Information as CSF

INFORMATION AS A CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR

Critical success factor (CSF) is a key area where satisfactory performance is required for the organization to achieve its goals (Austin, 2002). The classic paper by Daniel proposed that critical success factor (CSF) as a few key activities spell success or failure for any type of organization. The key activities are the CSFs, and they can vary from one type of organization to another. Managers often focus on only a few key activities that greatly influence the firm’s success or failure. By focusing on CSFs, management ensures that it spends its time on the things that really count. The ability of a firm to develop affective information systems is a CSF (McLeod, 2008).

The critical success factor for successful management is the strategic use of information and a positive correlation has been found between management success and effective information needs assessment, gathering and use. While relevant and timely information allows managers to make accurate decisions, irrelevant information makes decision making difficult, adds to confusion, and affects the performance of the company. Therefore it is crucial that managers are aware of what information they require, how to acquire it and how to maximize the use of it in order to survive and prosper in today's information-intensive environment. Managers need to use information not only for decision making and making sense of changes and developments in their external environment but also to generate new knowledge which can be applied to design new products and services, enhance existing offerings and improve organizational processes.

In either case the need is access to information. Therefore information can be identified as the critical resource for decision making and management considered an information-intensive activity which requires a close relationship between decision making and information use.