Sindhu Kutty shares an article published in Forbes that identifies key elements that will ensure your operating model transformation is successful.
Since watching my first episode of Star Trek, I have been fascinated watching the crew work seamlessly together as they follow their mission “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.” You often see teams working together across engineering, security, sciences (Mr. Spock’s department), and, of course, the senior officers (or command). I think it is a model of how corporate departments should work together to solve a problem.
If this were true in our non-fictionalized world, organizations would not undergo operating model redesigns so frequently. The triggers for the redesign vary: a new strategy focused on customer or operational excellence, a change in leadership, centralization of federated functions, an agile way of working to increase speed to market for products, or a new technology platform that dramatically changes the way operational tasks are done.
What is an operating model? It is the way an organization delivers value to the customer and runs itself. It typically includes aspects of people (structure, roles and responsibilities, culture), processes (the blueprint of how to do something), governance (decision making), technology, and measures at its core. When undergoing an operating model transformation, what are some key elements to keep in mind?
Structure
There are a few fundamental ways to organize a department or the entire company depending on the outcomes you are looking for and your organization’s driver. Are you operating in a market where customers’ needs are complex and customer intimacy (i.e., constant adaptation of your product to their needs) is key? Is cross-functional collaboration crucial? Or are you operating in a highly regulated environment with complex products?
Key points include:
- Accountability
- Measurement
- Culture
Read the full article, Designing The Right Operating Model For Your Business, on Forbes.com.
