CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR

AN ORGANIZATION

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

Submitted by

AKAASH A
3122218001007
SEC-A

SSN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering
(An Autonomous Institution, affiliated to Anna University, Chennai)
Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR), Kalavakkam– 603110
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
DESCRIPTION

INTRODUCTION

CONCEPT HISTORY

RELATION TO KEY SUCCESS AREA AND KEY SUCCESS FACTORS

KEY RESULT AREA (KRAS)

STEPS TO ACHIEVE THE KEY SUCCESS FACTORS

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS: BENEFITS AND EXAMPLES

WHY ARE CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS IMPORTANT?

HOW TO DETERMINE CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS EXAMPLES

CONCLUSION
Introduction
Critical success factor (CSF) is a management term for an element that is necessary for an
organization or project to achieve its mission. To achieve the goals, they need to be aware of
each key success factor (KSF) and the variations between the keys and the different roles key
result area (KRA).

A CSF is a critical factor or activity required for ensuring the success of a company or an
organization. The term was initially used in the world of data analysis and business analysis.
For example, a CSF for a successful Information Technology project is user involvement.

Critical success factors should not be confused with success criteria. The latter are outcomes
of a project or achievements of an organization necessary to consider the project a success or
the organization successful. Success criteria are defined with the objectives and may be
quantified by key performance indicators (KPIs).

There are many tools to help to implement The key Success Factor like Business Model
Canvas that will help to achieve a Business model or just a goal.
Concept history
The concept of "success factors" was developed by D. Ronald Daniel of McKinsey &
Company in 1961. The process was refined into critical success factors by John F.
Rockart between 1979 and 1981. In 1995, James A. Johnson and Michael Friesen applied it to
many sector settings, including healthcare.[6]

Relation to Key Success Area and Key Success Factors

The Critical Success Factor is basically the main system to achieve success in a company, but
to make that possible is necessary to put together the Key Success Factor that needs to be
personalized depending on the department, each role has its own Key Success Area. These
systems try to achieve success for the company based on standards and rules that need to be
followed step by step to guarantee a better service for the clients or partners.

Key Result Area (KRAs)

Key result areas or KRAs refer to the rules for a specific role in a company. The terms highlight
the scope of the job profile for the employee, enabling them to have a better view of their
possible role in the company. KRA will defer from each other depending on the department.
The Key Result Area is a specific role that each department needs to follow to deliver the goods
or services in perfect condition to the final customer or to another department that will have
different KSFs.
Key Success Factors (KSFs)[edit]
In project management, multiple cross-cultural studies spread over decades have shown that
the basic Key Success Factors can be summarized as follows:[7]

Dominant strategy

Plan

Clear definition of the project chart, goals, roles, and impacts Clarity (transparency)

Access to financial resources Efficacy

Set norms of quality Efficacy

Realistic calendar of tasks and activities Efficacy

Balanced budget Efficacy

Processes

Formal work methodology Efficiency

 Solid infrastructures Efficiency

People

Teamwork Collaboration

Competencies Competencies (Trust)

Commitment Commitment

Power

Experienced managers Control and transparency

Sense of fairness Fairness

Contingency strategy

Risk and vulnerability assessments Efficacy and efficiency

Steps to achieve the Key Success Factors

The company needs to be aware that it is essential to pull together the team that will be working
with the CSFs, its necessary to have employees submit their ideas or give feedback. Never
forget to have multiple frameworks to examine the key elements of your long-term goals.
Before implementing your company-wide strategic plan with your critical success factors in
mind, determine which factors are key in achieving your long-term organizational plan.

Skills

The leader needs to be trained and prepared to put the company in the line of success. Some of
the skills that can be learned are financial management, marketing sales, and customer service,
communication and negotiation, project management and planning, leadership, problem-
solving and, lastly, but one of the most important skills, networking.
Communication

The company needs to put together all the staffs, all of the giving opinions about what could
be better to achieve their goal. The company needs to pay attention to two parts of the
communication process: the Initial Launch Communications, which will set the plan to be
achieved, and the Ongoing Communications, which will be the part where the KSF progress
(Contact us is a way to know if the KSF is working well).

Planning

To use the CSFs everything needs to be planned, how employees will do it and why. Tools can
be used to make planning work faster and easier. A strategy for each department can be planned
separately.

Teamwork
A good teamwork is the key to success, when all the staff collaborate more ideas and opinions
can be discussed to find the best way to achieve success.

Process
A business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks
by people or equipment which in a specific sequence produce a service or product (serves a
particular business goal) for a particular customer or customers. Business processes occur at
all organizational levels and may or may not be visible to the customers. A business process
may often be visualized (modelled) as a flowchart of a sequence of activities with interleaving
decision points or as a process matrix of a sequence of activities with relevance rules based on
data in the process. The benefits of using business processes include improved customer
satisfaction and improved agility for reacting to rapid market change.

