Achieving success would definitely require a massive effort to attain it. The road towards it is not that smooth as others might think of. For some students like me, it would necessitate an assortment of pressures, sacrifices, challenges, failures, discouragements and many other negative things that are inevitable in one’s life. However, if there are goals and plans being set before them, triumph will then have its way. Like any organization or business, success means a big thing. Success would entail and depend on the strategic plans being made and how it is being implemented and managed. Having realistic expectations and timeframe are critical success factors for any project. Prior to the start of any project, the team must discuss all project plans and objectives of the project.
Critical success factors cannot be specifically defined for the masses because success can be defined quite differently by each individual, and for the goal at hand. Therefore, in order to identify critical success factors, it is first necessary to come to terms with your own personal definition of success. Each individual’s own definition of will be influenced by several key factors. Success is subject to individual interpretation based on upbringing, past experiences, role models, personal motivations and goals. Carefully contemplate your definition of success based on your values—not with what other people tell you what it is. Your own definition of personal success directly influences critical factors leading to that success. Your view of success will change at various times throughout your life. Your definition of success will continue to change, so don’t make the error of pursuing an outdated version of it. Success factors will change over time. Personal success is sometimes measurable and sometimes not. Very few people achieve success accidentally. Most people who achieve success first defined it then planned for it; they set a goal to achieve it. Critical success factors change with the goal. Once you have defined personal success for yourself, your next step is to set goals that will lead you to your definition of success. You must create realistic, viable plans to achieve those goals. Follow your plans, be flexible, and enjoy the process. Here are five success factors that will directly affect your success in achieving any goal:
Critical Success Factor # 1: Clearly Identify your Goal
Clearly determine what the goal is. Be specific.
This means that the goals should be precise and detailed so as to avoid any situations that would slow down or hinder the organization to attain success
Critical Success Factor # 2: Identify the Obstacles
List all the obstacles standing between you and the goal. Identify resources, assistance, information or anything else that might be needed to reach the goal. As you're writing, don’t get discouraged by the obstacles– they’re absolutely necessary to help you with the next step in completing your plan.
Critical Success Factor # 3: Know the Tasks Necessary to Overcome Each Obstacle
Taking each obstacle one at a time, write one or more ways the obstacle could be overcome. These are tasks that will comprise your to-do list. Expect to have several tasks per obstacle.
Critical Success Factor # 4: Assign Deadlines
Assign a start and completion date to each task in the plan. It’s ok to be working on several different tasks at the same time, but don’t over do it. Be realistic.
Critical Success Factor #5: Follow the Plan
If your success plan is too long or complicated, try breaking it into several smaller, more manageable plans. Don’t rely on luck or things outside your control as part of your success plan. Be flexible–expect your success plan to change before you complete it. Circumstances change, unexpected events occur, and your plan should be updated to adapt to changes.
Critical success factors, are key areas which you identify from conducting a SWOT, PEST and Porters Five Forces model, market research and competitor analysis. The basic logic is to look at the all the main results:
WEAKNESSES - What are your biggest business weaknesses that need addressing?
OPPORTUNITIES - What areas in the market need exploiting for your business to attain growth?
POLITICAL - Which political factors are important to your business, and need observing?, What is the current legislation?, Has your business achieved/aiming to achieve all the requirements?
ECONOMIC - What is the current economic climate like?, How will this affect business turnover?, What measures are you taking to ensure it does not adversely affect your business?
SOCIAL - What are the current consumer trends?, How can your business exploit them?, What are current consumer pressure groups re-acting to?
TECHNICAL - How is your business exploiting technology to achieve growth?, Is it through improving efficiency? or is it through using technology to aid new product development?
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS - What are your competitors doing?
MARKET RESEARCH - What do the consumers feel about existing/new products and services?
Critical Success Factors are strongly related to the mission and strategic goals of your business or project. Whereas the mission and goals focus on the aims and what is to be achieved. CSF focus on the most important areas and get to the very heart of both what is to be achieved and how you will achieve it.
Critical Success Factors are the areas of your business or project that are absolutely essential to its success. By identifying and communicating these CSFs, you can help ensure your business or project is well-focused and avoids wasting effort and resources on less important areas. By making CSFs explicit, and communicating them with everyone involved, you can help keep the business and project on track towards common goals and aims.
Rockart defined CSF as: The limited number of areas in which results, if they are satisfactory, will ensure successful competitive performance for the organization. They are the few key areas where things must go right for the business to flourish. If results in these areas are not adequate, the organization’s efforts for the period will be less than desired.
He also concluded that CSF are “areas of activity that should receive constant and careful attention from management.”
In reality, identifying your CSFs is a very iterative process. Your mission, strategic goals and CSFs are intrinsically linked and each will be refined as you develop them.
Here are steps that will help you identify the CSFs for your business or project.
Step 1: Establish your business’s or project’s mission and strategic goals.
Step 2: For each strategic goal, ask yourself “what area of business or project activity is essential to achieve this goal? The answers to the question are your candidate CSFs:
To make sure you consider all types of possible CSFs, you can use Rockart’s CSF types as a checklist:
INDUSTRY— these factors result from specific industry characteristics. These are the things that the organization must do to remain competitive.
ENVIRONMENTAL— these factors result from macro-environmental influences on an organization. Things like the business climate, the economy, competitors, and technological advancements are included in this category.
STRATEGIC—these factors result from the specific competitive strategy chosen by the organization. The way in which the company chooses to position themselves, market themselves, whether they are high volume low cost or low volume high cost producers, etc.
TEMPORAL – these factors result from the organization’s internal forces. Specific barriers, challenges, directions, and influences will determine these CSFs.
Step 3: Evaluate the list of candidate CSFs to find the absolute essential elements for achieving success – these are your Critical Success Factors.
As you identify and evaluate candidate CSFs, you may uncover some new strategic objectives or more detailed objectives. So you may need to define your mission, objectives and CSFs iteratively.
Step 4: Identify how you will monitor and measure each of the CSFs.
Step 5: Communicate your CSF along with the other important elements of your business or project’s strategy.
Step 6: Keep monitoring and reevaluating your CSF to ensure you keep moving towards your aims. Indeed, whilst CSF are sometimes less tangible than measurable goals, it is useful to identify as specifically as possible how you can measure or monitor each one.
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