7S Model

Developed by McKinsey, 7S is a managerial tool for analyzing and improving organizations

 

 

 

 

The Seven-Ss is a framework for analyzing organizations and their effectiveness. It looks at the seven key elements that
 make the organization successful,
or not: strategy; structure; systems; style; skills; staff; and shared values.

 

Shared Values People Power Enterprise Strategy Corporate Capabilities 7Ss Model Balanced Approach to Business Systems Winning Organization Style Guide to 7Ss Organization 7S Model, Seven-Ss tool for Analyzing and Improving Organizations

 

 

Consultants at McKinsey & Company developed the 7S model in the late 1970s to help managers address the difficulties of organizational change. The model shows that organizational immune systems, silo mentality, and the many interconnected variables involved make change complex, and that an effective change effort must address many of these issues simultaneously.

 

Guide to 7Ss

9 Signs of a Losing Organization

5 Basic Elements of a Balanced Organization

 

 

 

   

7-S Model
– a Systemic Approach to Improving Organizations

 

 

 

 

The 7-S model is a tool for managerial analysis and action that provides a structure with which to consider a company as a whole, so that the organization's problems may be diagnosed and a strategy may be developed and implemented.

 

Cross-functional Management

Organizational Love Quotient (LQ)

 

 

 

The 7S Model helps analyze a company's organizational design and performance. The goal of the model is to show how effectiveness can be achieved in an organization through the interaction of 7 key elements – Structure, Strategy, Skill, System, Shared Values, Style, and Staff.

The 7-S diagram illustrates the multiplicity interconnectedness of elements that define an organization's ability to change.

The theory helped Change Managers to think about how companies could be improved. 7-S model says that it is not just a matter of devising a new strategy and following it through. Nor is it a matter of setting up new systems and letting them generate improvements.

To be effective, your organization must have a high degree of fit, or internal alignment among all the seven Ss.

Each S must be consistent with and reinforce the other Ss.

All Ss are interrelated, so a change in one has a ripple effect on all the others. It is impossible to make progress on one without making progress on all. Thus, to improve your organization, you have to master systems thinking and pay attention to all of the seven elements at the same time.

There is no starting point or implied hierarchy – different factors may drive the business in any one organization.

 

 

 

Shared Values

Shared values are commonly held beliefs, mindsets, and assumptions that shape how an organization behaves – its corporate culture.

Shared values are what engender trust. They are an interconnecting center of the 7Ss model. Values are the identity by which a company is known throughout its business areas, what the organization stands for and what it believes in, it central beliefs and attitudes. These values must be explicitly stated as both corporate objectives and individual values.

 

Shared Values

Put Values First

Why and How To Create Shared Values

Examples of Shared Values

Shared Values of Innompic Games

GE Values Guide

HP Shared Values

 

 

 

Structure

Structure is the organizational chart and associated information that shows who reports to whom and how tasks are both divided up and integrated. In other words, structures describe the hierarchy of authority and accountability in an organization, the way the organization's units relate to each other: centralized, functional divisions (top-down); decentralized (the trend in larger organizations); matrix; network; holding; etc. These relationships are frequently diagrammed in organizational charts. Most organizations use some mix of structures – pyramidal, matrix or networked ones – to accomplish their goals.

Strategy

Strategy are plans an organization formulates to reach identified goals, and a set of decisions and actions aimed at gaining a sustainable advantage over the competition. The 7S model helps leverage strategic thinking and improve strategic management.

Skills

Skills refer to the dominant distinctive capabilities and competencies of the personnel or of the organization as a whole.

 

 

 

Systems

"Systems" define the flow of activities involved in the daily operation of business, including its core processes and its support systems. They refer to the procedures, processes and routines that are used to manage the organization and characterize how important work is to be done within the business system.

Corporate innovation system defines approaches to systemic innovation.

 

Value of Systems Thinking for Business

Barriers to Systems Thinking

Balanced Company

Systemic Innovation

Performance Management System

 

 

 

Style

"Style" refers to the cultural style of the organization, how key managers behave in achieving the organization's goals, how managers collectively spend their time and attention, and how they use symbolic behavior. How management acts is more important than what management says.

 

Inspiring Culture

Enlightened Organization

Organizational Fitness Profile (OFP)

OFP Process

 

 

 

Staff

"Staff" refers to the number and types of personnel within the organization and how companies inspire, energize, develop, empower employees and shape basic values.

 

People Power

Find the Right Fit for Every Employee

Team Culture

 

 

 

Limitations of the McKinsey 7S Model

▪ A long-term model, not suitable for dynamic and fast entrepreneurial firms.

▪ Not adapted to the changing nature of businesses and value creation.

▪ Relies on internal factors and processes only and doesn't take into consideration outside-in forces.

 

Adaptive Organization

Flat Organization

 Centreless Corporation

Outside-In Business

 

 

 

 

The 7Ss of Business Growth 10+

are Strategic intent, Systemic innovation, Synergies, Simulation games, Scaling up, Speed, Sustained effort.

 

7Ss of Business Growth 10+