Building the Organization Behind the Operating Model
Why Organizational Design and Workforce Planning Drive Long-Term Value
-
July 28, 2026
-
An operating model defines how a business should operate; organizational design determines whether it can.
For companies launching a new business unit, entering a new market or standing up a carved-out organization, the gap between strategy and execution often comes down to people. It’s not just who is hired, but how roles are defined, how decisions are made, how leaders are empowered and how the organization is built to scale.
These decisions determine whether the business is ready to operate on Day 1 and is positioned to grow long after launch. When roles are unclear, decision-making slows, accountability breaks down and the new organization can struggle to gain momentum.
For a recent $1.5 billion North American leasing client establishing a new business unit,1 success depended not only on the expansion strategy but also on building an organization capable of executing it. The experience reinforced a broader lesson for business transformations: People decisions deserve the same level of rigor as financial and operational decisions.
Design for the Future
One of the most common mistakes organizations make during a strategic stand-up is recreating the legacy organization rather than designing one that supports the future business.
As the business evolves, so do the capabilities, governance structures and decision-making processes required to support it. That means leaders should not simply transfer existing roles into a new organization. Instead, they should determine what responsibilities the future business requires, where accountability should sit and which roles are needed to support long-term growth.
In many cases, responsibilities that were once shared across business units must be separated and redefined. Some positions will evolve, while others may no longer be needed, and entirely new roles may be required to meet regulatory requirements, customer expectations or market demands. These decisions should be driven by the future operating model, not legacy reporting structures.
Equally important is determining whether existing talent has the skills to support the new organization or whether new capabilities must be added. Addressing these questions early creates greater clarity for employees, accelerates hiring and establishes a stronger foundation for execution.
For the leasing client, answering those questions required mapping more than 75 capability areas across 15 functions to determine what the new business unit would own, what remained centralized and where accountability gaps needed to be addressed. That work informed the development of more than 30 role profiles before a single hire was made, ensuring the organization was designed for its future state rather than inherited from the legacy business.2
Align Talent With the Operating Model
A well-designed organization still depends on having the right people in the right roles. Beyond competitive compensation, this requires a clear understanding of the capabilities needed to support the new organization and the talent required to deliver them.
Organizations should assess local labor markets early to determine where critical skills are readily available and where additional recruiting, relocation or capability building may be required. Compensation should support these objectives while remaining aligned with both local market expectations and broader organizational frameworks.
Leaders should also resist the temptation to replicate how work is done at headquarters. Geographic differences, local regulations, talent availability and time zones may require new ways of working to support collaboration and decision-making. Building flexibility into the organization from the outset helps create a workforce that is positioned to perform, regardless of location.
Establish Clear Decision-Making Before Launch
A successful stand-up depends on more than clearly defined roles. It also requires clear decision-making authority. Without it, even well-designed organizations can experience delays, duplicated efforts and uncertainty over who owns critical decisions.
Organizations should establish reporting relationships and decision rights before launch. The organizational structure should reflect those decisions. Where accountability is shared between the new unit and corporate functions, each decision type needs a clear owner. In matrix structures, competing reporting lines can create ambiguity about who owns a decision precisely when speed matters most, making explicit escalation paths a design requirement rather than an afterthought.
These governance decisions shape far more than reporting lines. They determine how quickly decisions are made, how effectively teams collaborate and how confidently leaders can execute the operating model. Establishing them early helps reduce friction and enables the organization to launch with greater speed and accountability.
Build Capability Before Day 1
The success of a strategic stand-up depends not only on who is hired, but also on when. Waiting until the final stages of implementation to recruit key talent can leave critical leadership positions unfilled, delay knowledge transfer and slow operational readiness.
Recruitment should be sequenced around the needs of the new organization. Foundational functions, including finance, human resources, legal and compliance, often need to be established first, creating the governance and infrastructure required to support future growth. Operational and customer-facing teams can then be built around that foundation.
Workforce sequencing deserves the same rigor as the hiring plan itself. Which roles need to be in place before others can function? Which functions carry institutional knowledge that is difficult to replace? Identifying those dependencies early and building them into the hiring and transition timeline reduces the risk of operational gaps. Where knowledge transfer between outgoing and incoming team members is essential, the timing and structure of that handoff should be defined in the plan rather than addressed as the transition unfolds.
Maintain Momentum Through the Transition
Transitions create structural risk. When key roles are vacated before successors are ready or when critical knowledge is concentrated in individuals rather than embedded in processes and teams, the organization is exposed. Organizational design choices that anticipate these vulnerabilities, by sequencing hiring to ensure continuity, building redundancy into critical functions and defining clear role ownership before individuals depart, reduce the impact of inevitable turnover.
Organizations should identify their highest-risk roles early: those with deep institutional knowledge, limited external talent availability or significant cross-functional dependencies. For these roles, the workforce plan should include defined handoff periods, succession options and targeted retention provisions where necessary. The goal is not to prevent all attrition but to ensure the organizational design is not dependent on any single individual.
Whether through structured transition timelines, defined knowledge transfer periods or targeted retention arrangements, the workforce plan should treat continuity as a design requirement. Organizations that build these provisions into the organizational design from the outset, rather than addressing attrition reactively, are better positioned to sustain momentum well beyond launch.
Turning Strategy Into Sustained Performance
A successful strategic stand-up is not measured by whether the organization is operational on Day 1. It is measured by whether the business is positioned to execute, adapt and create value long after launch.
Operating models provide the blueprint, but people bring them to life. Organizations that invest the same discipline in organizational design, workforce planning and leadership alignment as they do in strategy and operations are better positioned to accelerate execution, navigate change and realize the full value of their transformation.
Footnotes:
1: Smith, Todd. J., Miller, Darin & Shortt, Simon, “Value Unlocked: Identifying $125M+ in Net Impact Through New Business Unit,” FTI Consulting (Aug. 5, 2025).
2: Ibid.
Related Insights
Related Information
Published
July 28, 2026
Key Contacts