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Designing for Change How Organisation Design & Psychology Rewired the Business for Transformation Short



 

What happens when a business grows faster than its design? When legacy systems, silos, and old ways of working begin to suffocate progress — even as demand rises?

In this episode from the 2025 Employee Engagement Summit, Katy McIntyre, Chief People and Culture Officer at Hammonds explores the story of how one 100-year-old company faced that exact tipping point. And instead of pushing through with more pressure, it paused — and chose a different path. A path rooted not in process, but in mindset. In psychology. In the willingness to truly change.

Over 18 months, a people and culture team became the engine of business transformation — shifting from HR to strategic catalyst. Through the disciplines of organisation design, behavioural insight, and operating model rhythm, they're rebuilding the company’s core — system by system, mindset by mindset.

This talk explores how they're moving from command to service. From chaos to clarity. And from fractured structures to a future-ready operating model that put people, culture, and customer journeys at its centre.

This is not just a restructure. It is a rewire — of belief, identity, and how change is led. 

This is a real-world blueprint of how meaningful transformation happens — not in slides or slogans, but in behaviours, belief, and the courage to design a better way, together.

 

 

 
Katy McIntyre

Katy McIntyre

Hammonds Chief People & Strategy Officer

Chief People and Strategy Officer, Katy McIntyre is a board-level people leader at Hammonds Furniture, where she drives the organisation’s people and business strategy to support transformation and sustainable growth. With extensive experience across technology, retail and manufacturing, Katy specialises in organisational design, organisational effectiveness, leadership development and culture transformation, helping organisations scale and succeed in high-growth environments.

Previously, Katy served as Director of People & Culture at Global Fashion Group, where she led global programmes supporting more than 15,000 employees across 19 countries. Prior to that, at THE ICONIC in Sydney, she built high-performance cultures and led organisational strategy that delivered both cultural and commercial impact.

Known for her ability to cultivate strong workplace cultures, Katy brings deep expertise in change management, organisational scaling and building customer-first environments that enable operational excellence, innovation and long-term success.

Outside of work, Katy is a proud mum of two boys and enjoys spending weekends making memories with her family.

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