Target Operating Model (TOM)
Empowering Strategic Growth with a Tailored Target Operating Model for C-Level Excellence and Business Transformation.
A Target Operating Model (TOM) serves as a strategic blueprint that defines how an organization delivers value to its customers while achieving operational excellence. It outlines the structure, processes, technology, and resources needed to support business objectives and align operations with strategic goals. By creating a clear and actionable framework, the TOM ensures every component of the organization is optimized to work cohesively, fostering efficiency and scalability.
Designed to address both current needs and future ambitions, a Target Operating Model helps organizations navigate challenges such as digital transformation, market shifts, and evolving customer expectations. It enables leadership teams to identify gaps, prioritize initiatives, and implement sustainable changes that drive measurable results. With a well-defined TOM, companies can adapt to dynamic environments and build a foundation for long-term success.

WHAT IS Target Operating Model (TOM)
A Target Operating Model (TOM) is a strategic framework that defines how an organization operates to deliver value and achieve its objectives. It provides a clear structure for aligning people, processes, technology, and resources with the company’s goals, ensuring every aspect of the business functions efficiently and effectively. A well-designed TOM serves as a roadmap that enables organizations to translate their vision into actionable strategies, ensuring operational alignment and sustainable growth.
Developing a Target Operating Model involves several key phases. The first step is understanding the organization’s strategic goals and identifying the capabilities required to achieve them. This is followed by analyzing current operations to pinpoint inefficiencies, bottlenecks, or misaligned resources. Next, the model defines the future state of operations, including optimal processes, organizational structures, technology systems, and governance frameworks. Finally, an implementation plan ensures a smooth transition from the current state to the desired future state, with measurable outcomes to track progress.
The benefits of a well-crafted TOM are transformative for businesses. It helps organizations streamline operations, reduce costs, and optimize resource allocation, resulting in improved profitability. By aligning processes and technology with strategic objectives, the TOM ensures that the business remains agile and adaptable in the face of market changes. Additionally, it enhances decision-making by providing a clear understanding of how every function contributes to achieving the company’s goals, fostering greater collaboration across teams and departments.
For CEOs and C-Levels, achieving objectives such as increased profit, sales growth, or market expansion relies on a robust Target Operating Model. Without a clear framework, organizations risk fragmented operations, misaligned strategies, and missed opportunities. The TOM ensures that every component of the business works cohesively toward common goals, creating a foundation for scalable success. Whether pursuing growth in new markets or optimizing existing operations, the TOM is essential for driving sustained value and achieving strategic ambitions.
The Target Operating Model is the strategic foundation that transforms vision into measurable outcomes, aligning every aspect of the organization to achieve sustainable growth.
BENEFITS OF Target Operating Model (TOM)
A Target Operating Model (TOM) is a strategic approach that provides a comprehensive framework for aligning a company’s structure, processes, and resources to deliver exceptional customer experiences and achieve business objectives. For the Board of Directors, implementing a TOM enables better governance and oversight by offering a clear operational framework that connects strategic decisions with measurable outcomes. It ensures the organization is equipped to meet its goals effectively while fostering transparency and accountability across all levels of operation.
For CEOs and the Board of Directors, a TOM serves as a critical tool for driving organizational growth and long-term sustainability. By defining how value is created and delivered, the TOM empowers leadership to align the entire organization around shared objectives. It enhances decision-making by providing data-driven insights into operational performance, ensuring resources are optimally allocated to support business goals. Additionally, it supports scalability and adaptability, which are vital for navigating dynamic markets and staying ahead of competitors.
For C-Level executives, the Target Operating Model offers a blueprint to streamline operations, enhance collaboration, and integrate innovative technologies that support business transformation. It provides clarity on roles, responsibilities, and processes, enabling leaders to focus on strategic priorities while ensuring their teams operate efficiently. The TOM also facilitates cross-functional alignment, breaking down silos and fostering a culture of collaboration that drives both efficiency and innovation.
