Frameworks

Core organization design frameworks.

We know the joke: consultants use way too many frameworks. But these are our favorites. Rooted in Jay Galbraith’s methodology and refined over years of practice, these are the essential models we rely on to guide our clients.

The Star ModelUsed to diagnose and design a dynamic, holistic system of human behavior in groups.ExploreEnterprise Operating ModelThe sequence of decisions to set the organization vision.ExploreOperating FrameworkA critical decision is specifying to what degree the portfolio should be integrated.ExploreStructure Design OptionsThe four classic ways to group work: function, geography, product, and customer.ExploreJay’s Ladder of Lateral ConnectionsA continuum of integration options to connect structures.ExploreWorking in the MatrixThe three roles, Matrix Manager, Matrix Leader, and Tie Breaker, that make a matrix work.ExploreOrganization DecisionsThree types of decisions, each requiring different tools and governance.ExploreFunction-Value FrameworkSorting the role of the center versus the business by core functional mission.ViewingCorporate Function Design OptionsFour ways to position a function, from fully centralized to fully embedded.ExploreProduct Team TypesLight-weight to heavy-weight design options for how product teams are built.Explore
View our organization design glossary
Function-Value Framework

Sorting the various roles of functions.

Function Policy & Compliance
Center of Expertise
Solutions Delivery (Professional Services)
Digital Services Delivery (GBS / GCC)
Business Partner
Core mission

Policy and risk management

Thought leadership and functional product development

Client support close to the business

Shared services, transactions, and data management

Strategic, business-specific advisory and solutions

Key activities
  • Sets functional strategy and policy worldwide
  • Owns global standards and stewardship of key capabilities
  • Runs fiduciary controls and compliance
  • Provides thought leadership and deep expertise
  • Builds best practices and measurement
  • Develops capability across the enterprise
  • Sends expert consultants to operating units to accelerate the work
  • Executes core programs and processes at the business unit level
  • Works with business partners to define key needs
  • Informs the design and development of new programs and processes
  • Reengineers and automates repeatable processes
  • Manages outsourced work in global and regional centers
  • Executes support processes
  • Optimizes internal customer service and cost
  • Supports business and functional strategy
  • Acts as a trusted advisor to designated leaders
  • Assures data-based decision support
  • Feeds insights back to the center
Rationale
  • The basis of global strategy and approach to growth
  • High-value investments
  • Risk management
  • Expertise that is difficult or expensive to replicate
  • Best ideas attract users
  • Helps build one culture through best-practice sharing
  • Execution of projects that require experienced talent with specialized skills and local knowledge
  • Used selectively, where substantial economies are available and commonality is desirable
  • The best alternative to central, field-based, or outsourced delivery
  • Assures execution of business imperatives
  • Embedded with the business, usually with a reporting line back to the function leader in the center
Value

Enterprise brand and risk management

Scalable functional products and processes

Specialist delivery

Speed and service

Partnership

Role 1 of 5

Function Policy & Compliance

Core mission

Policy and risk management

Key activities
  • Sets functional strategy and policy worldwide
  • Owns global standards and stewardship of key capabilities
  • Runs fiduciary controls and compliance
Rationale
  • The basis of global strategy and approach to growth
  • High-value investments
  • Risk management
Value

Enterprise brand and risk management

Center of Expertise

Core mission

Thought leadership and functional product development

Key activities
  • Provides thought leadership and deep expertise
  • Builds best practices and measurement
  • Develops capability across the enterprise
  • Sends expert consultants to operating units to accelerate the work
Rationale
  • Expertise that is difficult or expensive to replicate
  • Best ideas attract users
  • Helps build one culture through best-practice sharing
Value

Scalable functional products and processes

Solutions Delivery (Professional Services)

Core mission

Client support close to the business

Key activities
  • Executes core programs and processes at the business unit level
  • Works with business partners to define key needs
  • Informs the design and development of new programs and processes
Rationale
  • Execution of projects that require experienced talent with specialized skills and local knowledge
Value

Specialist delivery

Digital Services Delivery (GBS / GCC)

Core mission

Shared services, transactions, and data management

Key activities
  • Reengineers and automates repeatable processes
  • Manages outsourced work in global and regional centers
  • Executes support processes
  • Optimizes internal customer service and cost
Rationale
  • Used selectively, where substantial economies are available and commonality is desirable
  • The best alternative to central, field-based, or outsourced delivery
Value

Speed and service

Business Partner

Core mission

Strategic, business-specific advisory and solutions

Key activities
  • Supports business and functional strategy
  • Acts as a trusted advisor to designated leaders
  • Assures data-based decision support
  • Feeds insights back to the center
Rationale
  • Assures execution of business imperatives
  • Embedded with the business, usually with a reporting line back to the function leader in the center
Value

Partnership

Every function does five distinct kinds of work, and each brings value to the business in a different way. The framework applies to enabling functions like HR and finance as well as business functions like marketing and supply chain. The function-value framework sorts all functional work into five categories. Each category is developed, managed, and delivered differently, which is why the distinctions matter.

How we use it with clients

We use the framework to bring discipline to how functional work is grouped: sorting a function’s actual responsibilities into the five columns, which surfaces what belongs in the corporate center versus embedded in the business, and begins to inform the structure of the function itself. The sort forces conversations that functions otherwise avoid: whether a center of expertise has quietly become a service delivery shop, whether the size of the center matches the company’s portfolio, and whether work exists that adds no distinct value at all. It also frames a fundamental design question for any operating function: should this group act as a center of expertise, a service provider, or an operator doing the work on behalf of the businesses?

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