Move guide
Choose the model against the criteria
Your report suggested a move on at least one of these two practices:
- whether the way the business is organised was chosen;
- whether head office has a job the operating teams could describe.
This move guide scores the basic shapes of the model against the criteria from step 1, and chooses one. It writes the choice in one sentence. Then it writes down what the centre is for.
1. When it applies
Use this move guide if your report placed either practice in the lowest two stages.
| Practice | Where it may sit today | Where this move guide aims |
|---|---|---|
| Whether the way the business is organised was chosen | Lagging: "The org chart is a record of who once worked for whom; units exist because someone ran them, not because the strategy needs them." Basic: "Either the shape is the one it always had, or a restructure stopped part-way and two shapes are visible at once; nobody can say why it suits how the money is made." |
Competent: "The main way the business is organised (by customer, product, region or function) can be said in one sentence and matches how the business makes money." |
| Whether head office has a job the operating teams could describe | Lagging: "Nobody can say what head office or the support functions do for the people who make the money." Basic: "The centre's job is understood in general terms, but it keeps adding staff and services nobody asked for, or it is so thin that every team builds its own." |
Competent: "The centre's job is written down (a few standards, a few shared services, the money and people decisions) and everything else sits with the operating teams." |
If both already sit at the middle stage or higher, skip this move guide.
It needs the criteria from setting the criteria and the baseline from baselining each function.
2. What to do
Five steps, in three to four weeks.
- Lay out the three basic shapes. Locally led: units own the work, and the centre is small. Set centrally and delivered locally. Run centrally, as one national operation.
- Lay out the options for the units. By region, by customer or by product.
- Score each option against the step 1 criteria, and choose. Write down the trade-off you accepted.
- Write what the centre must do. Start with the minimum only a centre can do. Then add where it guards standards, saves through scale or builds advantage.
- Write the choice in one sentence. If it needs a second clause for the exceptions, the choice is not finished.
- The minimumWork only a group can do, such as reporting to its owners.
- Governance guardianStandards and oversight that protect owners and staff, such as cyber security.
- Scale economiserWork that costs less done once for all, such as payroll.
- Advantage acceleratorWork a group does better than any unit could, such as acquisitions.
Table A below holds the scoring and the choice on one page.
The two free worksheets do the recording:
- /worksheets/operating-model/organising-logic for the options and the sentence;
- /worksheets/operating-model/role-of-centre for the centre's list.
3. What to produce
One table, plus the two worksheets above.
Table A. The shapes, scored, and the choice
| Option | Criterion 1 | Criterion 2 | Criterion 3 | Total | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locally led | |||||
| Set centrally, delivered locally | |||||
| Run centrally | |||||
| The choice, in one sentence | |||||
| The centre's job, in one line |
Score each option from 1 (poor) to 5 (strong) against each criterion.
4. A worked example
Illustrative. Written for this move guide. It describes no client.
A building services contractor ranked its criteria in step 1: closer to the customer, then lowest cost, then tighter control.
The scoring.
- Locally led scored best on closeness, and worst on cost. Run centrally scored the reverse. Set centrally and delivered locally scored well on both, and the team chose it.
The trade-off.
- Regions lose their own estimating and payroll. They keep their customers and their crews.
The centre's job.
- The centre now does four things: reporting, safety standards, payroll and national contracts. The regional managers could describe each one.
- 3 shapes scored against the criteria
- 1 sentence, with no second clause
- 4 jobs for the centre, each with a name
On a retake, both practices could be answered at the middle stage.
What it looked like in our work
From our own work. Described in words.
For a building-materials manufacturer, the team scored three basic shapes against criteria it had set from the strategy. Each shape won on one line: closeness to the customer, consistency and scale, or one national operation. No structure was drawn until the scoring was done.
5. Effort and dependencies
- Chief executiveOwns the choice and the sentence.
- Leadership teamScores the options in one or two workshops.
- Operating team headsRead the centre's list and say what they cannot describe.
What you need
- The ranked criteria from step 1.
- The baseline from step 3.
How long
- Three to four weeks.
What gets in the way. We have seen this in our own work:
- Organised around the inside. A professional-services partnership grouped its people by internal clusters that competed with each other. Its customers bought by issue, and no cluster owned one.
6. How will you know it worked?
The test is whether the operating teams can say what the centre does for them. Retake the check once the choice is announced. Each of these should be true when you answer:
| Practice | You can answer Competent when | A document alone does not count if |
|---|---|---|
| Whether the way the business is organised was chosen | The sentence holds without exceptions, and the scoring behind it is written down. | The sentence needs a second clause for the exceptions. |
| Whether head office has a job the operating teams could describe | The centre's list is written, each item has a name, and the teams can describe it. | The list exists, and the teams have never seen it. |
The worked example is illustrative.
Think we've used your work without proper credit? Tell us and we'll fix it.