Methodology: organizational design
Organizational design for a new operating model
When a strategy changes how an organization delivers its services, digital or not, its structure has to change with it. A structured way to diagnose the current organization, agree on design principles, and choose the organization model, capabilities and key roles the new strategy needs.
Diagnose, set principles, design
Current model → Design principles → Options → Capabilities and key roles
An organizational architecture the strategy can actually run on.
Who it's for
For organizations whose strategy has outgrown their structure
Transformation programs
Digital or operating-model programs that need the organization designed alongside processes and technology.
Service organizations
Public and private organizations that serve their customers through branches, central offices and digital channels at once.
External consultancies
Firms leading a strategy or transformation project that need an organizational design specialist on their team.
How it works
From how it works today to how it should be organized
1
Diagnose the current model
- How work is organized today across central offices, regions and channels
- The centralized, concentrated or decentralized models in use
- Waste and pain points: waiting, moving files, duplicated controls
2
Agree the design principles
- Concentrate the work where scale improves capacity
- Stay close to the customer where presence is unavoidable
- Let digital channels take what customers can do themselves
3
Design the organization
- Options compared: functional, by process, by product, geographic, team-based or matrix
- The organizational capabilities and key roles that sustain the strategy
- How those capabilities map onto the structure, with recommendations
Guiding principles
Structure follows strategy, and capacity
Strategy first
The structure is designed for the services and channels the strategy defines, not the other way around.
Capacity and cost
Where demand keeps growing, the model must raise capacity and efficiency, not only headcount.
Gradual and sustainable
New capabilities are adopted step by step, together with the changes in rules, processes and technology they depend on.
Change and culture
A new structure only works with change and culture management alongside it.
For your client
What you get
- A clear picture of the current organization model and its pain points
- Design principles agreed with leadership
- An organization model chosen among clear options
- The organizational capabilities and key roles the strategy needs
For consultants
Specialist support on your team
Our specialists can support your project end to end, or only the parts where you need depth, while you keep the lead.
Example: a Big Four firm leading the digital strategy of a large public service institution brought our people into its team for the first phases only: diagnosing the current organization and designing the organizational architecture. The firm then completed the project with its own resources, building on that design.
The method is being standardized from this and other engagements. The project and the client stay yours.
Is one of your projects redesigning how an organization works?
A 45-minute conversation to see where a specialist in organizational design can help your team.