An Introduction to the McKinsey 7S framework

If you work for a growing organization and need to plan your actions to implement organizational strategy, how do you go about it? If you work in marketing and need to implement the great plans you have created, how will you organize your resources and efforts to turn them into action? Or, if you are a freelancer or a consultant and need to work with an organization to maximize the output, how do you plan for that? If there was any business framework that could be the answer to all those questions, it’s the McKinsey 7S framework. It has stood the test of time for nearly four decades! The relevancy of the framework in fast-changing organizations is a testament to its effectiveness.

What is the Mckinsey 7S framework?

This is partly self-evident. But the McKinsey 7S framework was part of “In search of Excellence”, a book published in 1982 by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman. The book explores management as a science. The framework itself is a collection of 7 factors or elements in organizations that are interconnected. These elements can determine how adaptable your organization is internally. Successful organizations are able to make changes to the specific factors in a way to improve. These 7 essential internal elements when aligned with each other can help attain your organization’s objectives. You will notice that they are all interconnected so changes you make to anyone can create a ripple effect among the others. 

So what are the 7Ss?

These 7 are divided popularly as “hard” and “soft” elements. The hard Ss are easier to influence, by leaders and managers. The soft elements are critical to sustainable success but are pretty intangible and hard to measure. These are organizational and culture-driven factors.

HARD: Strategy, Structure, Systems

SOFT:  Shared Values, Staff, Skills, Style

Let’s take a look at each S of the McKinsey 7S framework:

Strategy

Whether you work for an organization, own a business, or just consult for one, you have plans to achieve long-term objectives. Your strategy could be centered around how you position your brand identity to more specific financial or growth goals. 

Structure

This could refer to your hierarchical organizational structure or project-based team composition. Flexible structures with moving parts are always going to be a consideration

Systems

You will always have established processes that make your team or organization tick. But knowing when to make changes or adapt these to optimize output is always essential. You can even include digital tools and support that help get the work done.

Staff

Your full-time, contract, and part-time employees along with freelancers and other partners are essential to accomplishing your objectives. You need to assess how they are recruited, trained, included and incentivized.

Skills

Your core competencies of your team and relevant capabilities put together are make up the skills. There may be a need to upskill or learn new ones based on your goal. You can only identify the changes you require by assessing them!

Style

Traditionally this focused only on leadership and management styles. But you have to look beyond that. The handling of employees can contribute to the way they work and even affect their communication style.

Shared Values

Increasingly, your work and organizational culture guide the overall behavior of your team. Their commitment, motivation, and effectiveness are all reliant on how well you treat them. Leading with empathy and establishing an inclusive and positive work culture is a key to success in all teams!

How to use McKinsey’s 7S framework?

The best time to utilize the framework will be when you are creating your action plan. If you are using a marketing planning framework like SOSTAC, then your actions come right after you plan your strategy and finalize tactics. Some other marketing planning models combine the tactics and action components but it’s evident when to use McKinsey 7S framework.

So here’s how you do it:

1. Assess your current situation

Run an internal environmental analysis to understand your current situation or just list out the present state of operating for each S of the McKinsey 7S framework. If you’re applying the framework to a marketing action plan, then limit the sub-elements that would affect the implementation of marketing tactics only.

2. Set your goals

You can again use the SMARTER goal-setting framework here so you have a true north towards which you are working. This provides direction and focuses on the coordination and evolution of your plan.

3. Create an action plan that helps you get there

Zero in on the specific changes for each S of the McKinsey 7S framework that will help you reach the goals you have set. Formulate these into a plan. If there are too many actions that you need to take, look further into how you can prioritize the changes and utilization of resources. Start with HARD values connected to Shared Values, then HARD values to each other, then look at the Shared values connected to the Soft values and then soft values to each other. Then look at how you can connect each element to each of the others from the opposite segment to refine the plan to have full alignment.

4. Set regular and detailed reviews to optimize the process

Overall process review is essential to understanding what works and what doesn’t. You can either establish an audit process and multiple reviews and set a periodic optimization of the plan to ensure that any variables are accounted for.

Conclusion

By catering to the 7 factors in the McKinsey 7S framework, organizations and teams can be more efficient. This helps you adapt to changes and implement plans to get the best possible result. The elements are always going to be connected, so you have to be aware of how changes to one element affect the others. Following the simple 4-step process is a start. But real-world implementation may require a customized approach. The better you understand the factors affecting your team or organization, the more optimized your approach will be.