How to Use Critical Success Factors
Critical success factors is a management concept designed to take quantifiable goals and break them down into simpler elements. The concept of using critical success factors maintains that goals are only achievable when broken down into simpler objectives and tasks, thus making the elements critical. It is fairly easy to introduce this notion to your own employees and use the system to support and accelerate your own business's progress.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Determine your company's mission. This is often a long-term, abstract goal, such as becoming the top company in a given market or drawing the largest bottom line in company history. You will then break this down into smaller, more manageable pursuits.
-
2
Establish quantifiable goals. These should be attainable goals that can improve your business's customer service or bottom line, such as "Achieve 98 percent customer satisfaction" or "Reach a 25 percent market share by the end of the quarter."
-
-
3
Look at each goal individually. Brainstorm a list of elements that contribute to meeting that goal, whether it is attracting new customers, gaining financing on a project, or maintaining stability by retaining employees.
-
4
Pare down your list of candidate critical success factors to the most essential. You can eliminate some based on the fact that by achieving some factors, you will achieve others in the process.
-
5
Decide how you will prepare to handle this success factor and monitor it. You might need to give additional training to the employees in charge of meeting these goals. Brainstorm other methods, such as customer surveys, to keep a pulse on your progress.
-
6
Emphasize these critical success factors in meetings with employees to reinforce their importance. Ultimately, critical success factors must be met with enthusiasm and support by a company's employees if they are to translate to success.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit Photo courtesy of llawliet on Flickr
