Critical Success Factors

Reports on a sequence of investigations on a pharmaceutical business institution for the purpose of gathering information concerning the organization's critical success factors (CSFs) and developing a SWOT analysis to clarify and aid in identifying the organization's/segment's Critical Success Factors. The CSFs approach is defined and investigated as a technique of shaping the organization’s information requirements, rather than individual needs. The report concludes that knowledge of Critical Success Factors can be useful in enabling recognition of vital information that may facilitate the organization’s strategic policy making necessary to achieve its success.

The case study testing the applicability of the Critical Success Factors was carried in a pharmaceutical firm. The dealing is a subsidy of Merck- a leading pharmaceutical company with global business operations in over twenty countries. As such, it is a medium-sized pharmaceutical firm that prides its self as a leading drugs producer created from the 0 phase, signifying that each drug produced in this company is solely researched and developed all the way through research and development (Merck, 2009). The firms operations focus on the treatments and medication development for both Human and Animal health. One of the major segments of the firm is the “Vaccines Segment” which specializes on human vaccine products aimed at joint ventures with hospitals and research labs throughout the world (Merck, 2009).

Major emphasis for the realization of the firm’s strategic aims was primarily placed on information and knowledge as means of support for all operations in this sector, while Staff orientation and human resources played the most significant role, closely followed by quality data and reporting. Research and development, production and quality assurance in general, general management and finance followed in that order.

The aim this research is to demonstrate the use of the Critical Strategic Factors approach in organizational settings. The paper seeks to scrutinize the applicability of the Critical Strategic Factors approach as an element of diverse methodologies and to evaluate the success of these applications. Finally, the paper addresses the value of the Critical Strategic Factors approach for examining and defining organizational information and knowledge needs.