Global insights: The blueprint for aligning strategy and culture at Constellium
Global insights: The blueprint for aligning strategy and culture at Constellium
In this episode of Fearless Thinkers, Rick welcomes Martin Rahn, Director of Talent Development at Constellium, a global leader in the development, manufacturing, and recycling of aluminum products and solutions. Martin, highly experienced in HR and Talent Management, has closely partnered with BTS to implement a comprehensive leadership development program aimed at aligning leadership, strategy, and culture. Drawing from his extensive experience with global companies, Martin discusses how Constellium’s tailored programs and internal collaboration have successfully fostered company culture and empowered leaders to navigate transformation and change. Tune in to hear more about Constellium’s strategic approach and significant improvements in employee engagement.
Most of us want to lead in a way that matters; to lift others up and build something people want to be part of.But too often, we’re socialized (explicitly or not) to lead a certain way: play it safe, stick to what’s proven, and avoid the questions that really need asking.
This podcast is about the people and ideas changing that story. We call them fearless thinkers.
Our guests are boundary-pushers, system challengers, and curious minds who look at today’s challenges and ask, “What if there is a better way?”If that’s the energy you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place.
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Rick Cheatham: Welcome to Fearless Thinkers, the BTS podcast. As always, I'm your host, Rick Cheatham. Today I'm joined by Elie Ruderman, one of our Directors here at BTS, because we're having a conversation with one of his great clients. So Elie, tell us a little bit about our guest and Constellium.
Elie Ruderman: Thanks, Rick. I'm happy to introduce you to Martin, who is the Director of Talent Development at Constellium. They're a global leader in the development, manufacturing, and recycling of aluminum products and solutions. And Martin has been working with us since 2019 to create and deploy a comprehensive leadership development program.The goal of the program is to align leadership strategy and culture and to create a Multiplier leader culture. Martin has years of experience in HR and talent management. He's worked for many global companies in both local and global talent development strategy roles. And in this conversation, he brings his unique perspective on how organizations can foster company culture and empower leaders to successfully navigate transformation and change.
Rick: Thanks so much for the introduction, Elie. It was a truly great conversation – it was fun to understand more about the work that they've done at Constellium and where they want to go.
Elie: At this point, we've worked with over 500 leaders at Constellium and a recent impact measurement survey has shown that these participants feel significantly more engaged, more empowered, and more recognized. Constellium really saw this program as a key enabler for their company strategy.
Rick: That's fantastic. Thanks so much, Elie.
Elie: Thanks Rick. Happy to help.
Rick: Hey, Martin, welcome to the show.
Martin: Hey, good morning, Rick.
Rick: What's been going on in your world?
Martin: Well, it has been a busy weekend. There was a German summer party at my kid's school with all the typical cliches like pretzel and beer and singing and songs. It was nice and then also there was a water polo quarter final I played this weekend here in Paris. So, it was busy, but nice.
Rick: It sounds like time very, very well spent. All my kids are older now. In fact, one of them is getting married this weekend and I kind of miss things like summer parties.
Martin: Well, congratulations on your kid. Yeah, it was nice seeing all the kids and all the parents.
Rick: Well, hey, I want to thank you again for agreeing to come on and share your story with our audience. I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about your organization.
Martin: Yes, of course. Constellium is a company working in the aluminum industry. I pronounced it the British way. We are transforming aluminum for customers like Airbus, Boeing, Porsche, BMW, Ford, GM and many big companies in the automotive aerospace and packaging industry. It's 12,000 people company, 8 billion dollars, with plants and production facilities around the world.
Rick: It's funny cause I spent the majority of the first part of my career in a company called Avery Dennison and when you work for somebody that's a lot higher up the value chain, I think people don't realize how large these companies are in the role that they play, really making the world function.
Martin: That's for sure and I actually know Avery Dennison and B2B is especially different. That's for sure.
Rick: Yeah, I used to refer to us as the largest company nobody had ever heard of, I'm honored that you have. So, what was going on for you guys that made you realize that you needed to do something different from a leadership perspective?
