Operating Model Transformation
The operating model is the strategy. The diagnostic is where the work begins, and we lead the transformation that follows.
Six signals
Six signals indicate that an Operating Model Diagnostic is the right work. If two or more of these are true, the gap between strategy and structure is doing the damage. A diagnostic gives you the language and the priority order to close it.
Revenue is climbing but margin is flat or falling, and nobody around the table can say why.
A founder is still the decision bottleneck on questions a divisional MD should be closing.
An acquisition closed twelve months ago and the operational synergies in the deal thesis have not landed.
The commercial motion is founder-dependent, ad hoc, or built around two or three rainmakers.
A leadership transition exposes a structural dependency that nobody had named.
The board response to underperformance is tactical: new hires, a reorganisation, replacing the programme director. The pattern is repeating.
What it is
An Operating Model Diagnostic is a structured assessment of the gap between what the strategy requires and what the operating model can deliver. We look at three layers of the business at once: strategic leadership, commercial functions, and the enabling operations that have to carry the weight. We map where decisions are actually made, where accountability has slipped, and where the structure has drifted away from the plan on the page.
The diagnostic produces a heat map and a tiered set of recommendations, not a deck of frameworks. It tells the board, in writing, what is structural, what is symptomatic, and what to fix first. Where we already see the redesign and we have the team to enable it, we say so.
What it is not. We assume the strategy is set, so this is not a strategy review. It is not a culture survey and it is not a McKinsey 7-S restatement. It is an operator reading an operator's problem.
An operator reading an operator's problem.
The process
The diagnostic runs in three phases. Clients can stop after any phase.
Leadership interviews, documentation review, Belbin team profiling, and a structured analysis across the three layers. We read the management accounts, the board pack, and the operating rhythm. We spend time in the business. The output is a heat map showing where the gap sits, and a tiered set of recommendations: quick wins, transformation priorities, and board-level strategic options.
A practical plan, not a slide deck. Target operating model, governance structure, RACI at the layer that matters, and a transition roadmap with named owners and dates. Where the redesign requires a leadership team change, we say so plainly and we sequence it.
Execution support. Coaching for the leadership team through the change. Governance support at the board and ExCo level. Health checks at 90, 180, and 360 days. The objective is structural change that holds after we leave.
Outputs and deliverables
A diagnostic engagement produces, in order: a confidential interview synthesis, the operating model heat map, a tiered recommendations document with cost and risk attached to each tier, the redesigned target operating model and governance structure, the transition roadmap, and the 90-180-360-day health check schedule. It is all written down for the board, not left as a verbal handover.
Who it is for
CEOs and founders running businesses where growth has outpaced the operating model. Chairs and investors at the holding-company or PE-fund level looking at a portfolio asset that has stopped performing to plan. Managing Directors of subsidiaries inside a larger group, where the parent has set a target the local operating model cannot deliver.
It is not the right work for early-stage businesses where the structure has not yet formed, for organisations looking for headcount benchmarking or shared-service redesign in isolation, or for clients who want a deck to validate a decision already made.
This is for you if
- Growth has outpaced the operating model and margin is flat while revenue climbs.
- An acquisition has closed and the operational synergies in the deal thesis have not landed.
- The board keeps applying tactical fixes to the same structural problem.
- You want a decision and a sequenced plan, not a framework restatement.
This is not the right fit if
- The structure has not yet formed and the questions are still strategy questions, not operating model questions.
- You want headcount benchmarking or shared-service redesign in isolation.
- You want a deck to validate a decision already made, rather than a decision.
Engagement shape and investment
Engagement shape and investment are scoped per engagement. Shape and duration emerge from the diagnostic conversation, the size of the leadership team, and the operating footprint. We give you the full commercial in the first conversation, not in a proposal three weeks later.
Microsoft technology integrator, UK subsidiary
A Microsoft technology integrator, UK subsidiary of a European group, was loss-making and stalled at €1m of revenue. The diagnostic identified that the gap was structural, not commercial. The leadership team was incomplete, governance was reporting-shaped rather than decision-shaped, and the commercial motion had no architecture. Stephen rebuilt the operating model end-to-end as Managing Director and Statutory Director: commercial architecture, delivery governance, leadership team redesign, weekly operating rhythm. Revenue grew four-fold to €4m. EBITDA improved by 30 per cent. Pipeline expanded fifteen-fold. The leadership team was capable of operating without the MD by the time the role ended.
Mid-market services firm
The chair of a mid-market services firm commissioned a structured read of the operating model ahead of a board decision on the company's next phase.
The work ran the core method: a structured read across strategy and direction, organisation and talent, commercial process, marketing, and intellectual property and risk. Leader interviews, a pre-read pack, and a review of how decisions were actually made.
The board went into the next planning cycle with a sequenced operating model agenda for resolution. Stephen led the work under a confidential client agreement.
Proof
Operating model read for the board
A sequenced operating model agenda for the board, with the structural questions named and put on the table for resolution.
The chair commissioned a structured read of the operating model ahead of a board decision on the company's next phase.
Read the engagement → Microsoft technology integrator, UK subsidiaryOperating model rebuilt end-to-end
4x revenue (€1M to €4M). 30% EBITDA improvement. 15x pipeline expansion. Leadership team capable of operating without the MD.
A stalled, loss-making €1M UK subsidiary with no repeatable commercial model. Rebuilt as Managing Director and Statutory Director.
Read the engagement →Where this connects
Transformation Programme Leadership
For programmes off-plan: governance, controls, accountability, dependency management, stakeholder alignment.
View service →Leadership Team Assessment
Belbin profiling, confidential interviews, and a Belbin team-role map across the leadership team. Often runs in parallel with the diagnostic.
View service →Interim Leadership
When diagnosis is not enough and an operator is needed in the business, not an adviser.
View service →Engagements
Anonymised case studies showing the diagnostic in practice across global and European transformations and turnarounds.
View case studies →Frequently asked questions
Talk to us about a diagnostic
A short conversation tells both of us whether the work fits. No pitch deck, no discovery call script.