‘Culture is where strategy either gains speed or loses it.' Inside Deutsche Telekom's approach to culture transformation

Deutsche Telekom is embedding culture directly into how the business runs – not as a change program bolted on the side, but into leadership, decision-making and performance management.

Ayse Semiz-Ewald, VP Culture & Inclusion at the telco giant, will be discussing how high-performing organizations can turn transformation into delivery at UNLEASH 2026 in Paris.

Ahead of this year’s show, UNLEASH Editor John Brazier talks to Semiz-Ewald about why AI adoption is a culture risk as much as a tech one, and why she'd rather talk to sceptical executives about "organizational friction" than culture scores.

John Brazier: How have you ensured culture is built into Deutsche Telekom's business transformation as something durable, rather than a change management exercise?

Ayse Semiz-Ewald: One of the most important choices was to build culture into the business transformation itself – not as a parallel change program, but into how we lead, make decisions, collaborate and manage performance.

For me, culture becomes durable when it moves beyond individual initiatives and becomes visible in the everyday mechanics of the organization.

At Deutsche Telekom, we are evolving our culture into what we call T-Style. It builds on the strengths that have brought us this far, while developing the behaviors we need for the next phase of our transformation as a leading digital telco: stronger performance, better collaboration, more ownership and greater simplicity.

My test is quite simple: would people experience the culture in how the company operates, even if nobody labelled it “culture”? If the answer is yes, then it is becoming truly embedded.

JB: You take a data-driven approach to HR. When you're deciding whether culture is holding up or slipping, what's the signal you trust?

AS-E: I never rely on a single score alone. An overall number is useful, but it is only the starting point.

What I trust is triangulation: quantitative data, qualitative feedback and the differences we see between groups and parts of the organization. Often, the most valuable insight is not the average – it is what sits underneath it.

We saw this when we looked more deeply at our culture and inclusion data. The overall picture was solid, but deeper analysis showed meaningful differences in employee experience.

That led us to complement Group-wide measures with much more targeted follow-up in those areas where the data showed a specific need.

That is what data-driven HR should do. Data should not simply validate our assumptions; it should help us sharpen our decisions.

JB: As Deutsche Telekom embraces AI across the business, what's the biggest risk you see to culture – and what are you doing to make sure adoption doesn't erode what makes the culture work?

AS-E: I believe AI will amplify the culture around it.

In an environment built on trust, curiosity and empowerment, AI can give people enormous agency. It can help them learn faster, make better decisions, and focus more of their energy on where humans create the greatest value.

The cultural risk is uneven adoption. If some people gain the confidence and capabilities to use AI while others are left behind, new gaps can emerge in the organization.

For us, AI adoption cannot only be a technology question. It is also about access, skills, responsible use and leadership.

Leaders have a particularly important role. They need to understand the technology themselves, create space for experimentation and help people rethink how work gets done – while keeping human accountability clear.

We are already beyond the question of whether AI will become part of our working lives. The more important question is what kind of organization we want AI to help us become.

JB: What have you had to change about how you equip or hold managers accountable to make sure culture doesn't quietly break down at that level?

AS-E: One important shift is moving from leadership development as an event to leadership development as a system.

Training remains important, but you cannot attend a program, learn a framework and assume that the desired leadership culture will automatically follow.

Leaders need clear expectations, practical support, feedback and opportunities to keep developing. And leadership expectations increasingly needed to connect with how we think about performance and development.

The question is no longer just: Did someone complete a leadership program? We also need to look at the leadership experience we want to create: Is there clarity? Is feedback part of everyday work? Do people feel empowered to contribute and challenge? Do teams collaborate across organizational boundaries? Are decisions made with clear accountability?

Managers are not simply messengers of transformation. They shape the everyday employee experience. That means we must equip them well and be clear about what good leadership looks like.

JB: Culture work is often treated as a soft add-on rather than a driver of business results. What's the argument that convinces a skeptical business leader otherwise?

AS-E: I would start by saying that culture is where strategy either gains speed or loses it.

You can have a brilliant strategy and great technology, but if decisions are slow, information stays in silos or teams spend too much energy on internal coordination, execution will suffer.

The opposite is also true. When people trust one another, challenge constructively, share information, make decisions and collaborate across boundaries, the organization moves faster.

Those things may be described as culture, but their outcomes are very tangible: speed, execution quality, innovation, productivity and ultimately customer experience.

So, I would not ask a skeptical business leader to invest in culture because it is a ‘people topic.’ I would ask: Where is organizational friction slowing down your strategy?

That is where culture becomes a very concrete business issue.

JB: Five years from now, what's the one visible change, not a survey score, that would prove culture work moved the business at Deutsche Telekom?

AS-E: I would look at the distance from insight to decision to customer impact.

Imagine a team identifies a customer need that crosses several functions or markets. If they can bring the right expertise together, make a decision with clear accountability and move quickly into execution – with fewer unnecessary handovers and less organizational friction – that would be a very visible sign of progress.

AI will naturally be part of how they work. Expertise and ownership will sit close to the decision. People will challenge constructively, decide and then move together.

And ultimately, the customer should feel the difference in speed and quality.

My proof point would not be a culture score. It would be a significantly shorter distance between recognizing an opportunity, making a decision and creating value for the customer.