There are certain pivotal moments when an organisation needs to review and reshape how it is structured and how it makes decisions. Most often it is when a company needs to reduce costs, change strategic direction, or accommodate an acquisition. It can also be when leaders are dissatisfied with how they make and implement decisions. When these moments arise, it can often require a change to the balance of power within the top team, so using an independent Trusted Advisor to facilitate the process can improve the likelihood of success.

A common mistake is diving straight into the micro detail of organisation design without first establishing a coherent logic and shape of the organisation at a macro level – this risks losing the very essence that makes a company special.

OE Cam’s smarter organisation review finds the ‘sweetspot’ between the hard (structure, processes and governance) and the soft (people engagement, understanding and empowerment). Our organisation reviews connect the design of the organisation with the way employees actually work to unlock a latent energy to drive business performance.

Let us show you how.

An effective organisation needs to put in place the right structure, processes and governance

Our Organisation Review Approach

As organisation consultants and business psychologists, we bring a richer understanding of human behaviour to organisation design projects and excel at working alongside a client’s senior managers so that ownership remains firmly with the people who will need to implement any changes.

Our approach focuses on building the organisation around its value chain, ensuring that resilience is embedded into the business by making it more:

  • Aligned – linking structures, processes and people to strategy
  • Accountable – with a clear understanding and ownership of how the organisation works and how decisions get made and implemented
  • Agile – adaptable to the changing external conditions.

Our ultimate goal for any review is to ensure a clear logic on how the organisation is configured at the macro level, with clarity of interfaces between critical functions, whilst also delivering efficiencies in how it is managed.

We ensure that the organisation has a coherent logic that works effectively across all functions

Depending on client need, we iterate between three levels – first getting the overall logic right at a macro level (1), then maximising cross-functional working (2) and finally creating a detailed design to establish the right level of management resource and capability (3).

The entry point for a project may vary. For example, a client may already be down in the detail of design and things begin to go wrong and we then help them go back to agree organisational principles at a more macro level.

By undertaking the review in this way, we ensure that the organisation has a coherent logic that works effectively across functions – with the right balance of management control, talent and working practices to enable delivery of the strategy.

What it looks like in practice

Every project is bespoke, however it often includes the following steps:

  1. We first translate your strategy into a set of Organisation Principles, which are are absolutely critical to the success of the review. These define what the organisation needs to do / enable to support the delivery of its strategic goals and what the ‘magic’ is that makes the organisation special.
  2. Map out your current organisation:
    Define the key value-added activities that your business needs to undertake (see opposite)
    Create a single map of the organisation, showing where your existing functions / teams sit against those key activities
  3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the current organisation – identify what works (what you want to keep), and what needs to change, regarding structures, processes, capabilities and motivation
  4. Identify and evaluate the future organisation options – that would deliver the Organisation Principles. This might be delivered through a number of sprint workstreams led by Senior Managers. This would first define the target operating model, and then be followed by identifying detailed organisation design changes.
  5. Conclude on a preferred option – collectively evaluate & agree preferred future state
  6. Build a transition plan to move to the preferred option, taking account of existing capabilities and motivations.

  • By co-creating the design with senior leaders from across the business, we ensure that the solutions are achievable, as well as future-proof.
  • By evaluating options, we ensure a diverse set of opinions are listened to and considered to deliver a more rounded solution.
  • By focusing on accountabilities, we ensure that employees will be able to make sense of how and why the organisation operates – and they are clear as to their individual role in delivering the strategic goals.

The benefits of mapping the organisation around its core value chain

Defining the target organisation around your core value chain has the key benefit of avoiding all the biases from history and personalities.

Enabling you to:

  • Step away from organisation charts and concentrate on the tasks that need to be delivered
  • Keep the focus on your key value-added activities
  • Describe the whole organisation on one page, and how all the teams inter-connect.

The output of a typical organisation review is a one-page blueprint that maps out your target organisation along with a report detailing recommended functional accountabilities, identified cost savings and a roadmap for making the transition.

Why Partner OE Cam?

You would choose to work with OE Cam on your organisation review where there is a need to re-align your organisation to your strategic goals, when you need to save costs, and if the potential organisational changes might shift power dynamic in the top team. Where we excel is tackling complex organisational and behavioural challenges.

OE Cam has partnered a number of organisations through their transformation programmes, providing a mix of organisation development and change leadership support along the way.

We have more than 20 years’ experience of organisational design.  Specifically, we are experts in working alongside senior teams in developing target operating models that:

  • Deliver immediate cost savings whilst maintaining a focus on the future strategy
  • Reflect a shift in changing strategic priorities
  • Tackle complex organisational challenges that require both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ elements
  • Provide a holistic approach to organisation design across all functions.

A core part of our approach includes understanding the influences on behaviour and ways of working, and so we will be able to help identify and deliver where more attitudinal or behaviour changes might need to take place. We understand that the broader context and system within which an individual, team or function operates has a huge influence on the behaviours they do (or don’t) exhibit.

A smarter, more holistic approach to Organisation Reviews

"I have worked with the OE Cam team on several major organisation design projects over the years. They always have been diligent, thoughtful, highly professional, and always brought new insight to the businesses involved. They have also engaged with and worked well with people at all levels in the organisations."

Peter Bamford, former-CEO Vodaphone UK

We worked with a leading Retailer to redesign their operating model blueprint, ensuring that all future changes were aligned. This included:

  • Identification of new cross-functional activities to deliver cost efficiency or added value to the business
  • Identification of 10% Support Centre cost savings
  • Redesign of the Exec’s governance framework to ensure decisions are made effectively & efficiently.

"We worked with OE Cam for a number of years and have always found them to be very good. They bring a wealth of expertise rather than pre-designed solutions and really got under the skin of our rather unique organisation."

Richard Ashcroft, former Chief Executive, PRS for Music

Find out about our Discovery Workshops

The best way to understand how OE Cam can help you conduct an organisation review is to undertake a discovery workshop with one of our Consultants.

This is a free of charge, 90 minute meeting where we will bring to life our approach through storytelling and practical use cases. We will facilitate a discussion around your bespoke needs and how we can help deliver a tangible impact for your organisation.

By the end of the workshop, you will have a clear understanding of how to approach your OD challenges and where OE Cam can best help you.

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