Oct 26, 2026 · 28 min · 10 segments
In this mini-series episode Affan Burki and Marc Walker explain the development of an operating model through a the design of a Restaurant. This takes you step by step through the process and…
Affan BurkiHost
Marc WalkerHost
90 covers booked, a walk-in queue at the door, and a plate has just come back to the pass 70% full.
And the honest answer, in most restaurants, is whoever happens to be standing nearest the pass.
Exactly, which is why today we're talking about operating models, and about what changes when some of the actors near the pass are AI agents, which is a question that matters even more when part of the operations are software models making decisions.
If that isn't connected to what the business is trying to achieve, you just get the wrong outcome at scale.
It's a worked template rather than a real business, but it's built with the same method you'd use for something far more complex.
The method was originally used to design the operating model for a national security operations center.
Let's start with basics because people use operating model to mean a dozen different things.
The operating model is the bridge between what you say you want to achieve and what people actually do on a Tuesday afternoon.
It describes the functions, the services they deliver, the capabilities underneath, who owns them, and how decisions get made.
it's the thing that lets you change one part of the business without the rest falling over.
90 covers booked, a walk-in queue at the door, and a plate has just come back to the pass 70% full.
And the honest answer, in most restaurants, is whoever happens to be standing nearest the pass.
Exactly, which is why today we're talking about operating models, and about what changes when some of the actors near the pass are AI agents, which is a question that matters even more when part of the operations are software models making decisions.
If that isn't connected to what the business is trying to achieve, you just get the wrong outcome at scale.
It's a worked template rather than a real business, but it's built with the same method you'd use for something far more complex.
The method was originally used to design the operating model for a national security operations center.
Let's start with basics because people use operating model to mean a dozen different things.
The operating model is the bridge between what you say you want to achieve and what people actually do on a Tuesday afternoon.
It describes the functions, the services they deliver, the capabilities underneath, who owns them, and how decisions get made.
it's the thing that lets you change one part of the business without the rest falling over.
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