This episode features Part 2 of a conversation with Bukky Osifeso, founder of TAG HR Consulting. In Part 2, Bukky walks us through what it really takes to lead a massive global reorg—with over 700 employees across APAC, EMEA, LATAM, and the U.S. She shares how she shifted power from headquarters to local leaders, designed an operating model that enabled true autonomy, and kept people at the center even as reporting lines and job scopes evolved. From surfacing unspoken fears in “safety net chats” to building cross-functional working groups that actually had teeth, Bukky offers a human-first roadmap for org design at scale.
This episode features Part 2 of a conversation with Bukky Osifeso, founder of TAG HR Consulting.
From building people-first cultures at Netflix and Disney to launching her own game-changing consultancy, Bukky is redefining what modern HR leadership looks like. With over 20 years of experience across some of the world’s most respected brands, she brings a rare blend of big-company insight and startup agility to everything she touches.
In Part 2, Bukky walks us through what it really takes to lead a massive global reorg—with over 700 employees across APAC, EMEA, LATAM, and the U.S. She shares how she shifted power from headquarters to local leaders, designed an operating model that enabled true autonomy, and kept people at the center even as reporting lines and job scopes evolved. From surfacing unspoken fears in “safety net chats” to building cross-functional working groups that actually had teeth, Bukky offers a human-first roadmap for org design at scale.
Guest Bio
Bukky Osifeso is a seasoned HR executive and the founder of TAG HR Consulting, a boutique firm specializing in Fractional HR leadership and end-to-end people solutions for startups and small to mid-sized businesses. TAG helps organizations build scalable HR infrastructure, shape impactful people strategies, and cultivate strong leadership cultures through tailored consulting, audits, organizational design, talent development, and strategic advisory support.
With over 20 years of experience, Bukky has held influential roles across leading global brands including 7.5 years at Netflix, 11 years at Disney, and 2.5 years at Amgen. Her career has been anchored in transforming organizations through purpose-driven leadership, people-first strategies, and a deep understanding of business operations.
Based in Valencia, California, Bukky is a proud wife and mom of three (ages 12, 8, and 4). Outside of work, she finds joy in daily walks (Over 500 days!), travel, and creating floral arrangements that reflect her creative spirit. Her leadership brand? Authentic and human. Period.
Guest Quote
“Stop playing therapist and start playing chess. Influence isn’t built on how nice you are—it’s built on how necessary your voice becomes when the pressure is on.”
Time Stamps
[00:25] Meet Bukky Osifeso: From Big Tech to Bold HR Consulting
[01:26] The Real Work of Organizational Change
[02:34] How to Design for Scale Without Losing People
[05:34] Behind the Scenes: Frameworks That Drive Smart Decisions
[05:48] Local Empowerment That Isn’t Just Lip Service
[09:29] What We Got Wrong—and What We’d Do Differently
[15:43] Bukky’s Playbook: Advice for Leading Global Reorgs with Heart
Sponsor
I’m Telling HR is brought to you by Rippling, the #1 rated HR workforce management system that eliminates the friction from running a business. Visit Rippling.com to learn more.
Links
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Connect with Bukky on LinkedIn
Learn more about TAG HR Consulting
Connect with Leighton on LinkedIn
[00:00:00] Bukky Osifeso: Stop playing therapist and start playing chess. It's about leverage, right? Influence isn't built on how nice you are. It's built on how necessary your voice becomes. When the pressure is on.
[00:00:21] Leighton Martin: Welcome to I'm telling hr, the go-to podcast for ambitious HR professionals who wanna shake up the status quo, make a real impact and fast track their careers. Brought to you by Rippling. I'm your host, Leighton Martin. HR Business partner Rippling. This is part two of our conversation with Bukky Osifeso, founder of TAG HR Consulting.
Bukky is a seasoned HR leader who's worked behind the scenes at companies like Netflix and Disney, and now helps fast growth companies lead through their most critical transitions. In part one, she shared how HR leaders can earn real trust with executives without losing their authenticity. And today we're going deeper.
With more than 20 years of experience, Bukky has led people first transformations at scale. In this episode, she takes us inside a 700 person global reorg, revealing how she coached leaders to design for scale, shifted power across continents, and kept people at the center every step of the way. You've obviously led global expansions and some org restructuring.
