Benchmarking requires time, effort, and discipline. But it also requires a study partner - someone who will let you examine their practices closely enough to create a useful benchmark. How do you go about doing that? In this, the third of three quick tips stories taken from their Roundtable discussion with Product Strategy Network members, Paul Adam of ThermoFisher Scientific and Eden Fisher, of Carnegie Mellon University, share the practical aspects of applying benchmarks.
Decide who to study. How do you determine who is worth the time and effort to study, learn from, and discover how they do things? If the way another company does something makes them an expert in the eyes of their peers, benchmark them.
Figure out who is comparable. Decide which criteria make other companies comparable to yours: Size? Types of products? Market segments? Etc. Make use of your personal contacts and business relationships with other people who understand the area you're dealing with and ask them for their opinions.
Do your homework. Search the literature; people are proud of their work and like to write and talk about it. Look for bibliographic citations. You can collect a lot of useful intelligence from information already in the public record.
Just ask. As many as half of the companies you ask to participate will typically agree to do so. To raise the rate of participation, promise them something of value in return, for example, a blinded copy of the general responses and findings.
Benchmark a sister Division. In large companies, you can look for benchmarking opportunities in other business units of that same organization; it's almost like going outside.
Contact comparables. Attend association conferences where people in your industry frequently speak about their achievements. Collect conference brochures. Find out who is speaking and then call those individuals.
Look at the winners. Winners of Malcolm Baldridge awards are required to share their information. So are the winners of other prestigious prizes, and they generally have something worthwhile to share. Professional associations and membership organizations are also set up for sharing useful information, so join the ones that match your business needs.
Forget about competitors. Companies that directly compete against yours are almost always reluctant to allow you to benchmark against them, particularly if they think your interest relates to a competitive advantage.
Collaborate through associations. Although benchmarking directly against competitors is almost always difficult, working with them on projects that serve the entire industry is not. Participate in studies conducted under the auspices of a respected trade association. Help put together an industry-wide effort focused on what it would take for that entire industry to reach certain goals.
Reverse engineer a process. Competitors generally won't share their internal processes with you. Instead, as a starting point, hire an independent agency to talk to your competitor's customers. Measure the results. Determine what those customers felt were the best outcomes. Reverse engineer the competitor's processes from that starting point.
Archived Articles 
