Businesses change their systems. Few change how they actually work.
After years of working inside large businesses and alongside consultancies delivering transformation programmes, I’ve noticed a pattern that keeps showing up and it’s costing organisations far more than they realise.
The technology gets implemented. The new processes get documented. The system goes live and the project team disperses. And then, six months later, the business finds itself asking why it doesn’t feel any different.
The answer, more often than not, is that nobody changed how the organisation actually works.
The gap nobody talks about
Most transformation programmes are built around a deliverable: a new CRM, a new ERP, a redesigned process. What they rarely address is the operating model, the structure underneath everything else. How decisions get made. Who is accountable for what. How teams are organised and how work flows between them.
You can implement the best technology in the world, but if the organisation around it still operates the way it always has, you won’t get the outcomes you were promised. The system will be used in ways it was never designed for. Workarounds will quietly become the norm. And eventually, the business will conclude that the technology failed, when in reality, the operating model never changed.
Technology is the enabler. The operating model is what determines whether it actually works.
What a target operating model actually is
A target operating model isn’t a strategy document or an org chart. It’s a clear picture of how the organisation needs to function in order to achieve what it’s set out to do.
It covers the things that are easy to overlook: who makes which decisions and at what level, how teams collaborate across functions, what the new accountabilities look like, and how the day-to-day rhythm of the business needs to change. It connects the technology, the process and the people in a way that most programmes don’t.
Done properly, a TOM isn’t something imposed on an organisation. It’s built with the people who will have to work in it, anchored to a clear north star: a simple, shared picture of what the business is trying to become, that guides every decision along the way. That’s what makes it stick.
Why it gets left out
In my experience, the operating model gets deprioritised for a few reasons. It’s harder to define than a system requirement. It takes longer to land than a process change. And it requires difficult conversations about accountability and structure that many organisations would rather avoid.
There’s also a tendency to assume that once the technology is in place, the organisation will naturally adapt around it. Sometimes it does. More often, it doesn’t, and the gap between what was promised and what was delivered quietly widens.
Starting with the end in mind
The businesses that get this right don’t treat the operating model as an afterthought. They start by asking what the organisation needs to look like once the transformation is complete, and they use that picture to shape every decision along the way.
That means being honest about where the current model isn’t working. It means involving the right people early, not just the project sponsors, but the managers and teams who will be living inside the new model every day. And it means being willing to redesign things that feel uncomfortable, because the alternative is a transformation programme that delivers outputs without outcomes.
The organisations we work with that have taken this seriously, defining the target operating model before committing to a technology solution, and designing the change programme around it, have consistently achieved better results. Not because the technology was better, but because the organisation was ready for it.
A final thought
Transformation is hard. Nobody needs to be told that. But the businesses that struggle most aren’t the ones that chose the wrong technology or ran out of budget. They’re the ones that changed everything around the organisation without changing the organisation itself.
If you’re planning a transformation programme and the operating model isn’t on the agenda yet, it probably should be. Not at the end, as a tidy-up exercise. At the beginning, as the foundation everything else is built on.
At ALL3 we’re working with clients on target operating model design right now. If you’d like to talk through what this could look like for your business, Get in touch or explore how we work.
