CASE STUDY
Uniting Three Organisations Through Culture
Uniting Through Culture:
HOW QUADBRIDGE BUILT ONE ORGANISATION FROM THREE WITH THE BARRETT MODEL
Quadbridge is a North American technology solutions provider helping mid-market organisations modernise technology and scale AI to drive automation. Founded in 2007, the company grew through two acquisitions, DTM in 2021 and Able One in 2022, becoming a larger, more diversified national organisation.
By 2023, Quadbridge had completed the operational integration of three organisations. Systems were consolidated, processes standardised, teams aligned, and service offerings expanded. The integration met its business objectives.
Leadership recognised, however, that a truly unified organisation required more than operational alignment. The acquisitions had brought together employees, leaders, and cultures that had evolved independently. Quadbridge saw an opportunity to build a shared culture that reflected the strengths of the combined organisation and supported its next stage of growth.
The Challenge
“Acquisitions can expand capabilities, markets, and scale, but people ultimately determine whether they create lasting value. As we brought these organisations together, we saw an opportunity to build something greater than the sum of its parts: a culture where employees felt connected to a shared purpose, invested in one another’s success, and were excited about the future we were creating together.”
Quadbridge made culture a business priority, treating it as a strategic lever for growth given its impact on employee engagement, leadership effectiveness, collaboration, talent development, and the organisation's ability to scale.
Quadbridge adopted the Barrett Values Centre methodology, beginning with an organisation-wide BVC Cultural Values Assessment in 2024 to establish a baseline. The assessment revealed a meaningful gap between employees' current experience and their aspirations for the future organisation.
Rather than treating the results as an endpoint, Quadbridge used them as the starting point for a broader dialogue. The CEO and Head of People & Culture held employee roundtables across every office and department, without managers in the room, creating space for open and candid feedback.
These discussions clarified where cultural strengths existed, where opportunities for improvement remained, and how well the company's stated values reflected the organisation employees were working to build. The insights gathered through the assessment and roundtables informed a new vision, core values, and a comprehensive cultural transformation roadmap.
The Solution
“The Barrett assessment gave us something incredibly valuable: a common language and an objective benchmark. It moved culture from a subjective conversation to a measurable business discussion. More importantly, it helped us understand not just what we aspired to be as an organisation, but what employees were actually experiencing.”
The Transformation Roadmap
“Our goal was never to improve survey results. Our goal was to build the organisational foundation required for the next stage of growth. That required leadership alignment first, followed by a coordinated investment in the systems, experiences, and development opportunities that shape culture every day.”
Following the assessment and roundtables, Quadbridge developed a roadmap to build a more unified, connected, and high-performing organisation, embedding culture into the leadership practices, employee experiences, talent strategies, and communication channels that shape everyday experience.
Shared Identity & Purpose
Following two acquisitions, Quadbridge needed a cultural foundation that reflected the company it had become, not the organisations it had once been. To build a shared identity, Quadbridge:
Developed a new company vision, Building Tomorrow's Solutions Together, shaped through employee participation
Created a Culture Club to advance cultural priorities and employee engagement
Introduced a new set of core values informed by the assessment findings
Leadership & Employee Development
Culture would ultimately be shaped by everyday leadership behaviours. To strengthen leadership capability and create a more consistent employee experience, Quadbridge:
Invested in management development programmes focused on leadership effectiveness, coaching, and team development
Expanded professional development opportunities for employees at every career stage
Implemented a modern HR platform to improve manager engagement, feedback, recognition, and visibility
Established structured career pathways and integrated development into performance management
Talent & Succession
With an ambitious growth strategy, Quadbridge recognised its future would depend on developing, retaining, and attracting exceptional talent. Quadbridge:
Introduced formal succession planning to identify and prepare future leaders
Reinforced a promote-from-within philosophy
Increased focus on internal mobility and long-term career progression
Enhanced talent acquisition to attract people aligned with the organisation's values and direction
Communication & Connectivity
As the organisation expanded across offices, Quadbridge strengthened culture through regular communication, shared experiences, and meaningful recognition. Quadbridge:
Introduced monthly company-wide meetings with strategic updates and recognition
Launched a monthly employee newsletter
Established the annual All In Company event focused on culture, strategy, and development
Coordinated social initiatives across offices
Implemented QBTV displays to reinforce communication and priorities
In just over a year, Quadbridge's cultural transformation delivered measurable improvements across engagement, retention, and business performance:
Attrition: down from 42% to 15.5%
Revenue growth: up 22%
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): reached 60
Employee sentiment: averaged 82% across all departments through ongoing pulse surveys
Fourteen months after launch, a follow-up BVC Cultural Values Assessment measured progress:
Culture Score: up from 33 (poor) to 76 (very good)
Cultural Entropy®: down from 21 (requires focused effort) to 6 (healthy)*
*Cultural Entropy® refers to the energy lost within an organisation due to inefficiencies, unclear procedures, frustrations, conflicts, and feelings of insecurity. This lost energy could otherwise be invested in achieving results and driving innovation.
The Impact
