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Operating Model for Unlocking Group wide value
How a leading retailer scaled digital capabilities across markets to drive efficiency, innovation and strong collaboration
November 2025
Client
Multi-country convenience retailer
Services
Business Tech Roadmap, Guiding Principles, Operating Model & Governance
Industries
Retail, Convenience
The problem
A multi-country convenience retailer wanted to unlock more value across markets without losing local speed and customer promise. Market-by-market delivery worked fine, but with each country operating its own tech stack and suppliers, similar initiatives were solved more than once, integrations were repeated, and expertise usually sat locally with individuals rather than shared competence pools. Backed by the Group CEO, leadership called out Loyalty and Analytics - two core retail capabilities that drive repeat visits and smarter decisions - as priority business areas and engaged us to organize a scalable collaboration model for these digital products. With the goal for markets to work better together and create real impact.
Our approach
We anchored the work in three tangible outcomes that served as a starting point for cross-market collaboration.
1. Unified Tech Roadmap
First, we designed a cross-market Tech Roadmap by assembling individual country plans into a single view that indicated where collaboration could create more value. We brought the right market and group leaders into the same room – literally – to exchange lessons in real time and discuss overlapping initiatives and where joint effort would pay off – e.g. point of sales modernization, faster checkout and shared data interfaces for external partners. This gave the markets and central leaders a shared basis for prioritization and sequencing.
2. Guiding Principles
Next, with group and country management, we agreed a set of Guiding Principles for tech that describes what the organization wants and can expect from tech, and that guides all decisions within the domain. Each principle included a rationale and near-term implications for both business and tech, so teams know how to act. In practice, the principles reduce decision friction, improve execution consistency across markets, while we made sure they still allow local flexibility. In addition to key collaboration enablers such as shared tech standards, the principles are grounded in the company’s convenience DNA – translating its customers’ expectations of instant service into internal speed and responsiveness – and pillars such as cost efficiency and the trust in everyone’s ability to make the right decisions.
3. Operating Model
Finally, with above deliveries in mind, we designed an operating model for running shared digital products and services. It clarifies roles, outlines alignment forums, and defines effective flows for demand, incidents and requests. The model is designed to be compatible with all products and was tailored specifically to Loyalty & Analytics. The suggested flows, “start local, route, deliver”, can be applied to future shared products and services as the scope grows.
Our impact
By the end of the engagement, the organization had a shared view and a practical way forward: a cross-market roadmap to steer shared priorities and timing, guiding principles that clarifies decision cycles, and an operating model that makes ownership and routines explicit. These deliverables now enable leaders to prioritize technology investments strategically and scale innovations efficiently, allowing collaboration to grow where it creates the most business value, while local delivery stays close to customers. As forums are set up and the principles are embedded, the organization is well placed to strengthen cross-market alignment and to adopt and tailor the operating model across more products over time. A repeatable engine for long-term success.
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