The McKinsey 7-S Model is a change framework based on a company's organizational design. It aims to depict how change leaders can effectively manage organizational change by strategizing around the interactions of seven key elements: structure, strategy, system, shared values, skill, style, and staff.
The McKinsey 7S Model helps you analyze your company for performance gaps. You can use this management model to identify the gap between how you are currently doing and where you want to be in the future. With the model, you can map out what you need to do to achieve your business strategy.
7s Factors
Strategy, structure and systems are hard elements that as opposed to soft elements, are much easier to identify and manage. On the other hand, while more difficult to handle, soft areas are the backbone of the enterprise and are more likely to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
Limitations of 7S Model
The model has been criticized for lacking enough empirical evidences to support to support their explanation. The model is considered to be more of a static kind of model. It is rather difficult to assess the degree of fit with accuracy successfully.
Both “hard” and “soft” elements in the 7S Model are equally important when implementing change. Pros: The 7S Model helps you understand the broader impact of change initiatives on the entire organization. Cons: It doesn't analyze external elements and their impact on organizations.
The three "hard" elements include: Strategy. Structures (such as organization charts and reporting lines). Systems (such as formal processes and IT systems.)
The general concept of the 7S is intended to optimize the physical workspace for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining orderliness and cleanliness in the area and sustaining the new order to ensure safety of the workers in the most efficient manner.
The 7S model is a framework that helps you analyze the alignment and performance of your project across seven key elements: strategy, structure, systems, skills, staff, style, and shared values.
Practical Example
The McKinsey 7S model can be applied in circumstances where changes are being brought into the organization that may affect one or more of the shared values. Suppose a company is planning to undertake a merger. It will affect how the company is organized since new staff will be coming in.
McKinsey 7S model of Nokia – Structure
The organization's top management was living in a bubble, disconnected from the company's technology development departments. Communication was one-way and teams were not empowered to contribute to the organization's strategy.
7s factors. In McKinsey model, the seven areas of organization are divided into the 'soft' and 'hard' areas. Strategy, structure and systems are hard elements that are much easier to identify and manage when compared to soft elements.
The McKinsey 7S Model is a framework for systematically analyzing the environment of a business to develop either new operational strategies or change existing ones. The model looks at the organization's existing strategy, capabilities, structure, skills, staff systems, shared values and culture.
7S is the new terminology consists of the seven phases namely Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain or Self Discipline, Safety and Spirit.
The primary concern of strategic management is how to utilise a company's resources to achieve the business's goals and objectives. Learning the strategic management process can help provide a framework for decision making and can be useful to know if you manage a team.
The 7S model can be used to: Review the effectiveness of an organization in its marketing operations. Determine how to best realign an organization to support a new strategic direction. Assess the changes needed to support digital transformation of an organization.
McKinsey 7s model was developed in 1980s by McKinsey consultants Tom Peters, Robert Waterman and Julien Philips with a help from Richard Pascale and Anthony G. Athos. Since the introduction, the model has been widely used by academics and practitioners and remains one of the most popular strategic planning tools.
When introduced in the late 1970s, the 7-S framework was a watershed in thinking about organizational effectiveness.
What are the soft S and hard S in the McKinsey 7S model? The seven components of McKinsey's model are divided into two groups: hard S and soft S. The Hard S elements are Strategy, Structure, and Systems. The Soft S elements are Style, Staff, Skills, and Shared values.
The SWOT analysis is useful for generating strategic options and evaluating them based on their feasibility and desirability. The McKinsey 7S model, on the other hand, focuses on the internal factors that affect your organization's culture and effectiveness.
When organizations undertake a transformation to improve performance, research shows those efforts fail 70 percent of the time.
Tesla McKinsey 7S model illustrates the ways in which seven elements of businesses can be aligned to increase effectiveness. According to the framework strategy, structure and systems are considered as hard elements, whereas shared values, skills, style and staff represent soft elements.
The GE Matrix is a strategic framework that helps multi-business corporations manage portfolios and prioritize investments across products and SBUs (Strategic Business Units). The GE Matrix looks at two factors: the competitive strength of an SBU and the attractiveness of the market in which it operates.