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Structure follows decision rights — not the other way around.
When organizations redesign their operating model, the conversation often starts with the organization chart: which teams to merge, where functions should report and how many layers to remove. Those are important questions, but they are the output of operating model design, not the starting point. The starting point is how the most important decisions are made.
Why decision rights come first
Every operating model exists to make and execute decisions — about customers, investments, pricing, resources and risk. If it is unclear who makes those decisions, what information they rely on and how quickly they can act, no reporting structure will fix the underlying friction. Clarifying decision rights first makes structural choices far easier and far more durable.
What changes in an intelligent enterprise
As data and AI become embedded in daily operations, some decisions can be made faster, closer to the front line or with automated support. That raises new design questions:
- Which decisions should remain with experienced leaders, and which can be supported or automated?
- Who is accountable when an AI-supported recommendation is acted on?
- Which capabilities should be centralized as shared platforms, and which should sit within business units?
- How should performance be measured when work is shared between people and systems?
A practical sequence for operating model design
- Start from strategy. Identify the capabilities that genuinely differentiate the business and those that simply need to be run well.
- Map the critical decisions. For each, define who decides, who is consulted and what information is required.
- Design capabilities and platforms. Decide where shared services, capability centers and data platforms create scale.
- Then design structure. Shape teams, reporting lines and spans of control around the decisions and capabilities.
- Define governance and measures. Agree how performance will be tracked and how the model will evolve.
Common pitfalls
- Redesigning the organization chart without changing how decisions are made.
- Centralizing everything, or decentralizing everything, rather than deciding case by case.
- Treating technology and AI as a separate program rather than part of the operating model.
How StrategyStack helps
StrategyStack helps leadership teams design operating models that are built to be executed — from decision rights and capability design to shared services and global capability centers. Explore our Strategy & Advisory and Shared Services & GCCs services.
