News story

Communicaid Supports the European Integration of MBDA

LondonLearning NewsCommunicaid

Communicaid, Europe's leading Culture and Communication Skills Consultancy, has teamed up with MBDA, the global leader in missile technology, to deliver cultural training programmes designed to support the organisation's integration agenda.

MBDA was formed in 2001, through the merger of the largest missile companies in France, the UK and Italy. They were subsequently joined by the key missile company in Germany. 2006 saw the formal integration of MBDA's UK and French operations, with MBDA Italy joining the integrated organisation in early 2008. MBDA already had a strong culture of innovation and technical excellence, but it identified the need to increase its managers' and employees' understanding of each other's cultures, in order to improve communication and relationships between international colleagues.

Gemma Todd, Learning and Development Manager at MBDA UK explains: "We recognised the importance of understanding the role played by culture and the requirement to develop strategies to help overcome cultural differences. Using intercultural training, we were able to give managers and employees vital information and tools to aid the successful integration of international teams. We engaged Communicaid to design bespoke intercultural training programmes that were aligned with our objective of raising awareness of the degree and depth of cultural diversity and its impact on relations with international counterparts."

A series of one-day training sessions is currently being delivered to UK employees at all levels of the business, covering essential subjects of cultural diversity, such as meetings etiquette and business communications. Communicaid's intercultural training, through discussion and practical exercises, introduced delegates to some of the key cultural differences among team members in the different countries that comprise MBDA. It also encouraged delegates to predict and overcome potential challenges they may face when working as part of an international team.

Declan Mulkeen, Marketing Director of Communicaid comments: "We are proud to be supporting MBDA during such an important business change. We pride ourselves in our ability to pre-empt our client's business requirements and provide solutions which enable our clients to communicate with one another, efficiently and effectively across cultures."