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ATD Blog

ATD Case by Case: Talent Solves Business Challenges

Wednesday, September 28, 2016
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At first glance, Tata Consultancy Services, Hilton Worldwide, and Johnsonville Sausage may not seem to have a lot in common. However, if you take a closer look at what is going on inside each company, you may be surprised by what you find.

The Human Capital Community of Practice worked with ATD BEST and Excellence in Practice winners to uncover the secrets of their talent development departments, compiling their findings in case studies. Each study features a challenge an organization faced and how it used talent development to overcome it. The studies reveal the strategies, solutions, and results used by each organization.

The following excerpt is pulled from the case study on Tata Consultancy featuring their solution to a language barrier. 

A Sneak Peek 

With an impressive $16.5 billion in revenue in 2015, TCS, which has more than 350,000 employees worldwide, is a leader in providing IT consulting and business solutions. TCS’ reach spans clients in 46 countries. Certainly, consultants who can communicate in multiple languages and work well across cultures are a valuable asset to TCS

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CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran recognizes how a learning culture helps his organization stay competitive in the rapidly changing global business environment. The talent development team, led by the vice president and global head for talent development, Damodar Padhi, provides employees with “anytime, anywhere” access to learning, including language instruction, through asynchronous courses and routinely encourages employees to obtain certifications and take ownership of their own learning goals.

In 2014, TCS confronted a new challenge as its business expanded quickly in France. Consultants working with French clients struggled to communicate key issues and maintain relationships. These problems arose because clients were more comfortable conversing in French, and most of the consultants working with them did not speak much French, despite having business and IT expertise.

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Because the consultants were already working on active projects, any language training had to be deployed rapidly and would need to be intensive and include live instructor-led lessons. Recognizing this, the Culture and Language Initiatives team, led by Dolon Gupta, launched a major performance initiative, The French Connexion. The goal of the program was to quickly train consultants to conduct effective business conversations in French, which would improve not only the efficiency of their work, but also clients’ comfort level, loyalty, and satisfaction. 

Results 

To find out if the French Connexion was successful, continue reading here. The complete library of case studies is available for all of our ATD members to access at any time. Simply go to casebycase.td.org and use your ATD login for complete access.

Not yet a member? Find out more about what an ATD membership can do for you.

About the Author

Clara Von Ins is the Human Capital Specialist at the Association for Talent Development (ATD). Prior to working for ATD, Clara worked for the American Red Cross as the disaster program coordinator in Santa Barbara, California.


Clara received an bachelor’s degree from the Ohio State University in psychology and education. She is currently attending the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill remotely to obtain a master’s degree in public administration with an emphasis on nonprofit management and community and economic development. 


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