The critical success factors indicate what actually makes (or should make) an organization unique and describe those processes that are decisive for the success or failure of an organization. A CSF is a characteristic of the organization or of the environment that is essential to the viability and success of that organization. That can be both positive and negative. The main thing is that something is so important that we have to pay extra attention to it: read having to manage at a strategic level. Kaplan & Norton argue that a strategy should contain a limited number of CSFs. About seven to ten. Otherwise, it will quickly become unclear and the attention will be diluted too much. In addition, the CSFs must be in balance, spread evenly across the different focus areas when running an organization.