Critical Success Factors – does your business have them?

In starting up griffin+row in the highly competitive market arena of skincare and cosmetics, my business partner and I decided that, as in all market segments, there were certain Critical Success Factors we needed to own in order to achieve our business goals.

It seems to me that in any start up business, making this assessment is extremely important.

The CSF’s will vary from industry to industry, but the key is to understand exactly what they are and gauge the cost of having these before you commit to a business.

The CSF’s are not the nice to haves – there are an unending number of those in any industry – but the must haves, ie. those things that your business/product/service must have to compete.

In our case we identified some of the CSF’s of the skincare and cosmetics industry as:

• A product with a real point of difference.
• A product that could fulfill any claims made.
• A distribution system that matched the market position of the product.
• A marketing plan that supported the brand.
• A logistics system that ensured efficient product distribution.
• Product price that was attractive to our customers and sustainable to our business.

There are many more nice to haves in the skincare industry but we saw these as the key must haves.

Identifying the CSF’s seems to me to be a very sound way of thinking about either a new or established business – do you have or are you maintaining the relevant industry CSF’s in your business?

Good intentions and good ideas will not sustain a business if they are not soundly based on the essential things required to succeed.

As markets and market demand is constantly changing, businesses needs to keep pace with these changes – so do our CSF’s. We need to constantly reassess these to ensure that we are on target to compete.

According to Professor Robert Nordlinger a business needs to:

• Make sure its strengths match the industry CSF’s.
• Make sure that its weaknesses are not in the CSF’s.
• Be ruthless in your assessment!

To read more Marcia Griffin expert advice, click here.

Marcia’s latest book, High Heeled Success (pictured left), is a frank account of building a business from a solitary sales person to a multi-million dollar business with 4700 sales consultants around Australia and New Zealand. Contact Marcia to purchase. Marcia’s latest venture is skin care company griffin+row.