The Hard S’s

Strategy
Actions a company plans in response to or anticipation of changes in its external environment.

Structure
Basis for specialisation and co-ordination influenced primarily by strategy and by organization size and diversity.

Systems
Formal and informal procedures that support the strategy and structure.

The Soft S’s

Style / Culture
The culture of the organisation, consisting of two components:

 - Organisational Culture: the dominant values and beliefs, and norms, which develop over time and become relatively enduring features of organisational life.

 - Management Style: more a matter of what managers do than what they say; How do a company’s managers spend their time? What are they focusing attention on?

Staff
The people management – processes used to develop managers, socialisation processes, ways of introducing young recruits to the company, ways of helping to manage the careers of employees.

Skills
The distinctive competences – what the company does best.

Shared Values
Guiding concepts, fundamental ideas around which a business is built – must be simple.