Your team just launched another digital initiative. The strategy deck looked great, the townhall was energizing - and six months later, the impact is… unclear.

While strategy decks are full of bold ambitions and transformation programs are launched with high hopes, operational reality often paints a different picture.

The problem is not just strategic – it is operational. When you don’t have a clear, shared way of working, your projects stall, your digital tools sit idle, silos resurface and costs creep up. The real issue? You’re missing a simple, shared model for how work actually gets done in a digital age.

So how do we avoid our hard work and efforts ending up as just another piece of paper, or fancy collections of slides in an online repository, never to be looked at again?

What is a Digital Operating Model (DOM)?

Think of a Digital Operating Model (DOM) as the wiring behind the walls - often invisible, but essential for everything to function. It’s not a chart you hang on a wall. It’s how things really get done. It is a dynamic blueprint that connects your digital ambition with the day-to-day realities of operations. It defines how your organization delivers value in a digital context – through roles and responsibilities, decision rights, ways of working, supporting technologies, and the skills of your people. In short, it paints the picture of how the organization is operationalized – or rather, how we want it to be operationalized. The step to actually achieve this is where many organizations fail.

At Kopenhagen Konsulting, we have developed a DOM approach that is pragmatic, structured, and above all, tailored. It helps companies embed efficiency, alignment and adaptability at the core of how they work, in a way that is tailored to their unique goals, maturity and operational context.

Why DOM – and not just TOM or ITOM?

While terms like Target Operating Model (TOM) or IT Operating Model (ITOM) are commonly used, we deliberately use Digital Operating Model (DOM) to reflect today’s realities.

TOMs often focus on end-state structures, and ITOMs can lean too narrowly into the tech stack. The DOM goes further. It captures the dynamic, cross-functional nature of modern operations - where digital isn’t a function, but a foundational enabler. A DOM connects strategy to execution in a way that spans the full enterprise: business, technology, data, governance, and culture.

Why now? Digital confusion is costly

The pace of technological innovation today is relentless. AI, automation, data platforms, and other merging tools promise operational efficiency, smarter decisions, and differentiated customer experiences. These technologies are more than trends – they are reshaping industries. Companies that get it right move faster, scale better, and earn trust in markets where expectations are rising.

But the real question isn’t whether to adopt new technologies – it’s whether your organization is built to absorb them. Without the right operational foundation, digital ambition quickly turns into fragmentation. Pilots don’t scale. Value gets lost between silos. Tools are implemented but never integrated. And transformation efforts begin to feel more like expensive experiments than business-critical enablers.

That required foundation is the Digital Operating Model.

Too often, digital initiatives fail – not because the ideas are wrong, but because the organization isn’t set up to execute. Who decides what? Where is flexibility allowed, and where is standardization non-negotiable? What capabilities are essential for success? How do we scale up new ways of working, across geographies, units and functions?

A well-designed DOM helps answer those questions. It builds the structure and alignment needed to execute consistently, operate efficiently, and adapt at speed. It enables real-time, end-to-end data flows and governance, eliminating the barriers that slow decision making and erode trust in insight. It supports modular, responsive technology and team setups, allowing digital solutions to be deployed – and redeployed – quickly. And it embeds end-to-end operational thinking, covering not just systems and skills, but also decision rights, performance metrics, and cultural alignment.

Operational clarity and executional flexibility are your margin protectors. A well-tailored, embedded DOM delivers that through translating complexity into focused capabilities. It aligns business and technology priorities, accelerates decisions and enables scale. And, perhaps most importantly, it connects ambition to everyday execution – so that transformation is not just planned, but lived.

In a competitive landscape where operational efficiency can mean the difference between growth and stagnation, the DOM isn’t just helpful – it’s essential.

Three operating archetypes: a tailored approach

There is an old saying that “no one size fits all”, and the same is true for operating model design. For large organizations embarking on a transformation or maturity journey, the initial challenge is often one of focus: which areas should we tackle first? Where is the greatest value or return on investment? What will require the most effort or change readiness?

