Your strategy is only as good as the system built to execute it.

Most organisations do not have a strategy problem, they have an execution problem – and the root cause almost always sits in the operating model.

When the operating model is misaligned to strategy, the symptoms are predictable: decisions are slow; accountability is unclear; work is duplicated across functions; and the organisation cannot respond to change at the pace the market demands.

An effective operating model bridges that gap by translating strategy into day-to-day decisions, behaviours and outcomes.

An operating model is the system that defines how your organisation actually works, not what it intends to do, but how it does it, every single day. A robust operating model determines:

  • How you serve or engage your customers - the way your organisation delivers the experience your strategy promises
  • How work flows - the processes, handoffs and enablers required to deliver your products and services, end to end
  • How people are organised - the roles, structure, capabilities and accountability needed to support execution
  • How decisions are made - who decides what, where governance sits, and how quickly the organisation can act
  • How technology enables performance - whether your systems, data and platforms are aligned to how the business needs to operate.

We help organisations move from complexity and friction to clarity, alignment and momentum.

What differentiates our approach? 

We do not stop at strategy, or at design – our Operating Model practice works with leadership teams to diagnose where execution is breaking down, design a model that is built for performance, and stay through implementation to ensure changes land and value are realised.

What sets us apart:

We connect operating model design directly to business performance.

Every recommendation is tied to measurable outcomes across cost, service and growth, not just structural change on paper.

We are practitioners, not theorists.

Our teams include people who have led operations inside major Australian organisations. We design operating models that work in practice, not just in a presentation.

We work across the full lifecycle.

From diagnostic through to implementation and benefits realisation, we stay with you until the changes are embedded and delivering results.

We bring the depth and breadth of our whole firms’ expertise.

Our Operating Model practice works alongside Financial Advisory, Private Enterprise, Tax and Assurance, meaning we can address the full picture, not just one piece of it.

How we can help

We take a structured, practical approach to aligning your operating model to your strategy, combining diagnosis with hands-on delivery. You can expect:

  • Faster, more effective decision-making
  • Clear accountability across the organisation
  • Improved operational efficiency and performance
  • Stronger alignment between strategy and execution
  • A scalable, resilient organisation ready for growth, not just today's operations.
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Our Approach 

We deliver across three phases. Each can be engaged independently or as a connected programme, depending on where you are in your journey.

Understand where execution breaks down.

We assess how your organisation operates today against strategic objectives, identifying where structure, decision-making, processes, capabilities and technology are misaligned or creating friction. Our diagnostics are rapid (typically four to six weeks), evidence-based, and designed to give leadership teams a clear, quantified case for change.

We support:

  • Operating model diagnostics to validate the current state, quantify cost drivers, duplication and decision bottlenecks, and identify opportunity areas (typically 5 to 15 per cent overhead opportunity identified) 
  • Engagement and cultural assessments to understand the behavioural and cultural enablers and barriers that shape performance, adoption and change readiness 
  • Future-state target operating model definition to develop and evaluate credible operating model scenarios, tested against capability, capacity and cost.

Define what “good” looks like, in detail

We translate the agreed strategic direction into a detailed future-state operating model, clarifying how the organisation will work across structure, workflows, roles, governance, workforce and technology. The design phase ensures the model is fit for purpose, cost-transparent and ready to implement (typically six to twelve weeks).

We support:

  • Organisational and workforce design to define future structures, spans and layers, reporting lines, role architecture and capability alignment 
  • Strategic workforce planning to bridge gaps between current and future workforce requirements, aligning people, capabilities and cost to strategy 
  • Process optimisation to streamline end-to-end processes, reduce unnecessary steps and establish clear governance and accountability (typically 10 to 20 per cent structural efficiency potential).

Turn design into results.

We convert the operating model design into an executable roadmap with clear ownership, sequencing, dependencies and benefits tracking. Our teams stay with you through activation to ensure changes are embedded, adopted and delivering measurable outcomes (anywhere from 3 – 24 months of activation support).

We support:

  • Roadmap development and implementation planning to sequence initiatives, define milestones, assign ownership and manage dependencies
  • Technology and data enablement to align platforms, data governance and systems to the new operating model, ensuring investments deliver value
  • Change and adoption to build the leadership alignment, communication and capability required to embed new ways of working and sustain impact.
Get in touch

Wi Liem Chua

Partner & National Head of Management Consulting