Changing culture
Creating a culture to take rail companies into the future
To deliver the technology-led digital transformations discussed in this paper, rail companies will need a change of culture. They will need to move from companies building assets, to companies creating digital, multi- modal, mobility-as-a-service offers. They will need to move from national champions to organizations that operate – individually or collaboratively – across borders, networks, and company boundaries – to provide users with seamless journeys. To do all this, they will need to become more innovative and more collaborative.
This can be seen as somewhat akin to the mindset of innovative tech companies, which foster innovation, create spaces to experiment and fail, and take a digital-first mindset. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: Rail is not tech. It is a safety-critical industry that predates digital technology. Cultural change must work within those constraints.
Previous Capgemini research [10] found that 62% of respondents considered culture to be the number one hurdle to digital transformation - but there are proven ways to address it.
At the heart of cultural transformation in the rail industry is the need to develop an innovation culture. Traditionally, rail companies have focused on reliability and safety, which are undoubtedly vital, but this focus can sometimes lead to a conservative approach that rejects or defers promising new ideas.
The challenge is to maintain these essential standards while also promoting a more dynamic approach to new ideas and technologies. Companies should encourage experimentation, allowing for a certain level of failure within safe boundaries. We can learn a lot from autonomous car testing. But we can even see successful examples in rail, such as the world's first fully autonomous freight train, which was developed in Australia, and was a bold experiment, backed by years of rigorous testing.
Creating a supportive environment where employees feel empowered to suggest new ideas is critical. This means establishing formal innovation programs and ensuring that there is space to safely develop innovative proof-of- concepts – eg. digitally, or within dedicated rail testbeds – and a path from idea generation to execution. Capgemini calls this ‘applied innovation’. Leaders within rail companies must champion these efforts, providing the resources and support needed to turn creative ideas into tangible products and services.
Change your mindset: embracing ‘digital-first’
As first reported in Digital Culture 2026 [11], employee experience (EX)-led transformations focus on the needs of employees. Progressive organisations adopting new technology can use opportunities to integrate the views of their people from the outset, ensuring the ‘humancentricity' of the solution. This includes using personas to see how the combined impacts of many projects can be navigated. This lens informs the appropriate pace of change and enables training requirements to use micro-segmentation and multiple communications channels, enabling employees to best digest and absorb the information.
Digital technologies offer vast opportunities for the rail industry, from enhanced data analytics for predictive maintenance, to passenger apps that improve the travel experience. Embracing a digital-first mindset requires a cultural shift towards ongoing learning and adaptability. Rail companies must integrate digital skills across all levels of the organization, ensuring that employees are not only comfortable with technology - but are also proactive in leveraging digital tools to enhance their work. Digital must be considered an essential skill and function, just like HR or business development.
This shift also means updating legacy systems and processes that can hinder digital integration. It’s about more than just adopting new technologies; it’s about rethinking processes so that digital solutions are at the forefront of every decision and innovation, and redesigning IT systems so that digital products can be quickly built on top of them, without creating technology debt or impacting a plethora of inflexible legacy programs.
A lesson comes from a leading US innovative car manufacturer, which has singlehandedly reinvented the nature of cars and how they are made, from the ground up, by embracing a digital-first approach. By integrating advanced software and connectivity into its vehicles and production processes, and pioneering over-the-air updates, the US automotive player ensures continuous vehicle improvement post- purchase. In production, it utilizes automation technologies and extensive data analytics, optimizing manufacturing efficiency and quality. Robotic automation and AI-driven processes streamline assembly lines, reducing costs and increasing precision. This digital integration enhances user experience, vehicle performance, and production efficiency.
Transcend silos: working across teams
Innovation in rail products often requires expertise from various fields, including engineering, data science, customer service, and cybersecurity. Traditional departmental silos can limit the exchange of ideas and slow product development. Cultivating a culture that promotes collaboration across different functions is essential. This can be facilitated by creating cross-functional/interdisciplinary teams that combine expertise from very different disciplines.
These teams should operate with a high degree of autonomy and accountability, empowered by leadership but free from micromanagement. This approach not only speeds up the innovation process but also helps inculcate a sense of ownership and pride in the results.
‘Be the change’: leadership and vision
Leadership also plays a pivotal role in cultural transformation. Leaders must not only articulate a clear vision for the future of the company but also ‘walk the talk’.
This involves being visible champions of change, demonstrating a commitment to the new culture through their actions and decisions. It is also crucial for leaders to communicate effectively, ensuring that all employees understand not just the 'what' and the ‘how,' but most importantly, the 'why' behind the cultural shift. The digital transformation shouldn’t be seen as something that is being ‘done to’ staff, it should be understood as an opportunity for everyone to work better and for the company.
Leaders should also be accessible and open to feedback, creating a two-way communication channel that helps build trust and buy-in among the workforce. They need to recognize and reward contributions to innovation and digital initiatives, setting a clear precedent that these are valued activities within the organization.
