Critical-to-success factors (CSFs) have become essential elements to strategic planning and no business can achieve consistent success without effectively adopting them. To take full advantage of CSFs, however, an organization must first understand what they are and how they can be used to drive organizational initiatives and processes. Critical Success Factors Simplified: Implementing the Powerful Drivers of Dramatic Business Improvement provides a concise manual on CSFs that will teach you how to identify and select the right CSFs, measure their impact, and adjust them as needed to reach your goals.

In the first section of the book, Howell, a mechanical and industrial engineer responsible for award-winning initiatives in the military, public utilities industry, and private business gives you an education in CSFs, outlining the highly acclaimed Rockart CSF method. He also demonstrates two powerful techniques for identifying external CSFs, a simple process for generating internal CSFs, and a road map for creating an organization-wide CSF program. The second section of the book covers specific applications of CSFs, from strategic planning to individual pursuits.

CSFs can be employed at all levels of an organization to initiate new ideas, increase productivity, or improve customer service. They can direct a huge corporation or facilitate a departmental improvement. Fleeting success can be achieved through mere luck, but most often sustainable success is accomplished with a plan that focuses in on those factors that you must address to accomplish your objective. This book will help you create such a plan.