“Eton Bridge Consulting has been a fantastic partner to me. I know I can pick up the phone to Nick or any of the team and get the right support, day or night. What defines the relationship for me is the transparency, the understanding, and the way they tailor solutions to what we actually need.”

– Mat Ankers, CFO, Ocado Retail

Sometimes the challenge in transformation isn’t a shortage of activity. It’s the absence of clarity.

When Mat Ankers joined Ocado Retail as CFO, he inherited a transformation portfolio of multiple programmes, significant investment, and substantial activity already in motion. But leadership lacked answers to a few fundamental questions: What are we really delivering? What’s it costing us? Is it working?

Ocado Retail is the UK’s leading online grocer, delivering half a million orders each week to more than 1.2 million active customers. The business was scaling fast. Technology platforms, operations, and data infrastructure were all evolving to support growth. But growth at the top line wasn’t translating to the bottom line. And the transformation engine meant to drive that performance wasn’t fit for purpose.

“One of the challenges we’ve always had as an organisation is translating top line growth into bottom line performance… building the organisation to grow at that rate – in a predictable and sustainable way.”

– Mat Ankers

The CFO remit is broad: operations, technology, data and insight, transformation. Yet there was no end-to-end visibility of transformation activity, no consistent tracking of costs or benefits, and no assurance that what was being funded would actually land. The Transformation Office lacked the operating model and capability to provide executive-level oversight.

Diagnosing the real challenge

When our team at Eton Bridge Consulting began working with Ocado Retail, there was no shortage of programmes in flight. The issue was governance, visibility, and control.

Delivery standards varied across teams. Initiatives weren’t consistently tracked for cost or benefit realisation. Some programmes weren’t aligned to strategy at all. Others were consuming resources without delivering the required return. Beneath it all, the Transformation Office simply didn’t have the structure to provide the assurance the business needed.

The brief was to design a transformation capability tailored to Ocado Retail’s strategy, culture, and pace of change – one that would scale as the business grew.

Working closely with Mat and senior stakeholders, Eton Bridge Consulting carried out a diagnostic review of transformation activity and delivery maturity. This created a clear picture across the portfolio, delivery capability, and governance model. It also provided the foundation for designing an approach fit for Ocado Retail’s scale and ambition.

“The work initially was about design and thinking through… what would be the right model – across systematic changes, change management, focus on our people, and a holistic wrapper of programme assurance and programme management.”

– Mat Ankers

Building the engine for sustainable change

The outcome of the diagnostic was that Ocado Retail needed a Transformation Office that could provide end-to-end portfolio visibility and control while still enabling delivery at pace. It also needed to build internal capability, so transformation didn’t sit solely with a central function.

As a business transformation consultancy, Eton Bridge Partners designed and implemented a Transformation Operating Model built around four core pillars:

1. Portfolio clarity and control

A bespoke project lifecycle and governance framework gave leadership real-time visibility into every programme: what was being spent, what was being delivered, and whether it was on track. Initiatives misaligned to strategy were stopped and resources reallocated to higher-value work.

2. Scalable delivery capability

Eton Bridge established clear ways of working, consistent standards, and programme management tooling that enabled delivery at pace. They led the initial setup, then transitioned to a newly recruited permanent team. This approach ensured the capability was embedded, not dependent on consultants.

“Given the breadth of the programme we’re undertaking… the Transformation Office is scalable. We established a very clear set of ways of working, so as we bring in and augment the core team… they’re able to work seamlessly.”

– Mat Ankers

3. A hybrid operating model

Rather than building a fixed-cost central function, Eton Bridge helped Ocado Retail create a hybrid model where there was a core permanent team augmented with specialist capability aligned to programme demand.

This gave Ocado Retail the flexibility to scale capacity and capability in line with demand while maintaining consistent governance, standards, and ways of working.

4. Change management as a core discipline

Change management was underdeveloped given the complexity of change within the business. As with programme management, Eton Bridge introduced ways of working and upskilled the internal team in the practice of change management to ensure changes were embedded successfully. This strategic workforce planning supported benefits realisation and enabled programme success to be measured.

“There’s a real focus on our people… and making sure we’re delivering change through the right model.”

– Mat Ankers

The Transformation Office in action

In parallel with establishing the Transformation Office, programme delivery continued and accelerated. Over an 18-month period, Eton Bridge supported Ocado Retail through:

• Portfolio realignment – stopping non-performing initiatives and redirecting investment to strategic priorities
• Technology replatforming – supporting delivery of critical technology transformation
• Customer transformation programme – delivered on time, enabling new technology, improved ways of working, and enhanced customer experience
• Programme management of growth initiatives – driving improved customer experience and increased profitability
• Finance transformation – mobilisation of a programme to drive efficiency and robust controls to support sustainable growth
• Process re-engineering – enabled by new technology and supported through implementation
• Leadership transition – providing continuity and support through the appointment of a new Head of Transformation
• Programme resets – intervening where delivery had stalled to bring programmes back on track

Throughout this period, the Transformation Office matured, ways of working were refined, PMO capability deepened and critically, the business began to pull the Transformation Office into their work rather than being pushed into compliance.

The Results: From overhead to strategic enabler

The impact was immediate and sustained:

• Governance that works – predictable delivery, clear accountability, executive confidence in reporting
• Portfolio aligned to strategy - prioritised agenda to ensure the business strategy is realised
• Programmes delivered - Customer Transformation launched on time; TUPE transition managed seamlessly; finance transformation progressing with clarity and control
• Capability embedded - scalable Transformation Office with repeatable ways of working, enabling the business to own and drive change
• Cultural shift - transformation moved from firefighting to strategic delivery, with increasing demand from across the business for Transformation Office support and a newly formed Community of Practice reflecting internal engagement and ownership

Two years into the partnership, Eton Bridge Consulting continues to support Ocado Retail as a trusted adviser providing transformation leadership and consulting, executive talent and interim solutions.

“The degree of transparency and understanding that we operate upon… there’s a real investment from the entire team to understand our business, our people and our culture.”

– Mat Ankers

Why this worked

The differentiator was Eton Bridge’s ability to bridge the gap between a traditional consultancy and an interim recruitment firm in order to reach the right answers quickly and shape solutions that fit Ocado Retail’s reality.

“I’d tell other leaders to invest the time in talking to the Eton Bridge team… the creativity and the ability to create solutions tailored to what you actually need… getting to the right answer more quickly.”

– Mat Ankers

This engagement is a reminder that successful transformation depends on having the right operating model, clear sponsorship, and a delivery partner who can bridge strategy and execution.

If your transformation portfolio lacks clarity, control, or the capability to deliver at scale; or if your organisation requires interim executive management, business transformation solutions, or senior leadership support across CFO, CIO, CTO, or wider C-suite recruitment; contact Eton Bridge Consulting today to start a conversation.