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Critical Success Factors Of Digital Leaders - 2
October 9, 2007

Last Blog we were discussing the Critical Success Factors  (CSF) of Digital Leaders. A CSF is “an element which is necessary for an organization to achieve its mission” (Wikipedia). We said that just offering the service, being an early adopter and mastering sales and marketing were not enough to ensure success.

That led us to look at whether operational or manufacturing excellence might be the critical success factor—maybe only the companies that understood manufacturing excellence, machine maintenance, process improvement, and how to overcome digital integration issues could succeed.

What we have learned from our work in the field is that most online solutions available today do not integrate well with existing production systems and that some organizations that have had success in offering digital services were not focused on operational improvements. Therefore, as with the factors already studied, operational excellence alone did not appear to ensure success in delivering profitable digital services.

We came to believe that these attempts to use simple explanations resulted in a situation sometimes referred to in science as the "single point of light" phenomenon—the apparent observation that one light in the sky is the light of a single star when, in truth, there may be many stars hidden in what appears to be just one light. Applied to other areas, it means that what on the surface seems to be a single reason or  Critical Success Factor may actually be a combination of several.

We found that what first appeared as single point of light explanation of success (e.g., strong marketing, specialized sales experience, or manufacturing efficiencies) was actually a confluence of more complicated reasons that appeared to the naked eye as one. However, upon closer examination that single source was actually a cluster of three or more Critical Success Factors.

As we tested each traditional critical success factor alone we realized that, when it was applied to the new digital services arena, it was valid only occasionally and untrue many other times. Companies that succeeded because they mastered one Critical Success Factors turned out to be the exception rather then the rule. Most of our digital leaders are successful because they mastered three or more of either the traditional or newer Critical Success Factors.

The NAPL Digital Services Study 2007: Identifying Digital Leaders--The First Step report will be distributed to all NAPL company members as a benefit of membership and is available to purchase from non-members ($299, call 800 642-6275, Option 4).

To hear more about this report sign up for WhatTheyThink Webinar Wednesday afternoon (http://members.whattheythink.com/home/webinarregistrationform.cfm)

Posted by Howie Fenton on October 9, 2007 | Comments (0)