From a financial perspective, the Target Operating Model directly impacts key performance indicators such as annual sales, revenue, and profit. By optimizing processes and eliminating inefficiencies, the TOM helps reduce operational costs while improving productivity and customer satisfaction. It ensures that every investment and initiative contributes to revenue growth and profitability, creating a foundation for sustained financial success. For companies focused on delivering exceptional customer experiences, a well-defined TOM is essential to maintain competitive advantage, drive market growth, and achieve strategic ambitions.
By defining how value is delivered, the Target Operating Model empowers leadership to drive innovation, streamline operations, and achieve competitive advantage in a rapidly changing market.
ICX APPROACH
At ICX, our approach to the Target Operating Model (TOM) is rooted in a customer-centric philosophy that drives measurable business growth and operational excellence. We combine strategic consulting expertise with innovative methodologies to design TOM frameworks that align with your organization's goals while enhancing customer experiences. Our approach ensures that every element of your business—processes, technology, KPIs, and workflows—is optimized to deliver value efficiently and sustainably.
Our methodology is built on proprietary tools and frameworks designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of your business maturity and operational needs. The CX Maturity Model® evaluates your organization’s current stage, guiding the development of a tailored TOM strategy that aligns with your business vision. The Process Transformation Framework (PTF)® forms the cornerstone for analyzing and redesigning processes, ensuring that your Target Operating Model is both scalable and adaptable to market dynamics. To diagnose and refine operations, the CX Matrix® creates a detailed map of processes, technologies, business rules, and performance metrics, providing a holistic view of your organizational landscape.
By leveraging these unique methodologies, our approach empowers CEOs, Boards of Directors, and C-Level executives with the insights and tools needed to transform their organizations. Whether your objectives are to streamline processes, enhance customer engagement, or drive market growth, our Target Operating Model frameworks are designed to deliver tangible results. With ICX, you gain a partner that combines strategic vision with actionable frameworks to achieve sustained success in an ever-evolving business environment.
Start your journey to exceptional customer engagement today!
Click here to consult with one of our experts.
USE CASES
Use Cases According to Business Strategy
The strategic formulation and implementation of an TOM also address broader business challenges:
For companies facing customer retention challenges, a TOM helps identify inefficiencies in service delivery and align customer experience strategies to enhance satisfaction and loyalty. When dealing with low conversion rates, it offers a roadmap to streamline processes, optimize touchpoints, and improve the customer journey. For businesses launching new digital products, a TOM ensures that teams, technologies, and processes are prepared to support seamless rollouts and drive adoption.
Organizations pursuing market expansion goals benefit from a TOM by standardizing operations across geographies, ensuring scalability, and maintaining quality. For businesses with complex product or service offerings, it simplifies processes and aligns resources to deliver value more effectively. In highly competitive markets, a TOM supports brand differentiation by creating consistent and superior customer experiences. Companies grappling with feedback and usability issues can use TOM to integrate customer insights into product and service design, fostering continuous improvement. During digital transformation initiatives, TOM ensures a cohesive strategy to align new technologies and workflows with long-term goals. It also helps organizations aiming to optimize operational efficiency by eliminating redundancies and automating routine processes.
Use Cases According to Business Needs
TOM is crucial in transforming multiple facets of business performance:
To improve customer attraction, a TOM aligns marketing, sales, and service processes to deliver consistent and compelling brand messages. For businesses looking to improve conversion, it identifies bottlenecks in the customer journey and aligns efforts to close deals faster. To improve retention, TOM enhances post-sale service delivery and ensures customer-centric operations that build trust and loyalty.
To improve service, a TOM optimizes support workflows, ensuring faster resolution times and higher satisfaction. For businesses aiming to improve repurchase rates, TOM enables personalized customer engagement strategies and loyalty programs. By focusing on process optimization and KPI alignment, it ensures all organizational functions are streamlined to deliver measurable results, making operations more efficient and scalable.
A well-designed Target Operating Model addresses these use cases by creating a framework that aligns business goals with customer needs, enabling sustainable growth and long-term success
Use Cases According Business Rol
In the strategic decision-making and organizational leadership, the TOM serve as a versatile tool with diverse applications across different managerial roles.
