By Amy McDonald and Garrett Sheridan
Business moves fast. Technology advancements and competitive disruptions require an adaptive response from companies who want to stay on top of the game and win. When your operating model gets out of sync with your strategy or competitive forces, bad things happen because execution and results suffer. Why? Because any combination of lack of clarity around ways of working, roles, how decisions get made or performance metrics can slow an organization down dramatically as people try to figure out how to get things done. Interest in lean, more agile, lower cost and more effective ways of working are causing many companies to step back and look at how they operate. The motivation to change may be slightly different across companies but they tend to converge around some combination of the following needs:
At any rate, if you are not looking at your operating model and adapting it,
you are likely falling behind your competitors who are proactively
adjusting how they set themselves up to compete and win.
It’s the connective tissue between strategy and execution. It helps clarify how work should get done by various roles and how decisions get made, as well as the few performance metrics that matter most. It can also clarify the number of desired levels or layers in the organization as well as desired spans of control for managers and the optimal organization structure.
In our work and experience with companies across industries, we run into several myths that cause organizations to stumble by failing to get their operating model right.
Unlock the value in your company by aligning your operating model
with your strategy to execute more effectively and deliver profitable growth.
Busting these myths is necessary to deliver against a great strategy. The role of leaders is to ask whether your company’s operating model is aligned with your strategy. If the answer is “No”, you risk poor execution and an uphill battle to deliver results.