Ever since strategy arose as a managerial discipline in the 1960s, business leaders have been honing their analysis of where and how to compete, grow, and best manage their organizations. Strategic and organizational models or frameworks help inform these decisions, offering shorthand for qualitative analysis of potential scenarios and insight on what options to adopt.
Today's complex business environment has rendered some of these models obsolete, but others have endured. In this series of interactive presentations, The McKinsey Quarterly presents a selection of frameworks, highlighting their origin, utility, and lasting relevance.
Enduring ideas: Classic McKinsey frameworks
A selection of strategic and organizational frameworks that continue to inform management thinking
7-S: Lowell Bryan, a director in McKinsey's New York office, reflects on 7-S, a framework introduced in the late 1970s to address the critical role of coordination, rather than structure, in organizational effectiveness. Read more about 7-S.
SCP: John Stuckey, a director emeritus in McKinsey’s Sydney office, comments on SCP, a framework whose origin dates to the 1930s. This framework depicts the influence of an industry’s structure (for example, the growth of demand and barriers to entry) on the conduct of producers (pricing, for example) and the performance of both the industry and the producers. Read more about SCP.
GE–McKinsey nine-box matrix: Kevin Coyne, a McKinsey alumnus and senior adviser to the firm on strategy, describes the GE–McKinsey nine-box matrix. Read more about the nine-box matrix.