(This FAQ first appeared on the Strategy Forum as a questions submitted by Phil Mighdoll, Ford Motor Company.)

Phil: "One of our strategic goals is to 'Grow in new and emerging markets' -- this relates to targeting, for example, China as an emerging market. One of our critical success factors (CSFs) is 'Common processes' -- the concept of using say the same shop floor scheduling system in all of our factories.

When I get to the Strategic Goal Impact Assessment screen, I want to say, logically, that this CSF directly impacts the cited strategic goal. That is if we have common processes, building a presence in emerging markets will be easier. But the SR screen only offers the statement 'The attainment of this strategic goal will DIRECTLY address the indicated CSF.' This seems backwards to me.

By the way, on the same screen, when I select Parent BU Goals as the Object of Impact, the logic seems OK. That is I'm assessing the impact of the BU goal ON achievement of the parent organization's goals. That's sensible."

Joe: "Thank you for posting your query to the Strategy Forum so that all interested parties can benefit from our conversation.

Re: When I get to the Strategic Goal Impact Assessment screen, I want to say, logically, that this CSF directly impacts the cited strategic goal.

We have, as you might expect, dealt with this question/issue before and it is a somewhat difficult one. Let me explain the background for how/why we implemented the strategy impact analysis as we did - even thought there is certainly an argument for implementing analysis as you are thinking.

We started with the (our) definition for CSFs (from Help):

'Critical Success Factors (CSF) describe organizational capabilities or competencies which must be in place in order for the organization to achieve (be in) the Vision. CSFs are pre-requisites for the success of the organization.'

Then we made the following assumption; CSFs are needed to be successful, but are not necessarily in place, nor, if in place, as well developed as they should be. Therefore, steps must be taken to ensure that they are put in place and developed as needed. (FYI, this follows the line of thought, greatly expanded upon, in Gary Hamel & C.K. Prahalad's book 'Competing for the Future'.)

Further, it is generally true that all steps (actions/projects) are pursued to achieve goals/objectives. Therefore, at least some of the goals & objectives must be geared to 'achieving' the CSFs if attaining the CSFs is to be ensured.

Re: When I get to the Strategic Goal Impact Assessment screen, I want to say, logically, that this CSF directly impacts the cited strategic goal. That is if we have common processes, building a presence in emerging markets will be easier. But the SR screen only offers the statement "The attainment of this strategic goal will DIRECTLY address the indicated CSF." This seems backwards to me.

Though the logic you have stated is undoubtedly true, we chose to implement the analysis for Goals/Objectives vs. CSFs and SWOTs to be consistent with Goals/Objectives vs. Parent (and Current for objectives) business unit Goals. This implementation in SR is, from a database standpoint, logically consistent even though, as I've said, there is clearly an argument for being able to go both ways with CSFs (and probably strengths as well).

Further leading us to implement as we did, during the design of SR we generally found that CSFs don't get assigned as a responsibility to anyone but Goals & Objectives do. We therefore saw the need to identify what is being done to ensure that CSFs are being developed (and that SWOTs are being addressed - in addition to tying actions/projects back to Goals & Objectives which SR also does...).

Once the impact analysis is performed, you can pull the 'Strategy Impacts' report to identify any CSFs (SWOTs & Goals) that are hung out to dry (so to speak).

Finally, we were, and are, seeking to enhance the thought processes behind creation & evaluation of Goals & Objectives and taking the analysis approach we have furthers this goal.

In summary, your 'confusion' is warranted and I hope I've succeeded in explaining how SR looks at this as well as why."

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