What is McKinsey 7S

The 7-S-Model is better known as McKinsey 7-S. This is because the two persons who developed this model, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, have been consultants at McKinsey & Co at that time. Thy published their 7-S-Model in their article “Structure Is Not Organization” (1980) and in their books “The Art of Japanese Management” (1981) and “In Search of Excellence” (1982). 

The model starts on the premise that an organization is not just Structure, but consists of seven elements:

The Hard S’s
Strategy
Actions a company plans in response to or anticipation of changes in its external environment.
Structure
Basis for specialization and co-ordination influenced primarily by strategy and by organization size and diversity.
Systems
Formal and informal procedures that support the strategy and structure. (Systems are more powerful than they are given credit)
The Soft S’s
Style / Culture
The culture of the organization, consisting of two components:
  • Organizational Culture: the dominant values and beliefs, and norms, which develop over time and become relatively enduring features of organizational life.
  • Management Style: more a matter of what managers do than what they say; How do a company’s managers spend their time? What are they focusing attention on? Symbolism – the creation and maintenance (or sometimes deconstruction) of meaning is a fundamental responsibility of managers.
Staff
The people/human resource management – processes used to develop managers, socialization processes, ways of shaping basic values of management cadre, ways of introducing young recruits to the company, ways of helping to manage the careers of employees
Skills
The distinctive competences – what the company does best, ways of expanding or shifting competences
Shared Values / Super-ordinate Goals
Guiding concepts, fundamental ideas around which a business is built – must be simple, usually stated at abstract level, have great meaning inside the organization even though outsiders may not see or understand them.


Source: http://www.themanager.org/models/7S Model.htm
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