Martin: I think it's important to understand some of the history of Constellium because it's actually quite a young and old company at the same time. So, it was a merger of different companies, at different times changing ownership, but it was only created in 2011 under its current form. One of our key challenges was to create a common company culture where people feel that they're part of one company and we got the feedback that our leadership learning and development offer was not homogeneous and depending on the location, depending on the region, quite different. So, we defined back in 2018, a new learning and development strategy until 2025, where we tried implement the Constellium way of leading and our own company culture. there were also external factors that played a role like the war of talent and talent attraction retention was very critical.
So, we are thinking and rethinking what can we do differently to help drive, and attract talent into our business and shape our company culture?
Rick: There are two interesting things that I'm just curious about how they really affected you all and one actually relates to that thing that we've already been talking about where when you speak of the war on talent, how have you all been able to maintain that “employer of choice” position?
Martin: We are a company, as you said earlier, which is not known to anybody in the public. So, it's even more complicated for us to attract new talent. So on the one hand we've developed an increased collaboration with local schools and universities.
And then also once people join Constellium, they actually realize that we have a story to tell. That there are lots of career opportunities and that's the type of company people enjoy working for. So, our turnover rate is rather low and once they understand that, okay, it's an interesting product, there's lots of technological aspects. If you're an engineer and there's lots of metallurgy aspects that you have to master at the same time as you're playing for big companies, you have interesting customers, so it's a nice company to work for once you discover it from inside.
Rick: With regional differences and historical differences, how were you able to thread that needle of honoring the past while building a future that was common for all?
Martin: That was actually one of the challenges if you have people with the company for 20, 30 years, they know the previous companies and company cultures and what we tried implement at this stage was a company vision, driven by our CEO and our executive committee focusing on empowerment. How can we empower our teams? How can we empower different people in the organization? And how can we create a common culture without neglecting the history?
If you are working in France for one company, and then you've worked in the US for another company, the history and the background are quite different, but we found that learning and development are key elements where people are really engaged and motivated to join training programs, for example, to exchange and create kind of an internal network.
So, we've used our different L&D elements with a big focus on networking and best practice sharing where people can see that, even if I'm working in West Virginia or if I'm working the middle of Germany, our challenges might be quite similar. We have similar customers. We have similar ways of operating our machines. So, there was a big effort that we've done to put into our L&D strategy to also create a common company culture.
Rick: When you started to build that common leadership culture and language, tell me a little bit about what drove your thinking and decisions there and what you ultimately decided to do.
Martin: Constellium is a very lean company and quite a small headquarter team. So, we said we had to start somewhere and that's when we designed our pyramid of leadership for different levels on the organization, we have one global offer that we can propose to our employees and we decided to start from the middle, our mid-level leaders, those typically are people who are managing other people and are not yet at director level. So, it's really the big layer in the middle of an organization and we'd said, we need to create a program for those people they have a big influence. They have an average of six to seven directory parts who then manage different operators. The other layer between top management and the folks implementing.
So, we said, what can we do to help them? That's when we started creating a project team and one of the key learnings was to have a cross regional, cross functional and cross BU project team. And we had quite a classical approach. We reached out to different vendors, explaining to them what we are trying to achieve and then selected one vendor which we wanted to do this work.
Rick: I think that's actually brilliant to start with those middle managers. I actually had a client in the past that we'd refer to them as the mud layer because you have the executives at the top that are kind of owning the change and you have those frontline managers many times who want to believe what their senior leadership is saying and are ready to run. But then that layer in between sometimes can be very difficult because they became successful under the old way of working. And so, I would think by starting with them, you probably got more traction.
Martin: Indeed, in our organization, sometimes they manage up to 200, 300 people in the department. It can be even 400 or 500 in the larger plans and so they have a big responsibility, but sometimes they were not well enough equipped whether it's on financial topics, on HR topics, on leadership topics. So what we did is, before creating any program, we did a big customization effort, trying to understand the current and future needs.
So together with BTS, we've done over 50 interviews from our CEO to shift supervisors and all the regions trying to understand, what's working today and what do we need to improve in the future and only once we've done those interviews and understood the actual business need that's in designing and developing actual learning journey.
Rick: What did the ultimate solution end up looking like for you?