I'm curious, like what was the business challenge that you were solving and what made this initiative so complex?
[00:01:26] Bukky Osifeso: The business challenge was we had a model that was designed specifically out of the United States, so it was a ucan generated organization, and everything that was done for that organization and for the business was fanned out from ucan.
As we grew in the organization, we realized that we needed to actually localize leadership and talent so that we could be speaking a language and understanding the consumer needs of that specific region. It was a huge undertaking because again, all of the talent, all of the leadership, everyone was bred out of ucan.
Then the influence was coming from UAN to say APAC or AMEA or latam. And having had the experience of flattening out what that leadership looked like, to be able to sort of mirror those leadership teams in those regions took a bit of, you know, sort of convincing, I think. But when it, once we got over that the execution was actually a little bit more, it was a little smoother.
Wow. Well it definitely
[00:02:34] Leighton Martin: sounds like a huge undertaking, um, you know, across all of those regions. You know, for you, how did you work, you know, with your leaders to design org that really fit those local needs? And I guess, what was the decision making process when you were deciding. What to centralize versus keeping regional?
[00:02:53] Bukky Osifeso: We focused on a few frameworks and the thing about the style of HR that I offer and also what I knew my client liked. This is another thing just from an HR standpoint, is thinking about meeting your clients where they are. Is, the frameworks are great, but they're great behind the scenes. The client doesn't wanna know what your framework is.
And so the two frameworks that I really, um, particularly am passionate about is the systems thinking, uh, sort of framework where we're actually starting with, like what are we trying to solve? And taking it back to table stakes, right? And so asking those really pivotal questions without actually offering the template was helpful to the leaders because then as they answered, that became the template, asking those who, what, when, why very early allowed for us to be able to.
Use that as a backdrop for every time we were making a decision, we would go back to, well, we said this. Does that still resonate? Right? We said, this is who we wanted to solve for. This is why we're solving. And so that allowed the accountability for all the parties at play to be able to go back to that, that starting point that we used to establish sort of what the framework was going forward.
It also acquired a level of vulnerability. Uh, I think very early on some of the conversations that we had was everyone's gonna have to just be selfless through this. It may mean that you end up being without in this process. Thankfully that wasn't the case. But I think what that allowed for folks to do is to say.
I'm gonna write myself out of this org chart and just draw the org chart or draw the business a value proposition or the business model that we're looking to solve for. If I happen to be a part of it, great, but if not, that's okay too. That took a level of coaching. It takes a level of vulnerability. It takes a level of just appreciation and understanding of what we're trying to solve.
The thing about Netflix, the organization, and just in general is when you start with. Every decision that you're making or everything that you're doing is for the business. First, it takes all the personal guesstimations out. It takes all that personal sort of, you know, bubbles in your stomach feeling, because what you're doing is then you are actually being a true business leader and drawing up some business strategies.
You may or may not be a part of that, but that allows you to draw then the best org design because you're thinking about what is best for the business in that moment. And so that was some of the stuff that we did foundationally to help us get a real grounding. In order to then execute. Incredible.
[00:05:34] Leighton Martin: And I guess I'm curious, like, you know, once you have that as your anchor, you know, what then did, like the local empowerment look like in practice?
I guess, how did that change how those teams were operated and you know, how you showed up as a leader?
[00:05:48] Bukky Osifeso: Uh, first of all, local empowerment was very well received. I mean, a leader in, in APAC or latam saying, Hey, I, you're, you mean to tell me I can make a decision on my own and I don't have to wait till LA wakes up before I can just like flip the switch on this decision.
I think that just was the most powerful thing we did for this team. Local empowerment was, was definitely a huge win for us. And one of the things we said is. We're gonna have local leadership and then we'll have some centralized functions, um, within the organizations. And so we made it such that things that were generic across the board, so take it, let it be, uh, finance or IT or operations.
We centered the way we designed it. Didn't say it needed to be in a specific location. We needed to be in the right. Location, whatever that meant. Right? And so for instance, operations, we sort of moved it out of all the different regions and centralized it in apac, which then meant that operations was being serviced out of APAC even for ucan.
