How operating models shape strategy
Rall’s panel at the festival looks at how organizations are structured to carry out strategy. The panel will work through operating model archetypes, from headcount and spans of control to shared services and centres of excellence, and a quick self-assessment will help attendees locate their own structure.
“I think that your model as an organization is what enables a strategy,” Rall said. “Organizations are being asked to do fundamentally more with fundamentally different capabilities. And a lot of organizations are operating with structures and practices that were designed for a different era.”
Rall says organizations are also dealing with a lot at once.
“We know that organizations are dealing with cost pressures and growth expectation, all the digital and AI disruption and talent constraints, along with all of the geopolitical uncertainty that we live with, particularly in Canada right now,” she said.
“It’s a fundamentally fascinating problem with no right answer,” she said. “This is where I think organizational design gets really, really creative, and we need to elevate it above headcount and above ratios, really into strategic problem solving.”