Strategy

McKinsey 7S

Strategy, Structure, Systems, Skills, Staff, Style, Shared values

Best for: diagnosing org alignment
Time: half-day workshop
Difficulty: Advanced

Example

Diagnosing alignment after a 30→90 person growth spurt

Seven S audit

Strategy — clear roadmap, but quarterly priorities drift in execution
Structure — squads formed, but reporting lines still pre-scale
Systems — Linear + Notion sprawl; no single source of truth
Shared values — "calm software" still resonates with engineers
Style — founder-led, fast; new VPs feel they need to ask permission
Staff — strong ICs, gap at engineering manager layer
Skills — design and AI are strong; data analytics is thin

Related frameworks

Balanced Scorecard

Financial, customer, internal, learning

Value Chain

Primary and support activities

Strategy Diamond

Arenas, vehicles, differentiators, staging, economic logic

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