What Is Operating Model Redesign?
Operating model redesign is the work of changing how a company is organized and how decisions and work flow across the business so the structure better fits strategy, scale, and performance goals. It often addresses problems such as unclear accountability, slow cross-functional decisions, duplicated roles, high overhead, weak coordination between corporate and business units, or poor execution after growth, integration, or strategy change. Typical activities include assessing the current organization, defining the target structure, clarifying decision rights, redesigning governance forums, setting spans and layers, determining what belongs in shared services, and planning the transition. Clients may seek independent consultant support when leadership needs an objective view, specialized organization design experience, or additional capacity to move from concept to implementation.
When Clients Seek Support
Clients often seek independent consulting support for operating model redesign when they need to:
- Align the organization to a new strategy, product portfolio, or geographic expansion.
- Integrate an acquisition or create a cleaner operating split before a divestiture.
- Decide which activities should sit in corporate, business units, regions, or shared services.
- Reduce layers, overlapping roles, and management complexity without disrupting execution.
- Fix slow decisions caused by unclear ownership across functions or markets.
- Redesign how headquarters and frontline teams work together after rapid growth.
- Build a more scalable model for planning, reporting, service delivery, or support functions.
Questions We Help Clients Answer
- Should we organize around products, customers, geographies, or end-to-end processes?
- What decisions should stay at the center, and what should move to business units or regions?
- Which roles are duplicative, missing, or carrying conflicting mandates?
- What belongs in shared services, and what needs to remain close to the business?
- How many management layers do we need, and where are spans too narrow or too wide?
- What governance forums, escalation paths, and metrics will keep the new model working?
Common Outcomes and Deliverables
Depending on the project scope, consultants supporting operating model redesign work may develop outputs or implement results such as:
- Current-state map of structure, accountability gaps, governance forums, and cross-functional handoffs.
- Target operating model options comparing centralized, business-unit, regional, and hybrid designs.
- Spans and layers analysis with role consolidation, manager span, and delayering recommendations.
- Explicit decision rights for major commercial, operational, investment, and talent decisions.
- Shared services scope, service catalog, staffing model, and service-level governance.
- Leadership forum design, management cadence, and key performance indicator dashboard for the new model.
- Transition plan covering sequencing, communications, role moves, hiring needs, and key risks.
- Program management office tracker and benefits realization tool for implementation oversight.
- New operating model live — redesigned roles, decision forums, reporting lines, and accountability mechanisms are in place and being used by the business.
Selected Capabilities by Industry
Healthcare
Integrated Delivery Operating Model: Redesign how hospitals, ambulatory sites, physician groups, and corporate functions coordinate service lines and support activities; target organization, governance, and role charters to improve access, throughput, and margin.
Financial Services
Enterprise and Business Unit Split: Design how product teams, operations, risk, finance, and support functions are divided between enterprise centers and line-of-business teams; decision rights model and implementation plan to speed launches while maintaining control.
Manufacturing & Industrial Equipment
Plant and Central Functions Model: Redesign the split of planning, procurement, engineering, maintenance, and continuous improvement across plants, regions, and headquarters; operating model blueprint to raise service levels and simplify accountability.
Technology
Software as a Service Growth Model: Design how product, engineering, sales, marketing, and customer success work across segments in a software as a service business; governance cadence and role design to improve annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth and retention.
Retail
Omnichannel Merchandising and Fulfillment Model: Rework how stores, e-commerce, merchandising, planning, and supply chain teams make assortment, pricing, and fulfillment decisions; target model and decision rules to reduce conflict and improve stock availability.
Energy & Utilities
Field Operations and Capital Delivery Model: Redesign how asset management, field crews, capital projects, and customer operations coordinate across service territories; governance and handoff model to improve outage response, project execution, and cost control.
Private Equity
Corporate Center and Business Unit Model: Design the split of responsibilities between the corporate center, business units, and shared services for a portfolio company facing rapid scale, carve-out, or integration; cost base model and 100-day implementation plan for management.
Telecommunications
Network and Customer Operations Model: Redesign interactions among network planning, field service, customer care, and commercial teams during fiber expansion or product convergence; operating rhythm and escalation paths to reduce order fallout and truck rolls.
Consultant Profiles Umbrex Can Identify
Umbrex can help clients identify independent consultants with operating model redesign experience suited to the industry context and change challenge.
- Former McKinsey, Bain, BCG consultant experienced in operating model redesign
- Former COO, chief transformation officer, or chief of staff who has led organization redesign, governance resets, and shared services rollouts
- Industry operator with hands-on experience aligning business units, regions, and corporate functions around clearer decision rights and accountability
- Private equity value creation advisor experienced in post-merger integration, carve-out design, and cost-focused operating model changes at portfolio companies
Illustrative Engagement Models
The right engagement model depends on the client’s objectives, timeline, internal capabilities, and desired level of support. Common ways clients use independent consultants for operating model redesign include:
- Rapid Diagnostic or Diligence (Typical duration 1-3 weeks)
Assess whether the current structure fits strategy, identify the biggest bottlenecks in roles and decision rights, and frame the critical design choices for leadership. - Strategy Or Roadmap Development (Typical duration 4-12 weeks)
Develop target operating model options, evaluate centralization and governance choices, and build the business case and transition roadmap. - Implementation Or PMO Support (Typical duration 2-6 months)
Support organization launch activities, track role and process changes, stand up governance forums, and manage dependencies as the new model goes live. - Interim Or Fractional Leadership Support (Typical duration 3-12 months)
Provide temporary operating model or transformation leadership to help management embed the new structure, cadence, and accountability model.