The Context
The Operations team of a global media organisation was serving a growing and increasingly complex business through an operating model that was no longer fit-for-purpose. The function had received additional investment to modernise its technology and infrastructure, and wanted to ensure that the function was set up to deliver on this transformation agenda whilst maintaining critical business-as-usual activity.
The key challenge was establishing an operating model – and associated leadership structure – that could support both transformation and ongoing delivery. This included ensuring that individual leaders had the necessary clarity and resources to drive change, and that business-as-usual activity was organised in a more effective a way to create additional capacity.
What We Did
We delivered a 12-week collaborative process to ready the function for its next stage of growth. This included:
- Surfacing the strengths and weaknesses of the existing set-up – and the needs of the transformation agenda – to ensure the future model was optimised for the task ahead
- Defining the capabilities that would be most critical in the new world, and understanding where there was the greatest need to invest
- Designing a leadership team structure that could oversee ongoing delivery alongside leading an ambitious change agenda
- Enabling successful implementation by creating materials that could socialise the new model for input, and supporting the HR team to design new roles in detail
The Impact
Our work enabled the team to set itself for success. Key areas of impact included:
- Increased headcount and capacity for transformation and change, enabling the function to optimise its technology and infrastructure investment and move at pace
- Clearer and more coherent accountabilities for leaders, such that there was greater parity in roles across the team and individuals had clarity of focus
- Streamlined interfaces with the wider business, such that stakeholders found it easier to collaborate with the Operations team in an efficient and effective way
- Consolidation of activity where it would add value, enabling more opportunity for collective learning and reducing the risk of duplication