Function Design & Structure

What we believe

We believe that a strong team, in the right structure and direction, not only scans the horizon for potential threats and builds out a proactive robust reputational strategy but is also well placed to handle those fast moving issues that can’t always be anticipated.

How we work

Working in close partnership with you to understand your organisational goals and challenges, we can show you what the best look like in practice, not in theory.
  • We benchmark you against the best. Team size, reporting lines, where decisions sit, how the centre and markets share the work, and how AI is changing the mix. Our data is anonymised and comes from our own interviews, our search work and our annual study of senior reputation leaders, so it reflects what companies are doing now.
  • We make decision rights clear. One named owner per decision. We test whether your structure shortens the path to a decision in a crisis, or lengthens it.
  • We give you options, not a report. A small number of structures to choose between, each with its benefits and risks. Then we help you decide.

What we are seeing

We interview corporate affairs leaders around the world on how they structure and run their functions. Two current findings from our structure design series:

Decision rights: are markets losing their independence?

Volatility and geopolitics are pulling decisions upward. Markets keep the relationship but lose autonomy over the agenda, the geopolitical layer and the way work gets done. That is standardisation, not centralisation. Explore the Insight

AI: the game-changer is moving from monitoring to modelling

Volatility and geopolitics are pulling decisions upward. Markets keep the relationship but lose autonomy over the agenda, the geopolitical layer and the way work gets done. That is standardisation, not centralisation. Explore the Insight

Our knowledge helps you with

  • Function benchmarking. How your team compares with leading peers in size, shape, reporting lines and governance across global, regional and market layers.
  • Decision rights and governance. One named owner per decision and a clear escalation route, tested against how fast you could move in a crisis.
  • Regional and market operating models. Who owns what at each layer: what the centre sets, what the region coordinates, and what must stay in market.
  • Shared services and hub strategy. What can move to a hub, what needs specialists, and what should stay close to the function.
  • AI-enabled ways of working. Where AI sits in the function, who owns it, and how to move from monitoring to modelling.
  • Capability and roles. The emerging roles, centres of expertise and human skills a smaller, more senior function needs.
  • Recommendations you can sequence. A small set of options with benefits and risks, and the order to take them: now, next, then.

When to call us

When you want to benchmark whether you have a ‘fit for the future’ structure with world class capabilities.

Latin America

China

Hong Kong

Europe

Broome Yasar Partnership

Australia

Africa

Asia

Singapore / SEA

Hong Kong/North Asia