And then UCAN now was no longer the center for for all themes operations, however. Things like creative, things like marketing strategy, those needed to be localized because again, you're focused on the consumer in that specific region, and so we needed local talent to be able to speak the language, understand what the needs are of those consumers, and be able to influence in ways that empowered that team.
We also designed it in such a way that this wasn't a permissions based structure. 'cause sometimes what happens is you put these systems in place, but what you're really saying is you still have to call me and you can, before you make the decision. You all have this fancy title and you have this big team, but you can't make the move without, you can.
And we said, again, another sort of coined phrase we used was you become the informed captain, which means you get to make the decision. On things that are local, right? And then offer that, uh, strategy or learning to the other regions. No one idea needed to be born out of a specific region. APAC came up with something great that actually could translate across other regions.
We would take it and transport it and put it other places. Same thing happened, vice versa. That also allowed for all teams to operate on what felt like an equal. Playing field because there's total empowerment, given connectivity is important when you, when you decentralize like this. And so having some real, what I remember the leader that I supported at the time, she called it her operating mechanisms or operating model.
Right? And and literally I think it was like a 13 page deck. It was deep. But why was that necessary? We needed to understand how we communicated, how decisions were made, who made the decisions, when the decisions were made, what are some things that needed group decision, what are some things that could be done individually?
And so once we established that the playbook was then utilized in every region and that allowed for full autonomy.
[00:09:01] Leighton Martin: Right. No, it's like those rules of engagement, um, which are so important. You know, you alluded to obviously. So many moving parts, different, um, stakeholders. So obviously that involves so much change management.
And so I'm curious, is there anything that either was like underestimated or that you would've done differently to better support employees through this uncertainty? In all of these changes, the, what are the big learnings
[00:09:29] Bukky Osifeso: was people are tied to their boss. Yes. And people wanna take direction from specific people.
'cause I think all of us have an element of that. And I think we underestimated how much that would impact the individual at the base level. So we needed to do a lot of, we needed to do a lot of psychological reset for our folks. Right. In some cases, actually, and this is one of the good things about. The leader that I was working with is her openness to actually be able to accept feedback and then adjust as we went along.
And so in places where we knew we had had a misstep, like underestimating the direct impact to the individual who may have had to change reporting relationships as a result of this, we had to sort of take a step back and say, are there ways that we can avoid. Actually shaking up reporting relationships for the sake of preserving continuity.
And that's something that I wish we had thought of earlier, but we were able to catch that somewhere in the middle and we were able to then make those adjustments as we went along. It didn't apply to every single person, but what it did is it significantly reduced the RIF in the organization 'cause they were able to stabilize places that were.
Already working
[00:10:56] Leighton Martin: such a great call out and you know, the fact that you were able to pivot and I'm just curious like, you know, in addition to that, obviously the trying to stabilize folks, you know, seeing if we can keep reporting lines like, first off, I guess, and I don't know if I asked this at the beginning, like how large was this transformation and then what was the hardest part of staying, you know, the course of being people first, even, you know, there, I'm sure there were situations where leaders were drawing themselves out of the org.
So. I guess that, and then in second question, you know, how did you approach the change management when, you know, you were probably getting questions from folks saying like, are there more changes coming? And a lot of times the answer is yes. So how did you navigate that?
[00:11:37] Bukky Osifeso: So it was about 700 people across all the regions.
So you can't apac, emea, latam, right. One of the things that we did, uh, one as an HR practitioner. I like to offer myself as an invisible resource when it comes to these types of things. So while we're very much in the trenches with the business, the business is actually seen as the full decision makers of all of this change.
So we created, oh, I forget what we call them now, but I'm just, for the sake of conversation, I'm just gonna call them small groups. Of decision makers on certain things. Change management was actually another group that we created, right? So where each of these groups would find that there was an issue based on their latam sort of adjustments that they were making.
They brought it to the change management team and that change management team was actually built of employees and leaders in the organization. Also uniquely, we didn't have it be leaders only, which meant that individual contributors also had influence in the decision making. As we went along, were we utterly transparent about, you know, where our leaders would sit and, and all of that.
I think we were very clear some things that we would be able to be open with and some things that we wouldn't. So what that allowed for our individual contributors to do who were a part of these, I think they were called working groups. Each of them was built with different levels of individuals from all different parts of the organization.
