Archive for October, 2009

Holistic management: The Seven S model

The Seven S guides managers to improve their strategic approach to the business. Get an overview of the framework and tips on how to apply it.

A common adage in the management consulting business is that efficiency and effectiveness are completely different measurements.

An organization can be extremely efficient, getting high productivity from their workforce and producing their product or service with very little waste or churn, yet be totally ineffective in meeting their objectives if, for instance, their product or service is not accepted in the marketplace.

This difference is often distilled to the statement “efficiency is about doing things right, while effectiveness is about doing the right things.”

In an earlier column on Six Sigma, I noted that Six Sigma is primarily focused on improving quality in areas such as manufacturing, sales, and customer service; in other words, on doing things right. It’s not a strategic methodology, so it’s not equipped to guide managers to examine their overall business model or strategy.

So how do consultants or managers step up a level from process to strategy?

Understanding the Seven S framework’s basics
The Seven S approach is a framework that focuses on guiding managers to improving, not just our processes, but our entire strategic approach to the business. The model was originally proposed by Richard Tanner Pascale and Anthony Athos in their book The Art of Japanese Management; McKinsey and Company has adopted the model as the basis of its strategic consulting approach. (more…)