Operating Model Design
Operating model design gives you your target operating model: the to-be blueprint for how your organisation runs - the structure, the decisions, the processes and the management system, worked out in detail and ready to put into practice. We design it with your people, so the result is genuinely theirs.
Our operating model design gives you a target operating model your organisation can run on, and we design seven parts: the value proposition and the capabilities that deliver it, the structure, the decision rights, the core processes, the people and skills, the technology and data the model depends on, and the management system that keeps it running. You walk away with a design that is specific to how you work and ready to put into practice.
A target operating model works when the people who run it helped design it. So we design with your people, drawing on the knowledge already inside the organisation and combining it with our outside insight and frameworks. The model comes out both accurate and owned, and you come away more able to design the next change yourselves.
88% of leaders expect their redesign to deliver, but only 36% of the employees working inside the new structure agree it is working. The models that get adopted are the ones the people running them helped design (Bain, 'Live the Model' survey, 2026).
When operating model design helps
Operating model design is the next step once you know the current shape needs to change - often straight after a diagnostic has shown where. These are the situations we are most often asked into. If one sounds like yours, this is a good place to start.
The situation | How it helps |
|---|---|
You know the current shape needs to change and need what comes next | Turns a clear diagnosis into a worked-out target operating model, so you move from knowing the problem to having the answer |
A restructure is coming and you want to get it right | Designs the new model on evidence and with your people, so it solves the real problems rather than reshuffling them |
Growth has outpaced how you are organised | Designs a model sized for where you are heading, with the structure, processes and decision rights set for the scale you are moving to |
Decisions keep stalling because no one owns them | Sets clear decision rights into the model itself, so accountability is built in rather than argued about later |
A merger or new strategy needs a model to run on | Designs one operating model out of what were separate or outdated ones, aligned to where you are now going |
You want a design your people will actually adopt | Builds it with the people who have to run it, so it lands as theirs and gets used in practice |
What we design
We design seven parts of the operating model, and make each one concrete enough to run on:
- The value proposition and capabilities - What the operating model exists to deliver, and the few capabilities everything else is built around.
- The structure - How work is grouped into units and roles, the reporting lines, the spans and layers, and where accountability sits.
- The decision rights - Who owns which decisions, what escalates, and the forums that run the organisation day to day.
- The core processes - The end-to-end value chain and the few processes that carry it - what is standardised, where variation is allowed, and the handoffs that matter.
- The people and capability - The roles, skills and ways of working the model needs, and where they sit.
- The technology, data and sourcing - The systems, information and in-house-or-partner choices the model depends on - designed at the principles level, with your technology, data and finance leads.
- The management system - The targets, metrics, incentives and planning rhythm that keep the model running once it is live.
Why these seven
These seven are the parts that have to line up for an operating model to work as one whole. A new structure with vague decision rights stalls where the old one did; clear decisions with undesigned processes still snag at the handoffs. The four that get skipped most - the core processes, technology and data, sourcing, and the management system - are the ones that decide whether the model runs in practice or stays a diagram. So we design them together, as a set.
The seven follow the established operating-model frameworks, so the design covers what a full operating model should - the structure and processes, the information and systems behind them, and the management system that runs it - not just the org chart. We use them to make sure the design is complete, rather than as a model to run at you.
How it works
The method produces one thing: a target operating model your organisation can run on. It works by designing the model with your people rather than presenting one to them. Your organisation already has most of the knowledge about how it really runs, so our job is to draw that out, combine it with the outside frameworks and pattern-recognition you bring us in for, and shape the two into a design that is both expert and genuinely owned. It works in four modes.
- We start with your design principles - Before anything is designed, we agree a short set of principles with you - the rules the model has to follow, like 'decisions at the lowest capable level' or 'standardise what does not set us apart'. They turn every later trade-off into a matter of principle rather than politics.
- We design with the people who run the work - The people doing the work know where the current model bends and breaks in ways no org chart shows. We build with them, turning that knowledge into design choices - so the model fits how the organisation actually works, and is owned by the people who will run it.
- We bring the outside insight and the frameworks - An inside view on its own tends to design around today's people and habits, so we bring the outside pattern - what makes operating models like yours work, and frameworks that check the design is complete and the parts line up before you commit.
- We leave the capability behind - Throughout, we work so your people learn to design, not just watch us design. By the end you have a target operating model and a sharper sense of how the decisions were made, so the next adjustment is one you can make yourselves.