Trying to address everything at once – opening all the cupboards and drawers, so to speak – can quickly become overwhelming. To help break the complexity into something actionable, we work with a framework built around three dominant operating archetypes. Most organizations will recognize aspects of themselves in one or more of them:

Operational Excellence – focused on cost control, standardization, and efficiency at scale. Think lean processes, automation and performance transparency.

Growth Leadership – optimized for innovation and speed. Emphasizes agile structures, decentralization, and rapid scaling of new products and services.

Customer Intimacy – geared toward tailored experiences and responsiveness. Requires strong data flows, cross-functional teams and continuous feedback loops.

These archetypes are not rigid categories. They should be used as strategic lenses to help clarify priorities and highlight where the operating model must be strongest. Most companies benefit from a hybrid approach, blending elements from each archetype depending on their current position, competitive context and future goals.

Take for example, a global client in the service industry navigating intense margin pressure. With high transaction volumes and low per-unit profitability, their path forward clearly aligned with Operational Excellence: reduce cost-to-serve, streamline handovers, and eliminate variation in delivery, to ensure reliable delivery at scale. That became their foundation.

But that wasn’t enough.

To shift internal perceptions – from mere cost center to a value adding partner to the organization – they also needed to elevate their internal service experience. Here, elements of the Customer Intimacy archetype came into play: investing in tailored services, close collaboration and communication, and deliberate tools and digital solutions that enhanced responsiveness and customer satisfaction, through more direct collaboration between teams. The result was a hybrid DOM that maintained the rigor and efficiency of Operational Excellence, while layering in responsiveness and relevance where it mattered most. This “fit-for-purpose” DOM balanced efficiency and differentiation, enabling cost effective scale without sacrificing engagement or value-add.

This is the essence of a well-designed DOM. It doesn’t reduce complexity by ignoring it. Instead, it makes that complexity manageable – turning competing goals into a coherent design, and providing a shared language that enables focus, clarity, and alignment.

From strategy to action: Our four-phase method

When undertaking operating model transformation projects, we work with clients using a simple but powerful four-phase method:'

• Define: set the north star, your ambition and transformation direction
• Assess: know your ground truth, your current maturity across core dimensions
• Design: define what’s next, the future model, tailored to strategic goals
• Implement: make it real, bring it to life through clear initiatives, tracking and ownership

This framework is designed to be flexible enough to adapt to different starting points – while maintaining the discipline needed for real impact.

The goal here is crucially not complexity – it is clarity.

DOM execution: what success looks like

A successful DOM does not just bring a new framework or guardrails – it brings tangible change in how the organization works.

It, when implemented and adopted, brings:

• Clarity in decision making and roles
• Simpler, faster processes
• Stronger alignment between business and IT
• Higher return on digital investments

A culture that is ready and open to change and adapt

But making it happen requires more than just a good design. Success hinges on the people who shape, own and carry the model forward.

Senior leadership must actively champion the effort – setting direction, allocating resources, and sustaining momentum. Without visible ownership and a clear mandate from the top, operating model transformations risk drifting or stalling.

Equally important is involving the wider business. Functions and departments need a seat at the table – not just to provide input, but to help shape the model and become early adopters. This builds local ownership, creates relevance and allows champions to emerge organically across the organization.

Finally, a capable and anchored transformation team is essential. Operating models are inherently complex and cross-functional. They require individuals who understand the intricacies of both the business and transformation delivery. The right team will bridge strategic ambition with operational reality, ensure continuity across phases, and help navigate capability gaps or execution blind spots before they become roadblocks.

In short, a DOM turns strategy into action. But it is the people involved who turn the DOM into impact.

Final takeaway: simplicity scales

In a world that is becoming more complex, your operating model should bring simplicity. The DOM helps create a shared language, a clear path, and a way to scale change without scaling chaos. In a time where many organizations are “doing digital” but not seeing the returns, DOMs offer a structured way to build a business that is truly fit for the future.

The process of getting where you need to go does not need to go through 17 convoluted steps. It needs to be right-sized, relevant and real. And that is what we help our clients build.

If your digital strategy isn’t reflected in how your teams make decisions, use tools, or deliver day to day - your operating model may be the missing link.

Reach out to our experts to explore how you can move forward, and build the structure needed to make change stick and results last.

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