Critical Success Factors: Benefits and Examples

No matter your industry, it's important to focus on what can help your organization achieve its
mission and goals effectively. Identifying critical success factors, for example, can help a
company achieve both its short- and long-term goals. In this article, we explain the importance
of critical success factors, list the steps for how to identify them, and provide you with examples
of critical success factors across various industries.

Why are critical success factors important?

As a manager or project team leader, it's important to know what your company needs to
achieve a positive outcome for its various projects, strategies, goals or the organization as a
whole. When you have critical success factors, it allows your company to focus on increasing
its capabilities to meet these critical success factors. Here are some of the additional benefits
that come from having and identifying critical success factors:
Greater success
When you have critical success factors, your business can focus its energy on achieving its
goals. Essentially, critical success factors give you and your co-workers or employees
something to work toward. The better you understand your critical success factors and follow
through with your plan, the greater chance you have of meeting your goals.
Helps eliminate unrelated performance measures
When you determine your critical success factors, you can focus on the most important
performance measures. This means you can eliminate the ones that don't positively impact the
critical success factors. Doing this can help reduce costs and may help you achieve your goals
more quickly.
Helps prioritize resource allocations
Knowing your critical success factors can help you identify your company's most-needed
resources. Prioritizing your resource allocations can then lead to greater performance
management and strategy.
Keep in mind that while it's important to have critical success factors, you need to communicate
and monitor them regularly to execute your strategy effectively and achieve success.

How to determine critical success factors

Now that you know the importance of critical success factors, consider how you might
implement them at your own company. Use these steps to identify your own set of critical
success factors regardless of your industry:
1. Assemble a team

Before determining a businesses' critical success factors, put together a team of people who
can work on them and ensure their effective use. Start with senior-level employees since you
need their ongoing support. While you can hire a consultant to help you, you can also keep the
entire process internal.
2. Ask for employee feedback

Prior to determining your company's critical success factors, have employees provide you with
ideas to help. While you can do this prior to establishing your company's goals or critical
success factors, you can also ask them for constructive feedback once you've determined a few
of them. No matter the method you choose, make sure to take their feedback and ideas into
consideration as this shows you care about their opinion.
3. Establish your company's mission and goals
Determine your company's mission and its short- and long-term goals. Make sure you establish
strategic goals that can positively impact or influence your company. Once you know your
company's mission and its goals, you can move on to determining what you need to achieve
them.
4. Examine your goals and determine your critical success factors
Determine the key components needed to achieve each of your goals. These components make
up your potential critical success factors. For example, if you have a goal to expand your store
space, your critical success factors may include securing financing for the expansion and
ensuring the construction work doesn't affect productivity.
Once you have a list of potential critical success factors, evaluate them and identify the ones
that are most important and truly essential for achieving your goals. These will be your
definitive critical success factors. In some cases, you may discover new objectives or find ways
to improvise your current ones.
5. Implement and communicate your plan
Implement a strategic plan that uses your critical success factors to help achieve your
company's goals. In addition, make sure to inform your team of the plan. The critical success
team also needs to have knowledge of the various critical success factors so they can prioritize
them.
Ongoing communication can help enforce the plan and prevent execution issues. In addition,
having everyone on board with the strategy can help lead to its successful execution. You can
also inform your team regarding what you did with the feedback they provided. Doing this can
motivate them to share their ideas or feedback in the future.
6. Continuously monitor your critical success factors
To ensure you stay on track toward achieving your goals, monitor and reassess your critical
success factors and their performance over time. In addition, consider the various ways that
can help you monitor and measure them. For example, if you want to grow the size of your
organization, you may have critical success factors such as growing your current number of
clients and partners. If you're performing well with these critical success factors, you may have
an effective strategic goal. If not, you may have to reassess your strategy and critical success
factors.
It's also important to keep in mind that the frequency in which you monitor or measure your
critical success factors may differ. For example, if you're monitoring a finance-related critical
success factor, you may want to track results every month. If it's related to hiring, you may
only need to track a few times per year as you make new hires.
Critical success factors examples
While some companies may have the same critical success factors, others have more industry-
specific ones. To better understand critical success factors, consider the following examples of
critical success factors for businesses in different industries:
Restaurants and food service
Here are some examples of critical success factors in the restaurant business:
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Quality service
• Increased customer feedback
• Higher quality of menu items
• Improved marketing strategies
Sales
Here are some examples of critical success factors for a sales team:
• Greater customer relationships
• Increased number of industry contacts
• Improved team culture

Engineering
Here are some examples of critical success factors in the engineering industry:
• Reliable designs
• Cost-effective designs
• Identified and managed project risks
Marketing
Here are some examples of critical success factors in marketing:
• High product quality
• Low production costs
• Increased delivery speed
• Larger marketing budget
• Improved research quality
Manufacturing
Here are some examples of critical success factors in the manufacturing industry:
• Quality product manufacturing
• Low-cost manufacturing plant locations
• Low-cost designs
• Adequate skilled labor
Conclusion
Critical Success Factors for an organization have been used significantly to present or identify
a few key factors that organizations should focus on to be successful. To achieve any goals of
a company CSF is necessary.