Shifted from hands-off to operating group
Case study:
Shifted from hands-off to operating group
- Situation
- A global platform player had grown over decades with a largely decentralized model, giving regions and franchise partners extensive autonomy and leaving the group with limited operational control
- Beyond marketing, few group-wide standards existed for strategy, operations, systems and tools
- Rising customer expectations and new intermediaries closer to end customers required investments in customer experience and technology that individual countries could no longer manage independently
- Actions
- Assessed market dynamics, customer expectations and performance across countries to identify strategic priorities
- Redefined the group’s value proposition, competitive differentiation and required level of control along the value chain
- Segmented countries by market potential and strategic role, defining different approaches to growth, investment and operational involvement
- Designed a new operating model with clearer responsibilities for the center, countries, franchise partners and own operations, including group-wide standards and central services
- Defined the required capabilities, investments and resource shifts, supported by a phased implementation roadmap
- Results
- Established a new group strategy with clearer competitive differentiation and greater control over key customer-facing activities
- Introduced a country segmentation and investment framework to guide growth priorities, operational involvement and resource allocation
- Repositioned the holding as an operational group with stronger central capabilities, shared standards and a more focused service offering, supported by significant resource shifts from countries to the center
- Secured board approval for a corporate strategy targeting 20% annual growth, with implementation underway