Purpose
Change is a common aspect of life in any organisation. The Seven S’s of Strategy help you cope with change. They give you a framework for analysing your organisation and improving it.
How To Use the Seven S’s of Strategy
Although linked together, the Seven S’s of Strategy fall into two areas. The first area contains the “hard” S’s:
- Strategy. This is the direction in which an organisation is heading. It is an organisation’s plan for growth and profitability.
- Structure. This describes the hierarchy of an organisation and shows who is responsible for what. It also illustrates the way different parts of an organisation work with each other.
- Systems. These are the activities an organisation uses every day to conduct its business. The systems are the routines and processes.
You can find the hard S’s of an organisation fairly easily. They are usually in strategic documents and plans.
The other four S’s are “soft”:
- Skills. An organisation’s skills are what make it unique. These skills are those of the staff and of the organisation as a complete unit.
- Staff. This strategy refers not just to the type and number of staff in an organisation. It also covers related issues such as training, motivation and integration.
- Style. How managers behave partly dictates the style of an organisation. Style also refers to the way an organisation presents itself to the public.
- Shared Values. Shared values lie at the heart of the Seven S’s of Strategy. They are the concepts that staff and managers hold in common. They are also an expression of an organisation’s attitudes and beliefs. Such shared values are often familiar to the public; they help to give an organisation its identity.
Together, the Seven S’s of Strategy give you an overall view of the way an organisation behaves. This helps you prepare for change.
And when change actually occurs, you can use the framework to ensure the process runs smoothly. You achieve this by ensuring you account for change in each of the Seven S’s of Strategy.
What the Seven S’s of Strategy do is encourage you to see an organisation as a single unit in which everything connects. No one strategy is more important than another.
Limitations
The Seven S’s of Strategy have attracted criticism because of the seemingly rigid structure of the framework. But the framework gives you a set of well-established principles. Companies have successfully used these principles during periods of change, and proven their relevance to strategic management.
Related Subjects
- Organisational Change. This deals with the process of constant change and learning that many organisations experience. Competitive forces, government regulations and an evolving world economy oblige organisations to manage change effectively and regularly.
- Systems Thinking. This is about the ability to see a business system in its entirety rather than its separate parts. Successful strategies rely on systems thinking.
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