For the Board of Directors, a TOM offers a comprehensive view of the organization’s operational alignment with its strategic goals. It provides clarity on how resources, processes, and technologies contribute to achieving annual performance metrics such as revenue growth, market share expansion, and customer satisfaction. With TOM, the Board gains better governance and oversight, ensuring informed decision-making and accountability across the business.
For a CEO, TOM is an essential tool for driving organizational transformation and long-term growth. By creating a clear connection between strategic vision and operational execution, the TOM enables CEOs to improve customer attraction, conversion, and retention metrics. It helps them align cross-functional teams around shared objectives and fosters agility to respond to market changes and emerging opportunities.
For a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), TOM provides a framework to enhance customer acquisition and engagement strategies. It ensures that marketing efforts are integrated with sales and service processes, delivering consistent and impactful customer experiences. By aligning campaigns with business goals, the TOM helps CMOs optimize conversion rates, improve brand loyalty, and support retention initiatives.
For a Chief Sales Officer, TOM simplifies sales processes and enhances operational efficiency. It helps identify bottlenecks in the sales funnel, enabling faster deal closures and higher win rates. By providing clear KPIs and aligning sales operations with the overall strategy, TOM supports the achievement of annual sales targets and fosters stronger customer relationships that drive repeat business.
For a Chief Service Officer, TOM is a critical tool for delivering exceptional customer experiences and improving retention. It optimizes service workflows, ensures faster resolution times, and integrates customer feedback into continuous improvement processes. This alignment helps achieve metrics related to customer loyalty, satisfaction, and referrals, turning service excellence into a competitive advantage.
If you want to learn more and have a personalized consult with us.
7 min read
What is an Operating Model?
Nov 8, 2024 by José De León
16 min read
10 key benefits of implementing a TOM and how to measure its success
Oct 21, 2024 by José De León
6 min read
Benefits of an Aligned TOM in the Digital Age and OTAs in Hospitality
Jul 4, 2024 by José De León
12 min read
The Critical Alignment of Business and Operating Models
Jun 18, 2024 by José De León
5 min read
OKRs and what are the challenges of implementing them in remote teams?
May 30, 2024 by Iván Arroyo
ICX PLATFORMS
We offer all you need for your company success
ICX PLATFORMS
We offer all you need for your company success

ICX leverages Hotjar to analyze user behavior and feedback, helping optimize digital touchpoints and improve customer experiences within the TOM framework.

ICX utilizes Figma to design and prototype optimized workflows and interfaces, ensuring the TOM supports both user experience and operational efficiency.
ICX uses Google Analytics to track key performance metrics, providing actionable insights to align processes and strategies with TOM objectives.
ICX integrates HubSpot to streamline marketing, sales, and service workflows, ensuring seamless alignment with the Target Operating Model’s goals.

Why a CRM is essential for the commercial development of your company
In the fast-paced world of data analytics, having tools that simplify the understanding and presentation of information is essential.
Discovering Tableau: a step-by-step implementation guide
You have surely heard the term CRM at some point. Today this tool is used by many companies.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
-
What is a Target Operating Model (TOM), and how does it benefit an organization?
A Target Operating Model (TOM) is a strategic framework that defines how an organization operates to achieve its goals effectively. It outlines processes, technology, organizational structures, and KPIs to ensure alignment with the company’s strategy. The benefits include enhanced efficiency, better resource allocation, streamlined operations, and improved customer experiences.
-
When should a company consider implementing a Target Operating Model (TOM)?
A company should consider implementing a TOM during digital transformation, market expansion, mergers or acquisitions, operational restructuring, or when addressing inefficiencies, customer experience challenges, or scalability issues.
-
What are the key components of a Target Operating Model (TOM)?
The key components of a TOM include processes, organizational structure, technology systems, governance frameworks, and metrics such as KPIs. These elements are integrated to create a cohesive operational strategy that drives business outcomes.
-
How does a Target Operating Model (TOM) improve customer experience?
TOM improves customer experience by aligning processes and technologies to deliver seamless, consistent, and personalized interactions across all touchpoints. It ensures that the organization prioritizes customer needs in its operations, resulting in higher satisfaction and loyalty.