Signs Your Operating Model Is Blocking Digital Progress

Digital transformation is no longer optional, it's a strategic imperative.

Yet, many enterprise organisations find their digital ambitions stalled not by a lack of ideas or investment, but by the very structure that’s meant to enable progress: their operating model.

The right DOM will help digital, marketing, and IT leaders unlock agility, drive growth, and align with business goals. But an outdated or misaligned Digital Operating Model (DOM) can silently stifle innovation, drain morale, and lead to fragmented customer experiences.

If any of these signs sound familiar, it may be time to rethink your approach.

1. Internal Misalignment Is the Norm, Not the Exception

The Symptom: Teams are pulling in different directions. Marketing wants to accelerate personalisation, IT is focused on platform stability, and leadership is unclear on digital’s role in business strategy.

Why It Happens: Without a clear strategic direction and governance structure, each function defines success differently. Objectives aren’t aligned, and decisions are made in silos.

The Fix: Establish a unified digital strategy anchored in business objectives. Define cross-functional governance to ensure accountability, prioritisation, and a shared roadmap.

2. Your Teams Are Fatigued and Firefighting

The Symptom: High turnover, employee burnout, or a constant sense of ‘just keeping the lights on’. Digital feels like a burden, not an enabler.

Why It Happens: Legacy roles, skills mismatches, and waterfall ways of working often leave teams stuck in reactive mode. Cultural resistance to change compounds the problem.

The Fix: Focus on people and culture. Upskill and reframe roles to support agile, digital-first practices. Promote a culture of continuous learning and collaboration.

3. Projects Are Delayed—and Nobody’s Surprised

The Symptom: Initiatives take months to get off the ground. Decision-making is slow, and delivery is riddled with rework and missed milestones.

Why It Happens: Operational inefficiencies and unclear ownership create digital bottlenecks. Disconnected systems and lack of automation further exacerbate delays.

The Fix: Redesign operations and processes for agility. Introduce automation where possible, clarify ownership across teams, and align delivery models with digital goals.

4. Customers Are Underwhelmed by Their Digital Experience

The Symptom: Low engagement, high bounce rates, or poor feedback from digital channels. Despite investment, customers aren’t sticking around.

Why It Happens: Disconnected data, legacy tech, and lack of personalisation lead to frustrating experiences. Often, customer insights aren’t informing digital strategy.

The Fix: Rethink customer experience as a pillar of your DOM. Use journey mapping, data analytics, and feedback loops to design tailored, seamless experiences across all touchpoints.

5. Your Tech Stack Is a Patchwork Quilt

The Symptom: You’re stuck in a maze of tools that don’t talk to each other. Integrations are clunky, and innovation is slow due to technical debt.

Why It Happens: Technology decisions made in isolation from business goals lead to a fragmented infrastructure. Scaling or pivoting becomes painfully difficult.

The Fix: Build a resilient and flexible technology and infrastructure layer. Invest in cloud-native platforms, unify data architecture, and ensure cybersecurity isn’t an afterthought.

Bringing It All Together: The Digital Operating Model Blueprint

These challenges rarely occur in isolation. They’re interconnected symptoms of a deeper issue: a misaligned or outdated Digital Operating Model.

The solution?

A holistic model that integrates eight key pillars:

• Strategy and Governance
• People and Culture
• Customer Experience
• Operations and Processes
• Technology and Infrastructure
• Data and Analytics
• Innovation and Continuous Improvement
• Regulatory and Market Influences

At Mando Group, our DOM report doesn't just highlight problems, it maps the path forward.

We help identify in-source/out-source opportunities, propose fit-for-purpose organisational structures, and phase the transition to drive sustainable change.

Ready to Diagnose? And Transform?

If these signs sound familiar, you’re not alone.

Let’s talk about how a modern Digital Operating Model can reignite momentum, foster alignment, and future-proof your organisation.