Operating model transformation

The effectiveness of your operating model has a significant impact on whether your business achieves its overall strategic objectives. An effective business operating model will set you and your employees up for success, meeting customer, shareholder and other stakeholder needs.

We’ve helped organisations undergo operating model transformation with great success. With markets becoming tougher due to changes in customer behaviour, business disruption, increasing regulatory complexity and slow economic growth, it’s vital that your operating model is fit for purpose. 

What are the main benefits of operating model transformation?

The benefits of overhauling your operating model are many and varied but tend to fall into three broad areas:

  • Cost efficiencies. This isn’t purely about cost reduction, though that can be a component. What we focus on is aligning your costs with your strategic objectives. All businesses have costs and you cannot eliminate them, so it’s a case of ensuring your costs are in the right areas and if they aren’t then taking steps to realign them.
  • Customer growth. Operating model transformation helps maximise efficiency, and so this helps grow revenue. As you gain more customers, a lean and responsive operating model means that you can service your customers better. By providing great service, advice and support to your customers when they need it, you improve customer experience and loyalty, and as a result gain more customers.
  • Performance enhancement. With operations that work smoothly and effectively, supporting staff in their work, the people in your organisation will feel happier. They’ll also be more productive, both as a result of improved ways of working and because they feel more motivated. 

The three stages of operating model transformation

We break our business transformation projects down into three distinct phases:

  • Assess. In the initial phase we undertake a thorough appraisal of your current operating model. We’ll measure its effectiveness across the business, and against your business strategy. We can then assess where changes need to be made and create a detailed breakdown of the costs and benefits to help provide the case for change.
  • Design. Operating model design is the detailed articulation of the new model. We look at the current and future state of the business in detail, identifying dependencies that may dictate how the operating model will look like. Careful and detailed engagement with stakeholders and customers help us to build a clear picture of how the business could operate better, considering people, process, controls, data and technology.
  • Implement. Now comes the big step: implementation. Operating model transformation often means large scale and complex change. Like any such project this change has to be well managed. Our extensive experience in change management in a breadth of sectors, business functions, and organisation types means we can help you implement your new operating model smoothly and effectively.

Working with PwC

Changes to an operating model can be done within a department or organisation wide. Whatever the scale of the project, any kind of business transformation causes an element of disruption, and while it is unavoidable it can always be managed and minimised.

Education, support and enablement of the staff being impacted by the transformation are a priority. We’ll engage people from the beginning to ensure they’re comfortable and able to adapt.

We know operating model transformations can be complex and challenging, so we believe it is important to articulate the benefits early. When structuring projects we make sure there are some quick wins in the beginning phases so that people get a sense of momentum and positive change.

We can help oversee the implementation of the programme so that it achieves the ambition and objectives that were originally set. Our leadership capabilities can give momentum and help with the challenges that will be faced when making fundamental changes to how your business is conducted.

Contact us

Bill  Gasson

Bill Gasson

Partner, PwC United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7804 5979

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