The thinking behind the method
We design with your people rather than deliver to them because of a hard fact about redesigns: the model that gets adopted beats the model that looks best on paper. A target operating model is a set of new behaviours that thousands of daily decisions follow, and people follow a model they helped design - they understand why it is shaped the way it is, and they trust that it fits how the work really goes.
So co-design gives you a model that is both right and real. The knowledge inside the organisation makes it accurate; designing it together makes it owned; and the outside frameworks keep the two from simply reinforcing what was already there. Get all three and the model works in practice. Miss one and you get an expert model that gets rejected, an owned model that stays parochial, or a clever model that never gets used.
What you get
By the end, you have four things:
- The target operating model itself - a worked-out design across all seven parts, on a page and in the detail beneath it, specific enough to put into practice.
- A transition roadmap - the sequenced plan from where you are today to the model you have designed, with the phasing and dependencies set out, so you know what to do first and what it rests on.
- A design that is genuinely yours - built with your people, grounded in how you actually run, so it is owned and used rather than filed.
- The capability left behind - your people come out more able to design, so the next adjustment is one you can make yourselves.
The best operating model is both expert and owned, and those pull against each other: expertise wants to hand you the answer, ownership wants you to reach it yourselves. Holding both at once is the craft of the work.
How we hand it over - and what happens next
The point of the work is a target operating model your organisation can run on, so we take care with how it lands. Because your people helped design it, the handover confirms something they already understand rather than revealing it cold. We walk through the finished model and the transition roadmap - why it is shaped the way it is, what it settles, what it deliberately leaves open, and what the first moves are.
From there, some organisations take the model and implement it themselves, now more able to. Others bring us alongside for the harder parts of making it real, which is where Design Implementation picks up. The design has done its job when you can see the new model clearly, believe in it because you built it, and know the first steps to get there.
Where this sits
Operating model design is the second step in how we approach organisational design. It follows the Organisational Design Diagnostic, which reads the shape you have today, and leads into Design Implementation, which turns the model into how the organisation runs day to day. It also stands on its own - if you already know what needs to change and want the target operating model designed properly and owned, this is where to start.
Common questions
Is this just a set of workshops?
No - what you get is a designed target operating model, with a transition roadmap to reach it. We work with your people in the room, because that is how the design becomes both accurate and owned, and the sessions are the means to that. You walk away with the worked-out model itself, and a design your people helped shape and are ready to run.
What exactly is a target operating model?
It is the design of how your organisation will run in future - the to-be blueprint. It brings together the structure, the decision rights, the core processes, the people and skills, the technology and data, and the management system as one joined-up whole, along with the roadmap to get there from where you are today. Designing it as a set, rather than one piece at a time, is what keeps the parts from pulling against each other.
How is this different from the Organisational Design Diagnostic?
The diagnostic reads the shape you have now - what is working, what is getting in the way, and why. Operating model design is the next step: it produces the target operating model to build instead. The diagnostic answers 'what needs to change'; this answers 'what to build'. Many clients do the diagnostic first, because designing on a clear read of the current state sets the design up well, but if you already have that clarity, you can start here.
Does this cover our technology and systems?
At the level an operating model needs. We design the technology, data and sourcing the model depends on as principles and requirements, with your own technology and finance leads - what the model asks of your systems, what is done in-house and what is partnered. We design the operating model, not the IT architecture, so where deep technical build is needed we shape it alongside the specialists who own it.
Why build it with our people rather than design it for us?
Because a model only works if it is used. The model that gets adopted beats the one that only looks best on paper, and people adopt what they helped design far more readily than what is handed to them. Your people also hold knowledge about how the organisation really runs that no outside team can fully see. Co-design combines that inside knowledge with our outside frameworks, so the model is both right and real.
What happens after the design is done?
You have a target operating model and a transition roadmap, ready to put into practice. Some organisations implement it themselves, now more able to. Others bring us alongside for the harder work of making it real, which is what Design Implementation covers. And because we leave the capability behind, you can keep evolving the model yourselves as the organisation changes.
Ready to design your target operating model?
Tell us what is prompting the redesign and what you are trying to achieve, and we will talk through what an operating model design would look like for you - and whether a diagnostic first would set it up well. If you already know where you stand, we can go straight to designing the model, built with your people so it is genuinely yours.