Martin: What we are offering today is a learning journey that takes nine months and during those nine months, people go through different activities. There's a kickoff meeting at the beginning of the journey. There are different virtual touch points where the participants meet and discuss amongst themselves without external support.
There are two in person sessions, and there's also coaching involved and digital learning. So, it's a very comprehensive learning journey that allows people to learn on different levels in different ways on their own speed on different topics. And we decided to focus on two main topics: on the multiplier leadership aspect and on what we call business acumen or business understanding.
Rick: What were some of the surprises that you all experienced as you rolled this out?
Martin: The good surprises were that there were a big appetite and a big need and people motivated to work on the project. They wanted to get updates on what the actual journey looked like and what we were trying to implement.
So, there was a big pull from the business and also a big push from the executive committee for this program. The challenge was, and I think we mentioned a little bit earlier in the podcast, if you work in different regions, whether it's in Europe, North America or whatever with plants coming from a very different background, we had kind of a heterogeneous, level of leadership. So, we had some supervisors which are very strong on technical points, others are very strong on HR points, others are very strong on engineering points or whatever and so to find a program that can satisfy many of the needs that people have was the biggest challenge. Then we had some external surprises we wanted to implement the program just prior to COVID, but then obviously there was a bigger external event that put the program at risk.
Rick: I would think that not only for the work that you were trying to do, but for your entire business.
Martin: Yes, indeed.
Rick: I'm wondering how you all have either expanded or contracted this program as you've learned more.
Martin: We see it more as a journey than a one-shot event. Whether it's the leadership development program itself, whether it's creating our company culture making people understand, for example, the value of the multiplier concept.
It's the journey where we need different activities and different things we can do. I told you earlier that we've started with mid-level leaders, but we've also created an executive development program for our top management where we use similar concepts and the multiplier concept and the business simulation.
We created specific line manager sessions for line managers of participants. So, we get a shorter version of the program trying to understand and help them as a line manager, supporting the participants in the journey.
Last year, we organized a webinar together with Airbus where we internally had some speakers and over 300 people joined the webinar talking about the multiplier effect and what people can do, whether it's at Constellium, or at other companies. And we're really trying to implement also in the future, different ways of story sharing and recognition programs, really trying to create this shared company culture and the shared language that in all levels of the organization, you can understand and lead the Constellium way.
Rick: It’s meeting your leaders where they are with what is most important to them. I've been in too many of those situations, especially with sales leaders where they don't get to see things through the lens of how they have to manage their business all day and they end up checking out too many times.
Martin: That's why we felt it was important to make sure that this notion of leading and empowering people and using the Multiplier concept is understood at different levels of the organization. So not only for the target group, but also for the line management and for the top management and making sure it's a common concept at Constellium.
Rick: So, I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about the outcomes you guys have had.
Martin: So far so we run in sessions in French, German, English, Czech, etcetera. And as of today, we have almost 500 people worldwide who went through this program. We've launched 20 cohorts over a period of three years, and the feedback we got was outstanding. Participants really enjoyed the training we had, and that's just the beginning. Some people that are quite skeptical, especially some of the more seasoned managers said, “well, I've seen so many leadership trainings, why should I go through another” and then at the end of the day, for many of them, they said it was one of the best programs they've ever seen. They were surprised by the level of professionalism, by the level of interactivity, and the learnings that they could take from this program due to peer coaching and the different activities.
So, it was very positive and encouraging feedback. We also launched every two years at Constellium a global engagement survey and we just got the feedback from our 2024 edition when we compare people who went through the program. To people who didn't go through the program, people who went through the program almost had 15 percent higher scores than the average. So, for some of the questions, whether you're proud to work at Constellium or whether they believe and understand the business objectives, now that we have put them through the program.
The answers are much higher with some reflection on the program. Not only did participants enjoy it, but also helped them to become better leaders and make better business decisions.
Rick: When people feel like they're being invested in a lot of times better leadership shows up both in their work and survey results like this. It's good to see that those programs actually matter and have an impact. What is your advice for someone who was just beginning this journey and they're starting to hear of the same kinds of needs that you described?
Martin: The first thing is to understand the business need. So, what are you trying to achieve or what you're trying to solve with the initiative, then you need sponsor support from your top management. Third point I would say is establishing a cross functional project team.
