Organisations must move beyond rhetoric and deliberately embed operational excellence into the structure of their service delivery systems, according to Emmanuel Olorunnisola, Group IT Security Operations Manager at Mott MacDonald.

Speaking during a recent global webinar hosted by the Service Desk Institute, Olorunnisola argued that in an era defined by digital acceleration, tightening regulatory expectations and evolving cyber threats, operational excellence can no longer be treated as a temporary programme.

“Operational excellence has become one of the most frequently repeated phrases in modern boardrooms,” he said. “But too many organisations are still getting the fundamentals wrong.”

According to him, excellence cannot be launched as a short-term initiative and expected to sustain itself over time. Instead, it must be deliberately designed into the organisation’s operating model.

Olorunnisola noted that many organisations fall into what he described as a “reactive comfort zone.” In such environments, teams become highly efficient at responding to incidents without addressing the systemic issues that cause them.

“In many environments, excellence is introduced with enthusiasm and gradually diluted as operational pressure returns,” he explained. “An organisation can become highly efficient at reacting without becoming fundamentally better.”

He pointed to the experience of Mott MacDonald, which recently earned the 5-Star ‘World Class’ Service Desk certification from the Service Desk Institute, as an example of sustained operational maturity achieved through disciplined system design rather than short-term initiatives.

Central to Olorunnisola’s approach is what he calls “continual improvement by design.”

Rather than treating improvement as a separate transformation programme, he said organisations must embed it into daily work processes.

That includes protecting time for structured improvement even during periods of heavy operational demand, standardising workflows to minimise unnecessary variation, and measuring outcomes such as risk reduction, predictability and customer experience.

“It does not depend on major initiatives,” he said. “It depends on consistency. Small, structured improvements compound over time. That is how capacity increases and resilience strengthens.”

According to him, organisations that adopt this approach often see measurable gains including higher productivity, reduced operational friction, improved compliance posture and stronger customer trust.

Olorunnisola also highlighted cybersecurity as one of the clearest areas where operational improvement is essential.

“Threat actors do not wait for budget cycles, and regulatory expectations continue to tighten,” he said. “When security operates purely reactively, organisations risk generating noise and complexity rather than reducing exposure.”

Embedding security directly into service design, he argued, allows organisations to automate repetitive tasks, implement structured playbooks and align remediation activities with operational planning.

“In that model, security becomes an enabler of performance rather than a drag on efficiency,” he said.

As an example, Olorunnisola pointed to vulnerability management, an area where organisations often generate large volumes of security alerts without significantly reducing risk.

“In many organisations, scanning tools produce extensive reports and growing ticket backlogs without materially improving security posture,” he observed. “Discovery alone does not reduce exposure. Remediation does.”

When vulnerability management is redesigned as an operational process, he said, priorities become risk-based, ownership is clearly defined, patch windows are scheduled in advance and success is measured by how quickly risk is reduced.

“This shift gives service teams predictability instead of disruption and security teams measurable progress instead of static reporting,” he added.

Despite the importance of tools and frameworks, Olorunnisola emphasised that organisational culture ultimately determines whether operational excellence is sustained.

“Behaviour changes when teams know improvement is expected and leadership protects the time to pursue it,” he said.

Organisations that successfully embed this culture, he argued, gain a durable competitive advantage, characterised by stability under pressure, faster adaptation to change and stronger cyber resilience.

“Operational excellence is not a destination to announce,” Olorunnisola concluded. “It is a system to build.”