McKinsey 7S
Strategy, Structure, Systems, Skills, Staff, Style, Shared values
- Best for
- diagnosing org alignment
- Time
- half-day workshop
- Difficulty
- Advanced
Diagnosing alignment after a 30→90 person growth spurt
- 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
McKinsey 7S applied to real companies
All examples →SpaceX–Cursor Acquisition: A McKinsey 7S Integration Analysis (2026)
A McKinsey 7S analysis of SpaceX's $60B all-stock acquisition of Cursor (Anysphere) — why the hard S's (Strategy, Structure, Systems) line up while the soft S's (Staff, Style, Shared Values) carry all the integration risk after xAI lost all 11 co-founders.
PSG McKinsey 7S: the post-Mbappé team-first reset
A McKinsey 7S analysis of Paris Saint-Germain — how QSI's club finally won the Champions League by realigning the soft elements (style, staff, shared values), not by spending more.
Apple McKinsey 7S Analysis 2026
A worked McKinsey 7S analysis of Apple in 2026 — Strategy (services + on-device AI), Structure (functional org), Systems (supply chain + App Store), Shared Values (privacy + design), Skills, Style, and Staff. Which of the seven S's are aligned and which are drifting.