LOCOG’s ambition is to build a world class organisation to stage a memorable Games and leave a lasting economic, sporting and cultural legacy. But structuring the organisation to deliver a unique and diverse event is not easy – LOCOG’s hugely accelerated lifecycle means it will need grow from zero to over 200,000 workers and dial down to near zero again within just seven years.

Project deliverables

Deloitte defined the design principles for the London 2012 operating model, with a recommended organisational structure and roles and responsibilities to support the new structure. In doing so, there was the recognition that the organisation might have to evolve through a number of stages before the ‘Games Delivery’ structure was finally put in place.

LOCOG’s challenge

LOCOG needed to create an organisation that could deliver one of the world’s largest, most complex and high-profile sporting events, and it had to be done without a blueprint. An additional complexity was the need to shift the structure through intermediate stages to the final state as the Games draw near, without impacting performance or focus.

In designing an Organising Committee, it is possible to draw on good practice and learning from previous Games, but nothing has ever been comprehensively documented. In addition, the structure will always be unique to the host city, reflective of the country’s culture, the desired legacy from the Games and the levels of government and other stakeholder involvement in delivery. 

LOCOG will grow its full time headcount by more than 100% this year alone. By Games time, there will be a permanent staff of up to 3,000 people, complemented by up to 70,000 volunteers and around 100,000 contractors and secondees. Once the Games are over the organisation will scale back down again to around 100 people within a year.

What Deloitte did

Just before the Beijing Games, we spent time with LOCOG’s management team to define and agree some of the key organisation design principles that would ensure a level of consistency in the design of structures and roles across the OCOG. We also worked with them to understand how the overarching operating model and high-level structure of the OCOG would need to evolve over time.

After Beijing, the pace quickened. Many of LOCOG’s employees came back from the 2008 Games full of ideas and feedback based on their experience, much of which had a real bearing on how the OCOG needed to operate to deliver the 2012 Games successfully. The spotlight moved firmly to London, which provided a timely catalyst to speed up the organisation design process and to define the next evolution of the structure of the OCOG.

The project required a team drawn from a number of specialist divisions. Deloitte has one of the largest and most diverse Human Capital practices in Europe, a distinct Organisation Design team with extensive experience across all industry sectors, and a breadth and depth of broader consulting capability that is pretty much unmatched.

Our collaborative approach, working directly with the LOCOG CEO, the Director of HR and the broader leadership team, ensured that consensus was built around the recommendations as we progressed. This meant that implementation of the recommendations after the design process was much more straightforward and the impact on business performance and continuity minimised.

The structure that we developed will be in place and will continue to grow and evolve until the entire organisation begins to reconfigure over 100 Olympic and Paralympic venues in 2011/12. 

Impact on the Games

Taking the time to think through in a very structured way how the Organising Committee needs to be configured to deliver the Games will have a huge impact on the success of London 2012 and the ability to stage not just a memorable sporting event, but also to leave a major sporting and cultural legacy for London and the rest of the UK.

By tackling some of the major organisational questions relatively early in the lifecycle of the OCOG, such as how to ensure that Paralympic planning is completely integrated into everything they do, the leadership team has created an organisation that will position it for success.

Our involvement in this project has also had an impact on our wider client base. The key challenges that OCOGs face during their accelerated organisational lifetime are of great interest to our clients, particularly when they are undergoing change. The eye-watering statistics that define LOCOG’s undertaking over the next few years seem to make the challenges of a normal organisation that little bit more manageable.