One Operating Model for 23 Markets

The situation

Ten Functions, Twenty-Three Markets, No Common Yardstick

Rapid M&A growth had left the platform with fragmented, siloed operations: no standardised SOPs or KPIs across its 10 business functions, significant staffing over-indexing in some markets, and workforce planning done by hand. Aggregator competition was accelerating the pressure to take cost out.

The root cause was structural. Post-merger integration had never been completed operationally, each country had inherited its legacy structures, and data sat fragmented across local CRMs, ERPs and spreadsheets.

What we did

Benchmark Everything, Then Design the Target Model

Over 18 weeks, a lead consultant and five analysts ran the full arc from current-state mapping to a costed target operating model:

• Mapped the current state across all 23 markets: 75+ stakeholder interviews, FTE data collection and process documentation.
• Benchmarked function against function internally, and against the major aggregator competitors externally.
• Designed the future-state operating model: role rationalisation, standardised SOPs, a common KPI library.
• Built the workforce rebalancing model now used by HR and Finance, and an AI-readiness heat map per function.

The result

A Single Model, a Sized Prize, and an AI Roadmap

• $16–22M in annual savings identified and sized across functions.
• A 15–20% efficiency gap quantified in benchmarked functions, with 180–220 FTE identified for rebalancing.
• A standardised KPI library adopted across all 23 markets, enabling like-for-like benchmarking.
• An AI-readiness heat map adopted by the group technology office for the following year’s automation investment.

The consolidation playbook was adopted by the group COO office, and first-year savings exceeded ten times the engagement fee.