The Sunday Mail
HOW does one analyse how his or her organisation is positioned to achieve its intended objective?
This is a question that has been asked for many years, and there are many different answers.
Some approaches look at internal factors, while others look at external ones. Some combine these perspectives and others look for congruence between various aspects of the organisation being studied.
Ultimately, the issue comes down to which factors to study. As we start 2015, let us have a detailed analysis of how our companies are performing. For a car to be a complete car, you need the body, the engine, the wheels and seats. Time and again, a car needs to be serviced and so does a company. If a crucial part of a car develops a fault, the performance of the car deteriorates, or the car may not even move at all.
Same applies to companies. At times specific areas of a company will need to be assessed for effectiveness. Crucially, McKinsey developed what is now known as the 7S framework. The basic premise of the model is that there are seven internal aspects of an organisation that need to be aligned if it is to be successful.
The 7S model can be used in a wide variety of situations where an alignment perspective is useful. For example, in order to improve the performance of a company, one might need to examine the likely effects of future changes within a company, align departments and processes during a merger or acquisition and determine how best to implement a proposed strategy.
The McKinsey 7S model involves seven interdependent factors, which are: strategy, structure, systems, shared values, skills, style and staff.
Strategy is the plan devised to maintain and build competitive advantage over the competition. Structure is the way the organiaation is structured and who reports to whom. Systems are the daily activities and procedures that staff members engage in to get the job done. Shared values are called “superordinate goals”; when the model was first developed, these are the core values of the company that are evidenced in the corporate culture and the general work ethic.
Style is the style of leadership adopted. Staff is the employees and their general capabilities. Skills are the actual skills and competencies of the employees working for the company.
You can use the 7S model to help analyse the current situation, a proposed future situation and to identify gaps and inconsistencies between them.
It’s then a question of adjusting and tuning the elements of the 7S model to ensure that your organisation works effectively and well once you reach the desired endpoint.
This model appears simple but it is not and this will definitely not solve all the problems of your company, but it will certainly give you the guideline of which areas to look at.
As a company, ask yourself these questions: What is our strategy? How do you intend to achieve your objectives? How do you deal with competitive pressure? How are changes in customer demands dealt with? How is strategy adjusted for environmental issues?
Also, these are the questions to ask on structure: How is the company/team divided? What is the hierarchy? How do the various departments co-ordinate activities? How do the team members organise and align themselves? Is decision making and controlling centralised or decentralised? Is this as it should be, given what we’re doing? Where are the lines of communication? Explicit and implicit?
On systems: What are the main systems that run the organisation? Consider financial and HR systems as well as communications and document storage. Where are the controls and how are they monitored and evaluated? What internal rules and processes does the team use to keep on track?
Then on shared values: What are the core values? What is the corporate/team culture? How strong are the values? What are the fundamental values that the company/team was built on?
When it comes to style, ask the following: How participative is the management/leadership style? How effective is that leadership? Do employees/team members tend to be competitive or co-operative? Are there real teams functioning within the organisation or are they just nominal groups?
Moving on to Staff: What positions or specialisations are represented within the team? What positions need to be filled? Are there gaps in required competencies? And lastly, skills: What are the strongest skills represented within the company/team? Are there any skills gaps? What is the company/team known for doing well? Do the current employees/team members have the ability to do the job? How are skills monitored and assessed?
Running a company is surely not an easy task, but with the correct elements success can be achieved. I will say success is the 8th S that every organisation would want to see.
As we start 2015, I challenge most chief executive officers to deeply scrutinise the elements I mentioned above. It is surely a journey but indeed success will be achieved. The 7Ss model is one that can be applied to almost any organisational or team effectiveness issue. If something within your organisation or team isn’t working, chances are there is inconsistency between some of the elements identified by this classic model. Once these inconsistencies are revealed, you can work to align the internal elements to make sure they are all contributing to the shared goals and values.
The process of analysing where you are right now in terms of these elements is worthwhile in itself. But by taking this analysis to the next level and determining the ultimate state for each of the factors, you can really move your organisation or team forward.
Taurai Changwa is an Articled Accountant and ACCA finalist. He is managing director of SAFIC Consultancy. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted at [email protected] or visit our facebook page SAFIC Consultancy or whatsapp on 0772374784.
