McKinsey 7S model LO15384

Michael A. Gort (mail18081@pop.net)
Wed, 15 Oct 1997 22:50:00 -0400

Replying to LO15341 --

Winfried,

Thank you for your insights on 7S and the three keys to Systems Thinking:
Process, Patterns and Structure. One pattern of both the new and old 7S
concerns me: both are very much inward looking. Although I assume that
customers and consumers get considered in the visioning process, it does
not appear to be part of the core. In Thinking Out of the Box, Kathy
Yohalem describes a process for developing a strategic marketing plan that
begins, continues and ends with focus on the customer and the strategic
value chain to the customer. In today's world of cycle time reduction,
compressed product life-cycles and very fast companies, customer
connection may have to be "Job 1" for the management team.

I have just started exploring the literature on strategic marketing, but
what I have seen so far really feels right. Most interesting is that it
is equally applicable if you are the CEO of a Fortune 100, the President
of a mid-size company or the Pop or Mom of a Mom and Pop.

Do others see this persistent structure of inward focus? What tools have
you seen to get teams thinking out-of-the-box?

Michael A. Gort
gort@mail.com

From: Winfried Dressler <winfried.dressler@voith.de>
><snip>7S is a popular leading system
>(3rd Dimension), especially for big companies. I guess that the "old" and
>"new" 7S are different in the degree of agility.
>
>The best fitting leading system depend on vision, competencies and
>environment - it must be consistent to these and should lead to a
>competitive advantage, therefore it should be different to the systems of
>the competitors.

[...big snip by your host...]

-- 

"Michael A. Gort" <mail18081@pop.net>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>