It’s a simple fact and a hard lesson for business owners to learn — organization is crucial to the success of your company. When organizing your company, it’s important to consider the McKinsey 7S model, which emphasizes the seven S’s of organization: strategy, shared values, structure, systems, styles, staff, and skills. These characteristics allow your company to be successful during your initial, growth, and profitability stages. Here’s how the McKinsey 7S model works:
• Strategy: You need to know where the company has been, where it is today, and where the leadership wants the company to go in the future.
• Shared values: Once the strategy is set, it’s important that every team member be on the same page related to company values (rights and wrongs). This lets the business develop an image within the community.
• Structure: Structure is important so that each team member knows what is expected of him or her. This creates role definition and prevents confusion of strategy.
• Systems: In order to promote effectiveness and efficiency, the company needs to have processes and procedures in place. Those need to be reviewed periodically for functionality and practicality.
• Style: Your leadership style and that of your management is important in motivating your employees to share their ideas on how to improve operations.
• Staff: Improvement occurs when you select team members whose leadership style and strengths complement the management team and most importantly, each other.
• Skills: Providing necessary tools and developing employees are both very important in creating a competitive organization.
Analyze your company against the 7S Model to see how your operations compare. This will allow you to make adjustments to enhance your effectiveness.
Mike Moore is the HVAC Training Director at HVAC Learning Solutions, an HVAC industry expert in sales, technical, and business training. Visit Mike’s blog for more insights. Mike can be reached on Twitter @hvaclearning or on Google+ at gplus.to/hvactraining.