So, in the project team I created initially, I had people from all three different business units and people from manufacturing background, people from a commercial background, people more from an HR background. So really a cross functional project team. Then, what worked well for us was to have a customized solution. For example, we created a customized business simulation where people have to run three years (virtually put into three days), but had to run a business which is similar to Constellium to understand, okay, if I take such a decision, what's the impact on our cashflow, what's the impact on our profitability and so for this, you need the right partner, especially if you're a small team internally to make sure that we work with the right company together.
Rick: I can't thank you enough for agreeing to come on and share your story with us and I'll look forward to hearing even more as the program continues to roll out and you get even better results.
Martin: It was a pleasure to be here, Rick.
Rick: Pleasure.
Rick: Thanks for joining me today. It's always a pleasure to bring to you our fearless thinkers. If you'd like to stay up to date, please subscribe. Bios for our guests and links to relevant content are always listed in the show notes. If you'd like to get in touch, please visit us at bts.com. Thanks so much for listening.
Related Content
At BTS, we’re constantly challenging ourselves to innovate at speed. And right now, it feels like we’re standing at the edge of something massive. The energy? Electric. The velocity? Unprecedented. For many of us, the current pace feels a lot like the early days of the pandemic: disorienting, high-stakes, and somehow exhilarating. And honestly—it should feel that way. Our teams have been tinkering with AI, specifically LLMs, for the past 2.5 years and it has really been in the last eight months that I can see the profound impact it is going to have for our clients, for our services and our operating model.
The opportunity isn’t about the technology. The world has it and it’s getting better by the minute. The issue is people and people’s readiness to adopt it and be re-tooled and re-skilled. It’s about leadership. AI is deeply personal, it’s surgical. In fact, that’s its genius. So, getting full scale adoption of AI, re-tooling everyone in the company by workflow, so that they can invent new services, unlock new customer value, unlock new levels of productivity, even use it for a better life, is the current race. The central question I’ve been wrestling with, alongside our clients and our own teams, is this:
What does AI actually mean for leadership and culture?
And the answer is clearer by the day: AI isn’t just a new toolset. It’s a new mindset. It demands that we rethink how we lead, how we learn, and how we build thriving organizations that can compete, adapt, and grow.
The productivity paradox revisited
Let’s start with the elephant in the boardroom. There’s been a lot of buzz around AI and its promises. But many leaders have quietly wondered: Will any of this actually move the needle? A year ago, we were asking the same thing. We had licenses. We had curiosity. We had early experiments. But the results were modest, a 1% productivity gain here or there. But by April, we were seeing:
- 30–80% productivity gains in software engineering
- 9–12% gains in consulting teams
- 5%-20% improvements in client success and operations
Just as importantly, the innovation unlock and creativity across our platforms due to vibe coding along with new simulation layers, is leading to new value streams for our clients. This isn’t theoretical. It’s not hype. It’s real. The difference? Adoption, ownership, and a shift in how we lead in order to energize the AI innovation within our teams. The challenge now isn’t whether AI creates value. It’s how to unlock and scale that value across teams, geographies, and business units—and do it fast.
Two Superpowers of the Agentic AI Era
In working with leaders across industries, I’ve come to believe in two superpowers (there are more as well) that will unlock the potential of this AI era: Jazz Leadership and a Simulation Culture.
1. Jazz Leadership
Forget the orchestra (although personally I am a big fan.) The successful team cultures that are innovating with AI feel more like jazz. In jazz, there’s no conductor. There’s no fixed sheet music. There are core bars and then musicians make up music on the spot based on each other’s creativity, building off of each other’s trials, riffs and mistakes, build something extraordinary together. This is how experimenting with AI today, in the flow of work, feels like.
