Org Design in Practice
Unlocking Agility with Product-Based Organization Design
Billy Carberry – Sr. Manager
and
Kestes Sereiva – Managing Director
with Accenture’s Operating Model and Organization Design Practice
Discover how focusing on and organizing around products can spark innovation, enhance accountability, and create unmatched customer value.
Interest in product-based organization design is accelerating rapidly as companies across industries strive to enhance agility, speed, and customer-centric outcomes. This trend is especially pronounced in organizations developing products and services that are becoming increasingly digital or digitally powered. While much attention has been given to designing high-performing product teams, we believe there is an opportunity to scale these principles more broadly across the organization while ensuring that all levers of Jay Galbraith’s Star Model are aligned to support this new way of working.
Yet, we encounter considerable confusion among business stakeholders regarding this topic. The term ‘product-based’ can mean different things to different people, and there are various interpretations of the same concept. So, what does it truly mean to organize around products in this context? Who are these new models best suited for? Furthermore, what are the implications for organization design?
In this presentation, we will explore what ‘product-based’ means from our perspective and experience. As this field is rapidly evolving, we invite you to join us in pressure testing these ideas and refining our collective understanding.
Billy Carberry is a Senior Manager in Accenture’s Operating Model and Organization Design Practice. As a thought leader on Enterprise Agility and Product-Based Operating Models, Billy guides clients through complex transformations to enhance organization effectiveness and realize the business strategies.
Billy is also a co-author of the upcoming book, Rethinking Operating Models: Designing People and Technology-Powered Organizations, to be published in March 2025.
Billy advises and coaches leadership teams on enhancing management structures, roles, processes, decision-making authority, metrics, and people practices that altogether create a system capable of building and delivering new capabilities.
Billy’s journey in organization design began as a Fellow at Kates Kesler Organization Consulting, where was immersed in the firm’s best-in-class assets, frameworks, and participatory design methodologies. His prior experience includes leading supply chain teams at United Technologies (now RTX) and Apple. These front-line leadership roles across diverse industries and contexts have shaped his unique perspective on operating model and organization design.
Billy holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Mathematics from Northwestern University.
Kestas Sereiva is a Managing Director in Accenture’s Strategy, Operating Model & Org Design practice. He is a global thought leader on topics of Future of Enterprises in Age of AI and Enterprise Agility.
Kestas is highly experienced and skilled in strategy-led enterprise op model transformations with focus on getting business value from digital/tech investments.
With over 18 years in consulting, he has led programs on business and digital/tech strategy, scalable business platforms underpinned by digital core, operating model design and transformation (incl. agile), global mergers and acquisitions, capabilities and skills development (e.g. for GenAI).
His client portfolio spans Financial Services (e.g., retail, commercial, investment, wealth management), Technology (e.g., blockchain and crypto platforms, IT services), and Healthcare (e.g. biopharma, providers).
Prior to Accenture, Kestas has held leadership roles at BCG with responsibilities to build and commercialize products and offerings (e.g., AI capability build), drive thought leadership on digital/tech-led business and operating model transformations. Early in his career, he was a software engineer at an industrial software products company.
Kestas holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and BS in Computer Science from University of Washington in Seattle.