Organisational structures often reflect history, not strategy. As roles accumulate, decision-making slows and cost creeps in unnoticed.
Cost scrutiny is intensifying, AI and automation are reshaping skills, and regulators expect clearer individual accountability. Hybrid working has changed how your teams coordinate day to day.
Structural change is often triggered by a restructure, merger or new leadership, but the need to keep pace runs deeper. As your strategy evolves, so should your structure. Waiting until the strain becomes unavoidable only makes the eventual redesign harder and more costly.
Outcomes over templates
We work from design principles grounded in your strategy and context, not a standard template, to deliver the outcomes you need.
One integrated view
We assess structure, operating model, culture and people together, not as separate exercises.
Clear, defensible choices
We give leadership evidence-based reasoning for structural decisions they can explain with confidence.
Why Grant Thornton
Why are we different?
We design practical, defensible organisational structures. They're ones that leadership can explain and the organisation can operate. That reduces cost to serve and the people costs of high attrition, sickness and re-recruitment. We work from principles, not templates, to deliver outcomes.
Why would potential clients choose us?
We assess structure alongside operating model, culture and people implications together, so our recommendations reflect what's actually achievable in terms of transition, cost and capability - not just what looks right on paper.
How are we going beyond for our clients?
We focus on outcomes beyond the redesign itself: clearer accountability, faster decision-making, reduced duplication, and a leaner, more sustainable cost base aligned to your strategic priorities.
How do our international capabilities make us stand out?
As part of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL), our international network helps us support organisation design work for clients operating across multiple countries, combining local market knowledge with consistent global standards.
Rebuilding an Industrials engineering function
Five questions a well-designed structure should answer
Is the structure ready for the changes technology and automation will bring to the skill mix?
Structures designed around today's workforce will not naturally accommodate the changes that are already underway.
Who owns which decisions, and is that clear to everyone involved?
If decisions are regularly escalated upward or debated between functions, accountability is not as clear as the organisation chart suggests.
Are spans of control appropriate for the work being done and the capability of the people doing it?
Too broad and leaders cannot provide adequate oversight; too narrow and the structure becomes expensive and slow.
Does the structure enable cross-functional delivery, or does it create silos that slow it down?
Most of the work that matters cuts across functional boundaries.
Is the people cost base proportionate to the value the structure is delivering?
Layers that exist to manage other layers, or roles whose primary purpose is to coordinate work rather than do it, are usually a sign that design attention is overdue.
Supporting your full organisation design needs: how we help
Establishing what the structure needs to achieve and the principles that will guide design decisions, so choices can be made consistently and explained clearly.
Examining the existing structure against the design principles, identifying where accountability is unclear, where spans and layers are suboptimal, and where workload is not calibrated to capacity.
Developing future-state role definitions with clear accountability, decision rights, level of AI augmentation, and interfaces, evaluated against the cost and capability requirements of the design.
Ensuring the structural design is consistent with the culture the organisation is trying to build and the operating model it needs to run, rather than treating organisation design as a standalone exercise.
Developing the transition and workforce plan needed to move from current state to future state, and supporting leadership through the decisions that implementation requires.
Mobilisation options we can offer:
Getting started: Organisation diagnostic
A focused assessment of the current structure, typically two to three weeks, that provides a clear view of where the design is creating the most friction, what the principal options for redesign are, and what a realistic transition would involve. Designed to give leadership a defensible basis for making structural decisions rather than a description of the problem.
Getting going: Organisation design - setting up for success
Set up for Success creates the clarity and confidence needed before organisation design begins. It helps leaders align on the organisation's ambition, current challenges and the key design choices ahead. By focusing on work, capabilities, roles, decision-making and culture, it creates a strong foundation for organisation change.