For each activity across a workflow, how can new AI prompts, agents, and GPTs make it better, codify high performance, drive speed and quality simultaneously? How can we try something totally different and still get the job done? How might we re-invent how we work? That’s how high-performing teams operate in the AI era. The world is moving too fast for command-and-control leadership, a perfect sheet of music with one leader who is interpreting the sheet music and directing. What we need instead is improvisation, trust, shared authorship, courage and a playful spirit because there are just as many fails as breakthroughs.Jazz leadership is about creating the conditions where:
- Ideas can come from anywhere
- People see tinkering and testing as key to survival and AI failures mean your team is at the edge of what’s possible for your services and ways of working
- Leaders say, “I don’t have all the answers, but I’ll go first, with you”
- People feel “I’m behind relative to my peers in the company” and the company sees this as a good sign because the pace of learning with AI means higher chance of success in the new era
At BTS, we recently promoted five new partners who embody this mindset. They weren’t the most traditional leaders. But they were the most generative. They coached others. They experimented and are constantly re-tooling themselves and others. They inspired movement. They are keeping us ahead, keeping our clients ahead and driving our re-invention. Jazz leaders make teams better, not by directing every note—but by setting the stage for breakthroughs. It is similar to the agile movement, similar to how it felt in Covid as companies had to reinvent themselves. It’s entrepreneurial, chaotic and fun.
2. Simulation Culture
The ability to simulate is a super-power in this next agentic, AI era. Simulation has always been part of creating organizational agility, high performance and leadership excellence. But AI and high-performance computing have transformed it into something bigger, faster, and infinitely more powerful. It means that building a simulation culture is within all of our grasp, if we tap its power.Today, companies simulate:
- Strategic alternatives - from market impact all they way to detailed frontline execution
- New business, new markets and operating models
- Major capital deployment e.g. build a digital twin of a factory before breaking ground
- Initiative implementation
- Workflows current and future
- Jobs to assess for talent and critical role readiness
- Customer conversations and sales enablement motions
With a simulation culture, where you regularly engage in scenario planning and expect preparation and practice as a way of working, billions in capital is saved, cross-functional teams are strengthened, high performance gets institutionalized, win rates increase, earnings and cash flow improves.
Where to get started
Below are a few examples of what leading organizations are doing. Consider testing these in your own organization:
- Conversational AI bot platforms used to scale performance expectations and the company’s unique culture.
- Agentic simulations built into tools so people can prepare and practice with 100% perfect context and not a wasted moment.
- Digital twins of the job created so that certifications and hiring decisions are valid.
- Micro-simulations spun up in hours to align 50,000 people to a shift in the market or a new operational practice.
Final Thoughts
- Lead like a jazz musician. Embrace improvisation, courage and shared creativity.
- Build a simulation culture. Because in a world that’s moving this fast, practice isn’t optional—it’s how we win.
This is a brave new world. Not five years from now. Right now.Let’s shape it—together.
You already know strategy matters. You’ve likely spent months—maybe years—crafting one that’s bold, clear, and built to win. But when progress stalls, the issue often isn’t the strategy itself—it’s whether the organization can move with it.
That’s where culture comes in.
The culture that once fueled your success may no longer be fit for what’s next. And even if things look fine on the surface, early signals might be telling a different story—signs your culture isn’t accelerating your strategy the way it used to.
Culture is what turns intent into impact. It’s not the values on the wall or the message at a town hall—it’s the unwritten rules that shape how people decide, collaborate, and lead. It’s how things really get done.
When those patterns align with your direction, momentum builds. When they don’t, even the best strategy struggles to stick.
→ Let’s chat about leveraging culture to manage change fatigue at your organization.
You see it in:
- The stories people tell about what gets rewarded
- The choices teams make under pressure
- The habits that show up when no one’s watching
And in the everyday:
- How decisions get made
- How people collaborate
- How accountability is managed
- How change is received
If your strategy has shifted but progress still feels stuck—or strained—it’s worth asking:
Is your culture still serving your business, or is it starting to slow you down?
A case in point
Two years ago, BTS partnered with a global organization that had just launched an ambitious growth strategy. Excitement was high—but results didn’t follow.
Leaders were frustrated by a lack of speed and ownership. Employees said they didn’t feel empowered. The word that kept surfacing? Bureaucracy.
That term became a catch-all for inefficiency, but no one could quite define it. So we helped them unpack what was really going on:
- Unclear decision rights
- Too many committees for too many decisions
- Outdated knowledge-sharing systems
- Manual processes slowing everything down
We visualized the findings in a “bureaucracy tree” to connect the dots. That clarity helped leaders prioritize where to focus first. And that’s when momentum returned.
