CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
Range of specialized disciplines:
- Corporate advertising
- Corporate designs
- Internal communications
- Issue and crisis management
- Media relations
- Stakeholder management
- Change communications
- Corporate social responsibility
- Public a airs
Corporate communication is a management function that o ers a framework for the e ective
coordination of all internal and external communication with the overall purpose of establishing
and maintaining favorable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the organization is
dependent.
Organization: any group of people who work together to reach a goal. Organizing involves
combining and structuring tasks, people and resources in such a way that the goals of an
organization are reached.
Mc KINSEY 7-S FRAMEWORK
The model was developed in the late 1970s by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, former
consultants at McKinsey & Company. They identi ed seven internal elements of an organization
that need to align for it to be successful.
When to use the McKinsey 7-S Model
You can use the 7-s model in a wide variety of situations where it’s useful to examine how the
various parts of your organization work together.
For example, it can help you to improve the performance of your organization, or to determine the
best way to implement a proposed strategy.
The framework can be used to examine the likely e ects of future changes in the organization, or
to align departments and processes during a merger or acquisition. You can also apply this model
to elements of a team or a project.
The seven elements of the McKinsey 7-S Model
Hard elements: easy to identify and management can in uence them directly
- Strategy
- Structure (organization charts and reporting lines)
- Systems (formal processes and IT systems.
Soft elements: less tangible and more in uenced by your company culture.
- Shared values
- Skills
- Style
- Sta
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, • Strategy: this is your organization’s plan for building and maintaining a competitive advantage
over its competitors.
• Structure: this how your company is organized (that is, how departments and teams are
structured, including who reports to whom).
• Systems: the daily activities and procedures that sta use to get the job done.
• Shared values: these are the core values of the organization, as shown in its corporate culture
and general work ethic. They were called “superordinate goals” when the model was rst
developed.
• Style: the style of leadership adopted.
• Sta : the employees and their general capabilities.
• Skills: the actual skills and competencies of organization’s employees.
Placing shared values in the center of the model emphasized that these values are central to the
development of all the other critical elements. The model states that the seven elements need to
balance and reinforce each other for an organization to perform well.
Using the McKinsey 7-s Model
You can use it to identify which elements you need to realign to improve performance, or to
maintain alignment and performance during other changes. These changes could include
restructuring, new processes, an organizational merger, new systems, and change of leadership.
Follow these steps:
1. Start with your shared values: are they consistent with your structure, strategy, and systems?
If not, what needs to change?
2. Then look at the hard elements. How well does each one support the others? Identify where
changes need to be made.
3. Next, look at the soft elements. Do they support the desired hard elements? Do they support
one another? If not, what needs to change?
4. As you adjust and align the elements, you will need to use an iterative (and often time-
consuming) process of making adjustments, and then reanalyzing how that impacts other
elements and their alignment. The end result of better performance will be worth it.
An example of the McKinsey 7-S Framework in Action
Let’s imagine that Whitehawk Electronics is a startup with ve sta . As new venture, it is still
based rmly on the vision and values of its founder, Alix, and its elements all align. It sells into one
market, and uses o -the-shelf IT and accounting systems.
As time goes on, the business grows, employing 30 sta , and diversifying into di erent markets.
New customer requirements demand new skills in marketing, technology, product development,
and nancial management.
Alix carries out a 7-S analysis. She nds that Whitehawk’s developing sales strategy no longer
aligns with its small-business skill set.
The rapid in ux of new sta members, along with changes in technology, means that some sta
don’t have the necessary systems skills. Worse still, they are unclear on the organization’s values
and sense of purpose.
Alix uses the analysis to introduce onboarding and learning programs, bringing all Whitehawk’s
key elements back into alignment.
7-S FRAMEWORK: STARBUCKS CASE STUDY
Shared values: the Starbucks experience.
- Any retailer can sell co ee: Starbucks sells and experience.
- Starbucks Co ee emphasizes a warm friendly ambiance (friendly sta , music, Wi , comfortable
meeting place) the people enjoy.
- Starbucks rallies employees behind delivering and ful lling this notion.
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, Strategy: intensive growth strategy
- The goal is to make the company di erent from other competitors.
- \Specialty co ee products (premium product mix, locations, co ee beverages), to customers
from various segments.
