Critical Success Factors
Critical Success Factors
(The boring history bit …The concept of CSFs was first introduced by D. Ronald Daniel of McKinsey & Co in the 1960’s. It was then built on and popularized a decade or so later by John F. Rockart, of MIT's Sloan School of Management, and has since been used extensively to help businesses implement their strategies and projects)
Why are they important?
Well, if you identify and publicise them, everyone throughout the organisation will understand what really matters – where they should focus their attention.
Because “what gets measured, gets done”, any performance measures must relate to these CSFs.
For example, if an organisation sets out to beat its competitors by offering higher quality products (a key element of its strategy), it clearly needs to focus on, and to measure, those factors that will help it to improve quality. One such example might be staff training and competency development. This suggests that the organisation needs to have aims and targets relating to staff training; and then it needs to measure training – and its effectiveness.
Though there are no ‘rules’, it is generally agreed that an organisation should identify no more than about 6 CSFs.
To identify CSFs, you should:
• start with your vision and mission
• develop a small number of high level goals or strategic objectives
• translate these into a hierarchy of goals (at different levels) and their success factors
When you think you have selected your most important factors, take a rality check by asking
If we do all these things, will we be successful?
Once you have got them, the goals and the success factors should then be communicated to all who need to know, so that as they work through the actions, they know the things that are really important – and focus on achieving those things.
Critical Success Factors - To learn more about this author, visit John Heap's Website.
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Do you know the really important things you have to do to successfully carry out your mission = these are your critical success factors (CSFs).
(The boring history bit …The concept of CSFs was first introduced by D. Ronald Daniel of McKinsey & Co in the 1960’s. It was then built on and popularized a decade or so later by John F. Rockart, of MIT's Sloan School of Management, and has since been used extensively to help businesses implement their strategies and projects)
Why are they important?
Well, if you identify and publicise them, everyone throughout the organisation will understand what really matters – where they should focus their attention.
Because “what gets measured, gets done”, any performance measures must relate to these CSFs.
For example, if an organisation sets out to beat its competitors by offering higher quality products (a key element of its strategy), it clearly needs to focus on, and to measure, those factors that will help it to improve quality. One such example might be staff training and competency development. This suggests that the organisation needs to have aims and targets relating to staff training; and then it needs to measure training – and its effectiveness.
Though there are no ‘rules’, it is generally agreed that an organisation should identify no more than about 6 CSFs.
To identify CSFs, you should:
• start with your vision and mission
• develop a small number of high level goals or strategic objectives
• translate these into a hierarchy of goals (at different levels) and their success factors
When you think you have selected your most important factors, take a rality check by asking
If we do all these things, will we be successful?
Once you have got them, the goals and the success factors should then be communicated to all who need to know, so that as they work through the actions, they know the things that are really important – and focus on achieving those things.
Critical Success Factors - To learn more about this author, visit John Heap's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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