Problems I work on
Strategy is rarely the problem. The operating model is. Most organisations know what they need to do — they just can't do it, because the structure, pace, and logic of how work gets done was designed for a world that's moved on. That gap between intent and execution is where I work.
Why organisations struggle
When the world shifts, most organisations respond by adjusting at the edges — restructuring teams, launching programmes, adding new functions. The underlying design logic stays fixed.
That's because operating models are sticky. They encode the assumptions of the era they were built in — about customers, markets, technology, what creates value — and those assumptions become invisible. Leaders inherit a structure and optimise within it, rather than questioning whether the structure itself still fits.
The result isn't dramatic failure. It's a slow widening of the gap between what the strategy demands and what the organisation can deliver. Performance doesn't collapse — it plateaus, and effort increases to compensate. By the time the misalignment is obvious, the cost of redesign has compounded.
How I work
Engagements aren’t standardised ‘products.’ They’re shaped by context, organisation, and need. I work directly, not through associates or teams, with leadership groups who understand that the challenge isn’t one of effort but of design.
Modes include advising boards and executives, leading or guiding operating model redesigns, teaching business design, executive team coaching through ambiguous transformation, and independent review of mission-critical design efforts.
Every engagement is diagnostic and collaborative in spirit, grounded in five principles: start from the world, not the org chart; design for generative advantage; see the system; embrace design’s iterative path; pace matters. The shape fits the problem — not the other way round.
Selected engagements
Redesign of a global risk function for a major international bank
A risk function of more than 4,000 people, spanning multiple jurisdictions and business divisions, had outgrown its own structure: accountabilities overlapped or fell through the gaps, and the operating model no longer matched how risk needed to be governed. Over fifteen months, working directly with the bank's global risk management committee and their senior reports, I led the redesign of the function's structure, accountabilities and operating model. The result was a newly adopted global operating model with clear accountabilities, managing credit, market and operational risk in a more joined up way across jurisdictions and divisions — three dimensions the previous structure had handled separately.
Design and build of an IT shared service for a UK infrastructure group
Fourteen operating companies, each running IT its own way, served 17,000 users with no shared model and rising cost. I designed the operating model for a single shared service, then led the detailed design and implementation — processes, roles, governance, service management and service designs — through to transition and first go-live milestones, with line responsibility for the team and budget. The programme reduced IT running costs by 25%.
Operating model design for a global industrial manufacturer
The marketing function of a global industrial manufacturer faced a deeper shift than a restructure: the business was moving from selling products to selling solutions, and from traditional channels to digital and account-based models. The operating model had to change with it. I guided and coached the function's leadership team to design their new operating model and to take a lead role in the transition themselves — building the capability to own the change rather than have it done to them. The design reframed the function around the solution-oriented, digitally enabled business the manufacturer was becoming.
Organisation design for the leadership of Ofqual
The exam and qualification regulator needed its organisation redesigned around a new leadership structure. I led the organisation design review for the chief executive and chief operating officer, then supported the leadership team through the transition into the new structure. The work paired design with the harder task of making it hold in practice — advising the executives directly through the change.
Sustainability as operating model design for a national retailer
A leading multi-brand retailer with limited supply-chain leverage needed a different sustainability strategy. The insight: lead through customer engagement, not upstream influence. We built the strategy around that reality, then embedded sustainability roles and capabilities directly into the retailer's agile operating model — so the work ran at the pace of the business rather than alongside it. Sustainability connected to what the business could actually influence, and to how it already worked.
Business design for advanced therapy manufacturing.
Advised on the business design for a £10.6m advanced gene therapy facility — reviewing the operating model and customer proposition plans, and identifying where the design needed to change before build. The centre opened for business in 2023.
© 2026 Better Business Design Consulting Ltd. All rights reserved.
© 2026 Better Business Design Consulting Ltd. All rights reserved.