That's how we caught. The impact, the, the human impact of the relationship and what could have felt like disruption. We caught that in the change management group, and then we would, you know, we created pivots along along the way. I think you also asked what was the hardest part? Time was a big factor for us, you know, it started off being a hard thing to navigate, asking people to just be super selfless.
It started off that way, but once we crossed over that reality for our folks, or when folks sort of like, you know, took a step back and just said, you know what? Let's just do what's right. We'll figure it out. Then it just became a seamless operation through it. It required a level of coaching, a level of understanding of what fears our leaders had.
What things they were excited about going into this. So I found myself doing one-off conversations or interviews with our leaders. I found myself in conversations where I say a leader had been doing a certain role for, or a period that would make it such that we assume where they would sit in the org chart.
In those one-on-one conversations, you find that they actually have a strong desire to do something completely different, right? And so you uncover these things as a result, and therefore you incorporate some of those things as you're navigating building that leadership bench because they're actually people who.
Prefer to be staying stable and pre people who actually prefer to be doing something different. That also in itself was an uncovering through those coaching conversations. And you know, we called it the safety net chat, right? So I would sit down with the leader and we would just have a safety net chat, would just put it on the table.
What are you afraid of? What's scaring you right now? What's the thing that kept you up at night last night? And let's talk about it. The thing about it is, again, and I go back to, it's all human beings navigating this thing. They're gonna have feelings through these changes. And the more you get out what those thoughts are, the less elephants you have in the room when things are actually
[00:15:18] Leighton Martin: done.
No, I, I, I love the thread, like, I feel like throughout this conversation really humanizing too into human having those vulnerable conversations. I love the safety net. Definitely Gonna take that one. And I guess we were gonna sum this up before we pivot to our last topic, you know. What would your biggest piece of advice be for HR professionals who are maybe about to take on an international org redesign project for the first time?
[00:15:43] Bukky Osifeso: Know your audience, know that business and that to do your homework. It's wild because when there's a big undertaking, like what I just described about to happen, you find that a lot of folks are actually tunnel vision in their work. You then need to be the center who happens to have knowledge about all the parts.
I will say if you're gonna get into a big or transformation, just ask as many questions as possible. Get to know the business, get to understand the heartbeat of the organization. What are some things that if we're, we didn't do, would be missing links in that organization? 'cause everyone talks about what we wanna do.
You also wanna be asking the questions about what if we didn't do this, that would happen, right? That's how you're able to offer a real lasting and impactful org transformation that could actually help position the business from an ROI standpoint, employee retention standpoint. There's so many other sort of downstream positives if the organization change is done right.
[00:16:51] Leighton Martin: Could not agree more. You know, you have to know your business to anchor any type of guidance. So bringing it home for us, you know, if you were to look back across all your work, what's the one capability or mindset shift that you think every strategic HR leader needs to develop? I
[00:17:08] Bukky Osifeso: would say is, um, stop playing therapist and start playing chess.
Yeah. I like that it's about leverage, right? Influence isn't built on how nice you are. It's built on how necessary your voice becomes when the pressure is on.
[00:17:27] Leighton Martin: I love that so, so much. If our listeners could do just one thing today to become a more trusted partner to the business, you know, especially during these times of high stakes change, is there anything that you would recommend?
You know, we covered a bunch of things, but anything just to really sum that all up.
[00:17:43] Bukky Osifeso: I would say speak the unspoken with clarity, courage, and calm. The reason I say this is the unspoken is actually where you make the biggest impact. It's okay to be the one who has the unpopular opinion. Sometimes it's the thing that influences the organization the most.
I'll say one question that you know, I ask myself and I would ask others to ask as well, is. What's not being said right now that could change everything and then go say it. Yeah. With strategy. Yep. And with heart.
[00:18:19] Leighton Martin: Don't forget the hard part. Incredible. This has been such a great conversation. I have so love getting to chat with you, Bukky, and I feel like I learned so much so.
Thank you so, so much for joining us, and thanks for tuning in to I'm Telling HR brought to you by Rippling. I'm your host, Leighton Martin. If you want more, no Fluff Insights for bold HR leaders. Hit the link in the show notes to join the I'm Telling HR newsletter and get the strategies, stories, and tools that thousands of forward-thinking HR pros rely on to lead, change and grow their careers.