The McKinsey 7  “S’’ model was used to show all the key interrelated areas that make up an organisation and which managers need to pay attention to.

What is the 7-S Framework?
The 7-S Framework is a management model that describes 7 factors to organise a company in an holistic and effective way. Together these factors determine the way in which a corporation operates. Managers should take into account all seven of these factors, to be sure of successful implementation of a strategy: large or small. They’re all interdependent, so if you fail to pay proper attention to one of them, this may affect all others as well. On top of that, the relative importance of each factor may vary over time.

Origin of the 7-S Framework.
The 7-S Framework was first mentioned in “The Art of Japanese Management” by Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos in 1981. They had been investigating how Japanese industry has been so successful. At around the same time that Tom Peters and Robert Waterman were exploring what made a company excellent. The Seven S model was born at a meeting of these four authors in 1978. It appeared also in “In Search of Excellence” by Peters and Waterman, and was taken up as a basic tool by the global management consultancy company McKinsey. Since then it is known as their 7-S model.

The Meaning of the 7 Ss
Shared Values (also called Superordinate Goals).
The interconnecting centre of McKinsey’s model is: Shared Values. What the organisation stands for and believes in. Central beliefs and attitudes.

Strategy
Plans for the allocation of a firm’s scarce resources, over time, to reach identified goals. Environment, competition, customers.

Structure
The way in which the organisation’s units relate to each other: centralised, functional divisions (top-down); decentralised; a matrix, a network, a holding etc.

Systems
The procedures, processes and routines that characterize how the work should be done: financial systems; recruiting, promotion and performance appraisal systems; information systems.

Staff
Numbers and types of personnel within the organisation.

Style
Cultural style of the organisation and how key managers behave in achieving the organisation’s goals.

Skills
Distinctive capabilities of personnel or of the organisation as a whole.

 

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