From diagnostic to restructuring plan for a people operations function

A national retailer with hundreds of locations engaged Cavi to assess its people strategy and operations function ahead of a leadership transition. The 24 person team had grown organically over several years, absorbing work from adjacent corporate functions whenever gaps appeared. The incoming leader needed an evidence based picture of what the team actually did, where that work belonged, and how to begin rebalancing the portfolio.

The challenge

There was no clear boundary between what the team should own and what had simply landed there over time. Two sub teams had overlapping scopes and executed the same processes in parallel without coordination. Critical operational work ran on individual knowledge with no documented backup, and a meaningful share of capacity went to coordinating between other parties rather than producing work.

What we did

We ran the engagement in two phases, interviewing 38 stakeholders across the function and its adjacent enterprise partners. Phase one established the process baseline and diagnosed five systemic challenges. Phase two went deep into operations: we mapped roughly 50 operational processes to a consistent structure, built a capacity model covering about 19,900 annual hours of work, and classified every process by whether it creates value and sits with the right owner. Where the analysis identified clear ownership moves, we converted them into detailed transition charters ready for immediate execution.

What changed

The function got its first end to end, process level baseline, and the numbers reframed the conversation: 64% of documented capacity sat with work the team should not own, and another 9% existed only to coordinate between other parties.

Instead of a findings deck, leadership received two execution ready transition plans to move misaligned work to its proper owners, plus a process register and capacity model the team now uses to govern what it takes on next. The rebalancing began the following quarter.

A documented operating model for a private brands marketing function

A Fortune 100 retailer with a large and growing private brands portfolio engaged Cavi to assess and improve how brand development work gets planned, executed, and handed off. The function was relatively new and operating at significant scale without documented processes, standardized tools, or clear role definitions across a network of internal and external creative partners.

The challenge

Every project ran differently depending on who led it, which agency was involved, and how complex the brand was. Coordination overhead was high and results were inconsistent. Approvals had no defined authority structure, and best practices lived with individuals rather than the organization. The client needed a foundation that could support consistent delivery, onboard new team members, and scale with the portfolio.

What we did

We interviewed 15 stakeholders across four teams to baseline how work actually flowed from initiation through delivery, then mapped two distinct end to end ways of working across a standard eight phase structure, 16 process maps in total. Cross functional working sessions validated the findings, and the work surfaced a set of quick win improvements the teams wanted now rather than in a future phase. We workshopped and implemented those improvements alongside delivery, so the standard operating procedures were built on validated future state maps, not just a record of the status quo. Supporting tools rounded out the system:

• A project intake checklist with structured disposition logic
• A project plan template with baseline timeline benchmarks by project type
• Role cards and a review matrix documenting ownership across projects
• A process taxonomy adopted as the common language across all four functions

What changed

The function has a documented, validated operating model for the first time. New projects are initiated through a structured intake, teams share one language and phase structure, and ownership is written down instead of assumed.

The documentation also surfaced broader organizational design questions, which gave leadership a concrete agenda for its next phase of work.

An HR operating model baseline, delivered in one month

A large multi brand restaurant organization engaged Cavi to establish a factual baseline of how work moved across its HR organization: about 165 team members supporting roughly 60,000 employees across company operated restaurants, corporate teams, and international support operations.

The challenge

HR leadership was under pressure to make consequential operating model decisions without a clear view of how the organization actually worked. Process knowledge was distributed across functions and individuals, role clarity varied by team, and a period of leadership change had fragmented the picture further. Leaders knew the pain points directionally but could not answer the questions that mattered: which processes consumed the most capacity, where work was duplicated, and where structural change would have the greatest effect. Any redesign risked being driven by anecdote.

What we did

We ran structured, hour long one on one interviews with HR leaders and team members across eight functions, capturing both the formal structure and the practical reality of how work moved between teams. We synthesized the interviews into current state process maps, operating model views for each major function, a headcount and resource allocation analysis, and an assessment of the organization's project and PMO maturity. The whole baseline was delivered in one month, closing with an executive readout that paired global stabilization recommendations with tactical recommendations by functional area.

What changed

Leadership traded isolated team perspectives and anecdotal pain points for a single fact base: how the organization operates, where capacity goes, and where the largest constraints sit. That gave them a defensible basis for deciding what to stabilize, what to redesign, and how to sequence improvement work, plus a practical set of next steps to start on immediately.

Rebuilding how product creation work moves, then handing it over

A fast growing apparel retailer engaged Cavi to redesign how product creation work moved across ten teams, from early product strategy through design, prototyping, costing, and buy execution. Work was getting done, but the operating model depended on informal coordination, individual knowledge, and team specific language, and it was straining under the company's growth.

The challenge

Teams worked in silos with overlapping ownership, meetings multiplied, and different teams used different words for the same work, which made progress and dependencies hard to track across a season. The seasonal calendar had become a date tracking tool rather than an operating mechanism: its milestones reflected legacy meeting structures, not the actual flow of work.

What we did

We baselined the end to end process through one on one mapping sessions, then facilitated cross functional workshops to redesign it around a shared five phase taxonomy that became the backbone for everything else: process maps, role cards by team and level, standard operating procedures, and a calendar rebuilt around the process rather than around meetings. Milestone meetings were redefined as the points where decisions get locked, and ownership was written down at junior, senior, and director level.

The last stretch of the engagement was deliberately about handover, not delivery. The new model was introduced through all hands training and function specific breakout sessions, documented where the teams work day to day, and reinforced through a calendar governance model the client's own leaders run.

What changed

The organization now runs its product creation on a common language, a process centered calendar, and written ownership, without us in the room.

Phase boundaries and decision points are explicit, handoffs are intentional rather than improvised, and the shared process language gives the company a foundation for the system investments on its technology roadmap. The operating model belongs to the client, which was the point.

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