The power of pivotal moments
The breakthrough didn’t start with a bold new initiative. It started with a shift in focus—from broad ideas to specific moments.
We worked with leaders to identify the everyday situations where culture is shaped and signaled: subtle, unscripted moments that reflect what’s truly expected and rewarded.
- A decision point with no obvious answer: do we act, or wait for perfection?
- A team member hesitates: do we jump in to solve, or create space for them to step up?
When leaders could name these moments, they could begin to shape them—making small, deliberate choices that sent a different signal. These weren’t one-time actions. They were repeatable patterns, practiced consistently.
And they’re just as available to you. Start by asking: where are the moments I tend to default to safety, silence, or control? And how could I begin to respond differently to shift the story?
Breaking old habits and building new ones
With these pivotal moments in mind, the leadership team reflected on their own patterns. How were they showing up? What were they reinforcing?
They focused on three shifts:
- Stop reinforcing slow, complex decision-making
- Start modeling clarity, ownership, and speed
- Shift systems that quietly rewarded caution over empowerment
These weren’t abstract goals. They were grounded in real behaviors:
- How many people are involved in a decision?
- Are roles and responsibilities clear?
- Are our tools helping—or slowing us down?
By focusing on what people could see, track, and practice, change became tangible. It gave people something to act on—and believe in.
Scaling change through experimentation
The organization didn’t treat culture change as a campaign. They treated it as a learning process.
Top leaders ran small, coordinated experiments—turning abstract values into visible behaviors.
In one experiment, leaders committed to returning authority to managers who had “delegated decisions up” to them. In another, they redefined decision rights to cut through ambiguity and accelerate action.
These weren’t pilots. They were deliberate repetitions of new behaviors, designed to build muscle memory across the organization.
The results:
- Decisions moved faster
- Long-stalled initiatives were shut down
- A new product feature launched in half the usual time
- Employees reported feeling more empowered and accountable
If you’re wondering what this could look like for your organization, start here: What’s one behavior you could test out—or let go of—for a week? What’s one decision you could delegate? One moment you could coach instead of solve?
That’s how momentum builds—quietly, visibly, and fast.
Four common patterns to surface
Now that you’ve seen how small cultural habits shape (or stall) strategy, the next step is to spot where those habits are hiding in your organization. Here are four patterns we often see when momentum is missing—along with what they may be signaling.
Element of Culture What It Shapes What It Might Look Like Today Why It Might Be Time to Rethink Decision making Speed, ownership, and accountability Teams slow down not because the path is unclear, but because they’re unsure who’s empowered to choose it. Decisions stall in ambiguity—or escalate unnecessarily. Legacy approval structures often reflect yesterday’s risks. Today’s pace requires alignment over consensus, and trust in judgment at every level. Meeting norms Focus, decision velocity, and participation Meetings are packed with updates, but few decisions get made. Real conversations happen in sidebars—after the meeting ends. When meetings become status dumps, they signal that the real work happens elsewhere. Reclaim meetings for collaboration and visible decisions to shift how teams show up—and move with more speed. Leadership modeling Credibility and cultural integrity Leaders talk about agility or empowerment—but in high-stakes moments, default to control, caution, or top-down decisions. Culture isn’t shaped by slides—it’s shaped by what leaders do when it counts. If words and actions diverge, people follow the behavior. Find misalignments and try a new tack. Feedback Learning, adaptability, and momentum Leaders see something misaligned—but let it go to avoid discomfort or protect relationships. Feedback is delayed, diluted, or disappears. Without feedback, small misalignments calcify. Cultures that learn fast don’t wait—they normalize feedback as a lever for shared growth.
Which one shows up most in your team? That’s your next pivotal moment.
Shining a flashlight on your invisible “monsters”
When it comes to culture, the hardest part is often what you can’t see—or don’t know how to name.
Think back to childhood. Most of us, at some point, were convinced there was a monster in the closet or under the bed. In the dark, a pile of clothes becomes something menacing. A shadow turns into something to fear.
