practices.
“We already had intuitions about our culture and what we wanted to change, but it’s very hard to know exactly where we stand without concrete data.”
Joséphine Damelincourt, HR VP at Sunstice
In practice, this lack of clarity is found at different levels of an organization that had never experienced such changes:
The teams are particularly focused on execution, used to process-driven approaches and not very exposed to cross-functional thinking such as corporate culture.
For their part, managers are willing, but they do not have the methods and tools needed to drive this change on a day-to-day basis.
The culture remains difficult to read, share, and above all manage.
All the more so because, alongside these changes, the new environment in which the company finds itself raises the bar on performance expectations and disrupts employees’ reference points.
“When we started talking about performance with the new values, it was a real change for part of the teams.”
Joséphine Damelincourt, HR VP at Sunstice
How do you evolve the organization without a clear starting point? How do you formalize and objectify the new expectations for employees? How do you make sure the new values are adopted and embodied by employees?
To answer these questions and address these challenges, Sunstice decides to call on TheDots and launch a first Leadership Scan.
The Leadership Scan: making gaps visible and culture actionable
Getting a clear read on its situation and starting from a concrete foundation to manage its transformation. That is the need expressed by Sunstice and the objective of the support provided by TheDots.
Support built on 3 pillars:
A survey and interviews carried out with employees to capture the culture truly experienced by the teams.
An analysis of ways of working, to observe day-to-day practices and identify dysfunctions.
A cross-analysis of the gaps between the real culture and the company’s target culture.
The result? A clearer vision and concrete avenues for taking the right actions.
“Employees thought they were evolving in a very people-oriented culture. In reality, we were much more about control and process. The TheDots scan made this gap visible and helped define the next steps more clearly.”
Joséphine Damelincourt, HR VP at Sunstice
For the first time, Sunstice has a clear starting point, shared by the entire organization, as well as a new guiding line.
“Seeing concretely where we stand, with visual and comparable elements, completely changes the way you approach the subject.”
Joséphine Damelincourt, HR VP at Sunstice
Moving quickly from diagnosis to action
Once the diagnosis is made, the next step is clear: turn these insights into concrete actions that are visible and useful in the teams’ day-to-day work.
And several projects are quickly launched to anchor these topics within the organization:
Workshops with managers to work on their role in the culture and give them concrete reference points.
The gradual integration of cultural issues into management practices and employee performance reviews.
Work to clarify expectations and make the expected behaviors easier to understand.
Communication actions to connect the initiatives to the overall transformation project.
Enough to anchor the diagnosis in everyday work and kick-start the transformation in concrete terms.
“The scan really allowed us to move into action. We moved beyond a somewhat abstract topic and started working concretely on what we expected from the teams.”
Joséphine Damelincourt, HR VP at Sunstice
A gradual transformation, managed over time and jointly with TheDots
The Leadership Scan does not mark the end of Sunstice’s transformation period. Rather, it is a starting point that has evolved over time into the thread running through the change.
Some initiatives, particularly around co-constructing ways of working with the teams, showed that employees still needed time to fully embrace these changes.
“We realized that we had moved a little too fast compared with the teams’ level of maturity on these topics. We are going to take the necessary time and put new actions in place to continue this work.”
Joséphine Damelincourt, HR VP at Sunstice
For Sunstice, transforming its organization is not a one-off topic. It is a true logic of iteration and a subject that must be measured, adjusted, and managed continuously.
The company has a solid foundation. But it wants to extend this work and this collaboration over time by carrying out a new Leadership Scan, one year after the first:
“The results of the Leadership Scan are very rich. The challenge now is to measure progress, make better use of all the feedback, and structure what comes next to unlock its full potential.”
Joséphine Damelincourt, HR VP at Sunstice
A logical next step for a company that wants to do things well without disrupting what makes its success today: the teams and their professional expertise.
“One word to sum up TheDots?”
“The word that comes to mind is really Sparring Partner. Having people opposite you who challenge you and help you co-build really makes the difference.”
Joséphine Damelincourt, HR VP at Sunstice