- Starbucks uses its sustainable and responsible sourcing policy to di erentiate its products from
competitors.
- Company oriented operation (instead of franchising) and geographical diversion.
Structure:
- On a corporate level: CEO, directors of HRM, corporate a airs, legal, nance, supply chain.
- The president of each region is responsible for working with authorized Starbucks stores.
- Starbucks has licensed stores (no franchise). They only accept new co ee stores if the location
can help Starbucks reach a new demographic.
- ‘Employees are partners’, they provide stock options to every employee, to give them a
nancial and psychological stake in the company.
Systems: several important systems, which deal with product knowledge and product
development.
- Training (Starbucks trains its sta extensively).
- Roasting co ee (Starbucks roasts its own co ee).
- Purchasing co ee (Starbucks buys co ee directly from growers).
Skills:
- Teams are most visible at the lowest organizational levels. In each café, the company has
teams organized to deliver goods and service to customers.
- Excellent business performance through training program, friendly knowledgeable sta (values,
customs, traditions, and related behavioral expectations).
Sta :
- E ective human capital management translates into great customer service.
- 91st in the 100 best places to work, according to Forbes magazine plus low employee turnover.
- Starbucks College Achievement plan: employees receive 100% tuition coverage for a rst-time
bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program.
Style:
- Starbucks admires people with talent and new ideas. Employees are allowed to participate in
the decision making process.
- They o er their employees opportunities to polish their skills to ful ll the goals of the company
(a learning and development environment).
- The CEO shares his vision for rapid expansion with all employees and managers increase
motivation through reviews and raises.
- Regional managers are allows to meet speci c consumer needs in each region.
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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Environment & competencies
This has this order because the rst one is the
most long term and the short one the closest step.
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, 2 approaches
Classic approach = strategic planning (the world is predictable)
Modern approach = strategic thinking (the world is chaotic and unpredictable)
HOMEWORK
FOUNDING FATHERS
Fayol
He took a mid-level approach. He was looking at the management side of the things. The big
question that he wondered about was “how shall we manage people”.
He put forward a theory of management called administrative science or classical
management and he believed that managers needed to be trained in a much more systematic
approach.
In one of the chapters of the book he wrote talks about the management activities that managers
should be pretty competent at. He thought we needed good planning, that managers should look
ahead and chart a course for the organization. He also though that organization was a key
management activity. They need to select and arrange people in an orderly and e cient fashion.
He wanted the manager to be in command. In other words, to oversee, to lead and to drive the
process but to stay out of the details. That was up for the regular workers. Managers should also
be good at coordination, needed to harmonize and facilitate the general activities of di erent
departments and groups in the overall organization, and lastly, control. The manager needed to
ensure compliance on everything, from accounting, nance, the technical side, quality control,
and other areas.
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CHAPTER 1
The objective of building maintaining and protecting the company’s reputation is the core task of
corporate communication practitioners.
SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS
An important characteristic of the new corporate communication function is that it focuses on the
organization as a whole and on the important task of how an organization presents itself to all its
key stakeholders, both internal and external.
Key concepts in corporate communication:
- Mission: overriding purpose in line with the values and expectations of stakeholders.
- Vision: desired future state- the aspiration of the organization
- Corporate objectives: statement of overall aims in line with the overall purpose.
- Strategy: the ways or means in which the corporate objectives are to be achieved and put into
e ect.
- Corporate identity: the pro le and values communicated by an organization.
- Corporate image: the immediate set of associations of an individual in response to one or
more signals or messages from or about a particular organization at a single point in time.
- Corporate reputation: an individual’s collective representation of past images of an
organization (induced through either communication or past experiences) established over time.
- Stakeholder: any group or individual who can a ect or is a ected by the achievement of the
organization’s objectives.
- Market: a de ned group for whom a product is or may be in demand (and for whom an
organization creates and maintains products and services).
- Communication: the tactics and media that are used to communicate with internal and
external groups.
- Integration: the act of coordinating all communication so that the corporate identity is
e ectively and consistently communicated to internal and external groups.
A mission is a general expression of the overriding purpose of the organization, which, ideally, is
in line with the values and expectations of major stakeholders and concerned with the scope and
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