But then the light comes on. You see clearly. The fear fades. What once felt huge and scary becomes harmless—even a little silly.
That’s what culture can feel like inside an organization. Bureaucracy. Resistance. Complexity. These forces seem big and hard to define. They slow us down and sap momentum. But more often than not, they’re just old habits and assumptions lurking in the dark.
When leaders learn to spot the subtle, pivotal moments that shape behavior, they turn the light on. What felt intangible becomes specific. What felt impossible becomes actionable.
You don’t need a total reinvention. You need clarity—a way to see what’s really happening and where to shift, simply and deliberately.
When to bring in reinforcement
Not every culture challenge needs an outside partner. But some moments call for reinforcement—especially when change needs to stick at scale.
At BTS, we help organizations turn invisible cultural friction into visible forward motion. Whether you’re shaping a new strategy, integrating after a merger, or building a leadership culture that unlocks ownership—we help leaders shift from insight to impact.
Here are a few signs it might be time to partner
- You’ve named the strategy—but execution keeps stalling.
- You see the issues—but can’t align on how to shift behaviors.
- Leaders are bought in intellectually, but behavior hasn’t changed.
- Teams say the right things—but culture feels stuck in old habits.
If you’re facing one of these moments, it’s not a failure—it’s a signal. The good news? You don’t have to tackle it alone.
Let’s talk about what it would take to move from insight to sustained culture change.
P R E S S R E L E A S E
Stockholm, May 5, 2025
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – BTS Group AB (publ), a leading global consultancy specializing in strategy execution, change, and people development, has agreed to acquire Nexo Pesquisa e Consultoria Ltda., Nexo, a boutique consulting firm headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil.
Nexo has been growing continuously since it was founded in 2017. With revenues of approximately 12 million Brazilian Reales (approx. 2.1 million USD) in 2024, and a highly capable team of 21 members, Nexo has built a strong reputation for delivering transformative projects in strategy, innovation, leadership, and culture.
Nexo collaborates with a great portfolio of clients across sectors such as financial services, consumer goods, and technology, assisting both local and global companies in navigating uncertainty, unlocking creativity, and activating strategy through people. Their work encompasses culture transformation, leadership development, employer value proposition, innovation culture, and vision alignment – supported by proprietary methodologies and frameworks.
BTS currently operates in Brazil servicing both local and multinational clients with a team of 13 employees. By acquiring Nexo, BTS not only increases the Group’s footprint in Brazil but also adds significant capabilities in culture and transformation services. Nexo’s client base has limited overlap with BTS, creating strong growth potential and synergy opportunities.
“Nexo is known for helping leaders and organizations tackle some of the most complex, human-centered challenges with creativity, empathy, and strategic clarity and the Nexo team is loved by their clients,” says Philios Andreou, Deputy CEO of BTS Group and President of the Other Markets Unit. “Their products and services complement and elevate our existing offerings, especially in culture transformation, and we are thrilled to welcome the Nexo team to BTS.”
“We’re excited to join BTS. We’ve long admired BTS’s approach and unique portfolio to support large organizations and leaders in connecting strategy with culture across the organization,” says Andreas Auerbach, co founder of Nexo. “Becoming part of BTS, allows us to scale our impact and bring more value to our clients while staying true to our values and culture,” adds Mariana Lage Andrade, co-founder of Nexo.
Upon completion of the transaction, Nexo’s business and organization will merge with BTS Brazil. Nexo’s founders will assume senior management roles in the joint operation.
The acquisition includes a limited initial cash consideration. Additional purchase price considerations will be paid between 2026 and 2028, provided Nexo meets specific performance targets. A limited portion of any such additional purchase price considerations will be paid in newly issued BTS shares. The transaction is effective immediately.
BTS’s acquisition strategy continues to focus on broadening our service portfolio, expanding our geographic reach, and enhancing our capabilities to support future organic growth in a fragmented market.
For more information, please contact:
Philios Andreou
Deputy CEO
BTS Group AB
philios.andreou@bts.com
Michael Wallin
Head of investor relations
BTS Group AB
michael.wallin@bts.com
+46-8-587 070 02
+46-708-78 80 19
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