Brief Overview of Mckinsey 7s Framework Paper Example

The McKinsey 7S framework was developed by Robert Waterman and Tom Peters as a management model for businesses. McKinsey 7s strategy is a strategic vision for groups that has its key elements as businesses, teams and business units. The 7s structure, skills, strategy and style are properly explained with an aim of ensuring that organizational goals are realized. It is a strategy with an ideal aim of ensuring that the shared values and cultures of the organization are fully maintained and followed (Doole, Lowe, 2008).. The internal changes that occur in the organization or business can effectively be monitored using this strategy. It is therefore on of the most reliable tool towards ensuring that proper organizational analysis is achieved.

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McKinsey 7s strategy is based on the theory that an organization needs seven key elements to perform well in terms of leadership, sales and profits. The seven elements that the strategy highlights need to be mutually and strategically aligned in such a way that they work well towards the realization of organizational goals. This model is designed in a way that it can help the organizations management to determine what it needs to change in the organization or the basic improvements that they should make so as to ensure that they obtain the maximum profits.

McKinsey 7s strategy is basically a tool that when effectively applied in an organization, it can be easy to understand the interrelationships between the various elements of that organization. The strategy looks into the internal and external factors in the organization and brigs out a combination that is aimed at ensuring that the organizational short and long term goals are achieved. There are four main situations in which the McKinsey 7s strategy can be helpful. They include, when improving the companys performance, when examining the possible effects of future realignments within accompany, when aligning departments in cases of mergers and acquisitions and when determining the best ways of imposing proposed strategies. We can always apply the McKinsey strategy in both project works and team work strategies.

Elements of the McKinsey 7s strategy and how they are applied at Adcock Ingram

The model involves seven interdependent variables or elements. The elements are broadly categorized as either hard or soft. The hard elements of the McKinsey 7s model include strategy, structure and the organizations systems. The soft elements of the model include skills, shared values, style and staff. It is usually very easy to identify the hard elements of the McKinsey 7s model (Michalski, 2011). They are basically the basic organizational tools that any organization needs in order to have its operations run smoothly. They include the effective reporting channels, well-drawn organizational charts and effective IT expert. The soft elements are however not easily identifiable. They are less tangible and are in most cases affected by culture. Any change in one element leads to a corresponding change in all the other elements in the McKinsey 7s model.

We shall give a brief overview of the seven elements before checking on whether or not they are being applied at Adcock Ingram. Strategy refers to a plan that is put in place to ensure that the company builds a more competitive advantage. This mostly involves the companys leadership strategy and marketing strategies. Adcock Ingram made loses that were almost R2 million due to a poor marketing strategy. They have since learnt to put up measures to ensure that they survive in the current competitive and dynamic environment.

The structure refers to the way in which the organizations reporting is structured. It clearly gives the hierarchy of reporting in the organization. The reporting structure at Adcock Ingram is the bottom to top type. They business has an organized procedure in which the junior members report to the senior members according to specified protocols.

Systems according to the McKinsey 7s model refer to the day- to-day activities the organizations staff performs on day to day basis. These are the daily activities the staff do ranging from production, planning and marketing with an aim of ensuring that the organization achieves her goals. The systems should be mutually organized and the staff should be fully motivated to ensure that they perform the assigned tasks as per the schedule and on time. McKinsey 7s model system element has been well put into practice by the Adcock Ingram since the roles and duties of various staff are fully laid out with minimal cases of reported inter-departmental wrangles (Doole, Lowe, 2005).

Shared values is another key soft element of McKinsey 7s model. The shared values are the supporting goals or the superordinate goals that were initially developed during the formation of the company or at the start of the business. The shared values constitute the key corporate company culture and the general company work ethics.

The style as an element of the McKinsey 7s model refers to the leadership style that the business or the company practices. It also comprises the mode that the leaders use in solving organizational problems. The hierarchical style of leadership at Adcock Ingram has a clearly set channel of approaching the challenges that may cause trouble to the organization at various levels. The staff refers to the fulltime and part-time employees of the organization. It also outlines the general capabilities of the staff. Adcock Ingram has ensured that it has fully qualified staff and that the staff is well motivated to perform their assigned duties and tasks on time (Plant, 2000).

The skills as another element of the McKinsey 7s model refer to the individual competencies of the employees that are important in helping the company achieve her organizational goals. Adcock Ingram has ensured that their employees skills are enhanced by giving them additional training that is more directly linked to the daily duties of the organization. The employees in the marketing department are fully equipped with the marketing skills that are aimed at ensuring that they can effectively reach out to a large market and that the companys products are easily identifiable. These skills should be any companys major concern since they are very crucial in ensuring that the organization realizes her goals and dreams (Samygin, Probert, 2015).

Adcock Ingram has placed her Shared values high above every other aspect. This is due to the fact that these shared values are the key players in the development of other crucial factors in the business. All the seven elements illustrated above according to Adcock Ingram all emanate from the initial purpose for which the organization was created. Various aspects may change from time to time. However, the mission and the vision of the organization remain constant. This is the same case with Adcock Ingram. The company has successfully ensured that it deals with competition from similar companies by proper branding and ensuring proper customer relations (Witcher, Chau, 2010).

Improvements and Recommendations

The loss that the company went through in 2014 served as a serious learning point. The lessons they gathered from the loss has ensured that they emphasize on the value of ensuring that all the seven key aspects of the McKinsey 7s model are followed to the dot. The company has put in place effective marketing and leadership strategies according to the McKinsey 7s model to ensure that they always stay ahead of the stiff competition.

Adcock Ingram has conducted market research from time to time to ensure that they are able to deal with the dynamic demands of the customers from time to time. It is expected that the demands of customers for different products change from time to time. Adcock Ingram has dealt with this by ensuring that these market research studies are as intensive as possible.

Adcock Ingram has also since that time ensured that proper coordination of activities among the various departments is a possibility. This has been made possible through the various encouragements to the staff to take part in teamwork. The decision protocol is however decentralized which has been an advantage and a disadvantage in some cases. The employees have proven to be highly competitive (Sekhar, n.d.). These are some of the factors that have contributed to the success of the company in the recent time. The freedom of expression by the staff is still however curtailed and it has been the companys main undoing. Adcock Ingram should consider making it easily possible for the grievances of the employees grievances to be heard. In addition to the seven elements of McKinsey 7s model, this will ensure that there is an increased productivity and profits for the company.

References

Sekhar, G. V. S. (n.d.). Business policy and strategic management. S.l.: I K International Publi.

Samygin-Cherkaoui, A., & Probert, C. (2015). McKinsey 7-S framework: [Understand the connections within your business].

Witcher, B. J., & Chau, V. S. (2010). Strategic management: Principles and practice. S.l.: Cengage Learning.

Michalski, A. (2011). The McKinsey 7-S Framework: Invented in the 1980s and Still a Possibility for Success Today.

Doole, I., & Lowe, R. (2008). International marketing strategy: Analysis, development and implementation. London: Cengage Learning.

Plant, R. T. (2000). ECommerce: Formulation of strategy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Doole, I., & Lowe, R. (2005). Strategic marketing decisions in global markets. London [u.a.: Thomson Learning.