Connected Risk transformation
Operating model, organisation, workforce, capability, governance and value moved as one system.
Flagship case study · Business transformation
Operationalising a future-fit Risk function.
How GC helped a major African bank translate a Risk Target Operating Model into an activated organisational structure, workforce transition and platform for measurable value.
RTOMOn time · On target
01Design
02Develop
03Activate
04Operationalise
Selected evidence of enterprise significance
A Risk TOM became a working organisational system—because structure, workforce, capability, governance and value moved together.
Future-state positions architected
A formal structure designed from a reported workforce of 586 employees, including 80 vacancies.
Transformation phases completed
Design, development, activation and operationalisation were taken through to programme close.
Delay days recovered
Later phases were re-engineered and managed concurrently to protect the destination.
Strategic engagements
A leadership, SME, governance and project cadence held the transformation together.
Programme safely landed
The full journey closed on target, with critical ownership transferred into the business.
The client challenge
The operating model was defined. The organisation still had to make it real.
The bank’s Retail and Commercial Risk leadership had designed a new operating model to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Risk function.
The complexity lay in converting that intent into a working organisational system. Structures, roles, reward, governance, industrial-relations processes, employee consultation, placement, systems, performance, learning and adoption all had to move together across Risk, Compliance, Legal, Human Capital and multiple business segments.
GC was initially appointed for four months to provide specialist programme-management capability. The mandate rapidly revealed a broader need: an integrated transformation architecture capable of holding the entire journey together.
The turning point
Re-engineering the journey without moving the destination.
93
days behind schedule
Internal Organisation Design capacity constraints delayed the operating-model development work and threatened every downstream phase.
Programme response
GC and Risk leadership re-engineered the delivery approach, managed later phases concurrently, strengthened programme control and introduced greater reporting automation and executive cadence.
Programme landed on time and on target, with ownership successfully transferred into the business.The transformation journey
Four phases. One integrated operating system.
Each phase converted another layer of strategic intent into formal organisational infrastructure, workforce action and sustained ownership.
01
Design
Build the operating-model foundation
GC supported the people-plan strategy, conceptual operating model, value chain, structural principles, resourcing logic and ecosystem alignment required for the future Risk function.
- People-plan strategy, conceptual operating model and structure
- Value-chain, resourcing and ecosystem design principles
- Implementation roadmap, governance and change-readiness baseline
02
Develop
Create the organisational infrastructure
The conceptual model was translated into formal structure, role architecture, competencies, career pathways, grading, remuneration logic, KPI alignment and programme governance.
- Formal reporting structure and role architecture
- Role grading, evaluation, benchmarking and reward logic
- Role profiles, competencies, career pathways and KPI alignment
03
Activate
Mobilise the workforce processes
GC coordinated the business case, impact assessment, leadership alignment, industrial-relations approval, consultation, matching, assessment, advertising and placement journey.
- Business case, impact assessment and industrial-relations validation
- Employee and union consultation, matching and assessment
- Role advertising, selection and placement mechanics
04
Operationalise
Land and embed the new model
The final phase coordinated placement, contracting, recruitment, system alignment, performance preparation, onboarding and transfer into business-as-usual ownership.
- Human Capital systems, contracting and workforce-data alignment
- Set-up, Mobilise and Reinforce capability and change architecture
- Performance, onboarding, value and business-ownership transfer
Evidence of delivery
A complex workforce transformation, formally landed.
Reported existing workforce586employees
FormaliseActivate
Future-state structure666positions · including 80 vacancies
These figures reflect the programme's direct, report-backed organisational perimeter at close.
The integrated delivery architecture
Five systems had to move togetherfor the operating model to land.
The depth of the mandate sat in the connections: organisation design shaped workforce impact; workforce action depended on governance; performance required capability; value required all of them.
01Operating model + organisation
Translate the model into organisational infrastructure.
GC connected the conceptual operating model to the organisation, roles, governance and performance mechanisms required to make it executable.
- People-plan strategy, conceptual structure and ecosystem alignment
- Role architecture, grading, evaluation and reward benchmarking
- Role profiles, competencies, career pathways and KPI alignment
02Workforce + formal processes
Move the people through a governed transition.
The workforce journey was engineered across every formal dependency—not treated as an administrative placement exercise.
- Business case, impact assessment and industrial-relations validation
- Union and employee consultation, matching and assessment
- Role advertising, selection, placement, contracting and recruitment
03Programme recovery + control
Protect the destination when the sequence moved.
When an internal dependency created a 93-day delay, the delivery model was redesigned to run later phases concurrently without losing control.
- Integrated dependency management across Risk, Compliance, Legal and Human Capital
- Stronger governance, reporting automation and executive cadence
- 320 strategic leadership, SME, working-team and project engagements
04Capability + adoption
Connect new roles to new ways of working.
Operationalisation extended beyond structure into the capability, performance and adoption system needed to sustain the model.
- Set-up, Mobilise and Reinforce change architecture
- Learning, career-path and performance-contract alignment
- Risk Hub connection, onboarding, socialisation and adoption support
05Value + business ownership
Build the bridge from programme activity to value.
The final architecture linked work items, functional capabilities and deployment to measurable performance, while preparing the organisation to continue without GC.
- Efficiency, effectiveness and enterprise-value measurement logic
- Human Capital data, systems and organisation-development handover
- Continuing ownership transferred to Risk leadership and Human Capital
Making value measurable
From transformation activity to efficiency and effectiveness.
GC developed a value-realisation approach connecting work items, functional capabilities and workforce deployment to operational and business outcomes.
Efficiency
Utilisation · delivery time · capacity · FTE movement
Effectiveness
Incidents · risks mitigated · opportunity cost · enablement
Enterprise value
Value protection · value creation · scalable coverage
Forward-looking business-case opportunity
43 FTEmodelled capacity movement
R36.4mmodelled 2022–2025 opportunity
These figures were modelled opportunities at programme close, not benefits confirmed as realised.What changed
A connected foundation for sustained Risk performance.
The programme left more than a completed structure. It left the organisational, workforce, capability and value infrastructure through which the model could continue.
An operating model made executable
A conceptual Risk TOM became a formal structure, role and governance architecture.
A workforce pathway through complexity
Impact, consultation, matching, assessment and placement were coordinated as one formal transition.
Programme control restored
A 93-day internal dependency delay was absorbed through concurrent, governed delivery.
Capability connected to performance
Roles and placement were linked to systems, onboarding, learning, performance and adoption.
A platform for measurable value
Work items, capability and deployment were connected to efficiency, effectiveness and enterprise-value logic.
The strategic elevation
From a target modelto an owned operating system.
GC's contribution was to hold the whole transformation together long enough for the design to become executable—and then transfer the mechanisms required to sustain it.
FromTo
A defined conceptual operating model
→An executable organisation, role and governance architectureA sequence vulnerable to a critical internal dependency
→A concurrent, controlled programme that recovered 93 daysStructure change and role placement
→An integrated workforce, capability and adoption journeyTransformation activity tracked through delivery
→A value logic connecting work, capability and deployment to performanceProgramme-led mobilisation
→Continuing ownership held by Risk leadership and Human CapitalThe GC difference
Design. Implement. Transfer.
GC did not treat the Risk TOM as a design exercise. We stayed with the mandate through formalisation, programme mobilisation, workforce activation, operationalisation and value design.
At close, ownership of continuing repurposing, Human Capital data governance, performance reinforcement and future capability evolution transferred to Risk leadership and the bank’s Human Capital community.
Start the conversation
Make the operating model work in the real world.
If your organisation must move from a defined model into formalisation, workforce transition and measurable value, let’s talk.
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