Insights

What we have written

Some questions come up in almost every company we work with. These are our views on them, each a three to six minute read.

6 min read · the question we are asked most AI agents change the work. The organisation stays as it was When an AI programme fails, the cause is often the organisation around it rather than the tools. The structure around them was designed for a company where people did every step. It ends with a test you can put your own numbers into, to find where checking runs out before writing does. Read it → 4 min read Best of both is the most expensive way to integrate two companies A synergy case assumes the combined organisation is the better half of each. In practice it is a third operating model that neither company has run before, and learning to run it can cost about as much as the synergy was supposed to save. Read it → 4 min read In retail, head office cost is not a head office problem Support functions get cut one at a time, against a benchmark percentage of sales. The cost they actually create sits in the store manager’s week, and nobody owns that. Read it → 3 min read A manager with 6 people and 12 AI agents does not have a span of 18 Span of control was a proxy for how much supervision one person can carry. AI agents make that count unreliable, and most companies still count span the old way. Read it →
Example projects

What we were asked, and what the answer changed

Four examples of how an engagement runs, from the question to the result. The companies and numbers are made up to show how the work goes.

Design

AI agents had gone into the commercial team and the organisation had been left alone. Four weeks later the board approved a new commercial organisation in one session.

“Who is answerable when an AI agent writes the bid a customer signs?”

23 → 7working days to a signed contract
84 → 74roles, all of them management or handoff work
3 of 6decisions move, and 16 of the 23 days with them
Benefit to them€800,000a year in payroll, from the ten roles that went, against our fixed fee of €35,000
Verdict

The corporate centre had drafted it and the divisional chief executive was being asked to put his name to it. He wanted someone outside the company to review it before the board meeting.

“A new divisional structure is going to the board in three weeks. Does it hold?”

6 daysfrom receiving the material to a verdict
3 of 11assumptions it rested on had never been tested
2 layerswould have come back within a year
Benefit to them1 redesignavoided, the one that would have followed within a year, against our fixed fee of €8,500
Plan

Two weeks of work with the new owner, and nobody else in the company knew. It ended with a scoped question, a first business case stated as assumptions, and two of four directions ruled out before any design started.

“There is a cost target in the deal model and nobody inside can be told yet.”

3 peopleknew the work was happening
2 of 4directions ruled out before any design began
2 weeksstart to plan, with no announcement
Benefit to them€2.1Mcost target confirmed as reachable, with the route chosen, against our fixed fee of €7,500
Design

Every support function sent work to the shop floor and none of them saw the total. Five weeks later the board had a head office designed from the store outward, and a list of what stops.

“Head office keeps growing while stores are told to cut hours. Which of it does a store actually need?”

31 → 12recurring requests a store manager gets from head office each month
4 → 3layers between store manager and board
6 hrsa week back on the shop floor, per store manager
Benefit to them€3.4Ma year in head office and store-manager time, against our fixed fee of €69,000
Contact

Send us your organisation design question

Send us a short email on the decision you face and by when. We reply within one working day, and after one call you get a fixed price and a date, or the name of a firm that fits better.

info@spineresolves.com