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.

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.

Since 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 (CLI) 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.