The transformation of a business is never just about evolving the offerings, markets, or economic model. It profoundly questions collective reflexes, decision-making modes, and the way teams collaborate daily. In other words: the culture.
This precise articulation between business transformation and cultural transformation was at the heart of the 5th edition of The Dots Connect, organized by The Dots and hosted by Albert School.
To discuss this, two organizations with very different trajectories shared their perspectives:
Valérie Pivert-Diallo (HR Director of Volkswagen France) and Xavier Chardon (HR Director of Volkswagen France)
Joséphine Damelincourt (HR Director of FuturMaster).
1. When the business transforms, the culture becomes visible
As long as the model works, the culture often remains implicit. But as soon as a shock occurs - acquisition, change in governance, market shift - collective behaviors become a central issue. Discussions show that culture then acts as a revealer: it either accelerates transformation... or hinders it.
FuturMaster: seizing the momentum to realign mission and culture
At FuturMaster, the trigger is clear: the entry of a majority shareholder and the departure of the founder. These simultaneous events create a rare window of collective attention.
Rather than starting with values, the company makes a structural choice: redefine the mission. Why do we work together? What unites us beyond the products?
This preliminary work allows for establishing a coherent culture with new challenges: international growth, profitability, and expansion of offerings. The culture then becomes a lever for rebalancing a strong engineering culture - focused on complexity - with demands for execution and business value.
Volkswagen Group France: transforming before being compelled to
At Volkswagen Group France, the transformation is of a different nature. The historical business is still functioning, but the signals are clear: electrification, digitization of vehicles, new entrants like Tesla, regulatory pressure.
The identified risk is that of a "Nokia effect": succeeding for too long with yesterday's right reflexes. In this context, culture becomes a tool to prepare the organization for change, even as economic indicators remain strong.
To remember: the deeper the transformation, the more culture ceases to be invisible and becomes a strategic issue.
2. Clarifying culture: from rhetoric to real behaviors
Discussions highlight a key point: working on culture does not mean stacking values but reducing the gaps between what is displayed and what is experienced. Culture plays out in concrete behaviors, not in slogans.
Naming behaviors to avoid contradictory injunctions
At Volkswagen Group France, three values emerge at the executive committee level: courage, trust, and excellence. Classic words in appearance, but the issue lies elsewhere: their operational interpretation.
Being courageous in compliance, marketing, or logistics is not straightforward. The work, therefore, consists of translating these values into real situations without fixing teams in rigid rules. The goal is not uniformity but coherence.
Testing the culture through dilemmas
At FuturMaster, appropriation takes place through a simple and powerful tool: dilemmas. When faced with two possible options, which one is more aligned with the target culture?
This approach allows for verifying that the values do not contradict each other and that they truly help in decision-making. It also reveals a fundamental point: not everything can be foreseen. Culture must allow for a margin of interpretation while providing a clear direction.
To remember: a useful culture doesn't eliminate complexity; it helps to better arbitrate.
3. Bringing culture to life: managers, systems, and the long term
The last insight is perhaps the most demanding: a culture is not "deployed," it is nurtured. It lives in rituals, management systems, and the key role of frontline managers.
Managers: essential conduits of embodiment
The two organizations emphasize the central role of managers. At Volkswagen Group France, they are engaged through various means: expected behavior profiles, value trophies, managerial rituals, regular speeches.
At FuturMaster, the path is different: the culture serves as a foundation to build a managerial culture that is still not well formalized. Instead of launching a grand theoretical program, the company chooses a pragmatic approach integrated into daily life.
Systems, tools, and small details
Culture doesn't only live in big moments. It also expresses itself in the "ways of working," performance management, meetings, or seemingly trivial details.
The "WoW sprints" at FuturMaster illustrate this logic: cross-functional teams work for six weeks on very concrete topics (meeting efficiency, collaboration) to align practices with values.
At Volkswagen Group France, the challenge is also to embrace the coexistence of subcultures (logistics, marketing, brands) while ensuring that fundamentals remain shared.
To remember: culture strengthens when it permeates all key moments of the employee experience over time.
In conclusion
This 5th edition of The Dots Connect highlights a strong conviction: transforming your business without questioning its culture amounts to leaving the human factor out of the strategic field.
Whether a tech scale-up or a historic industrial group, culture becomes a decisive lever when it is aligned with the mission, translated into concrete behaviors, and supported over time by leaders and managers.
The question is not should the culture be transformed?, but when and how to do it to sustainably support business transformation.