India should be Benchmarked for its Best Practices

14 June 2010 | Source: DNA Money
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‘India should be benchmarked for its best practices’
- Robert Camp, chairman, Global Benchmarking Network, Best Practice Institute, USA speaks to DNA Money about the practice of benchmarking.

Excerpts:
Management fads have been studied. They show the average life span of a management (performance improvement) fad is about eight years. Best practice bench marking has been in existence over 20 years, because it has been proven Successful. It has worked over 20 years, despite the criticism that companies could eventually benchmark themselves to mediocrity!

The consultancy Bain & Co. regularly conducts Surveys of performance improvement tools from firms around the globe. Benchmarking has been in the top three preferred approaches for many years and enjoys one of the highest satisfaction levels.

The Global Benchmarking Network’s own research last year of over 400 organisations worldwide showed that benchmarking is the most popular improvement tool for the future.

Is benchmarking yet another management Fad?
Management. fads have. been studied They show the average life span of a management (performance improvement) fad is about eight years. Best practice bench marking has been in existence over 20 years, because it has been proven Successful. It has worked over 20 years, despite the criticism that companies could eventually benchmark themselves to mediocrity!

The consultancy Bain & Co. regularly conducts Surveys of performance improvement tools from firms around the globe. Benchmarking has been in the top three preferred approaches for many years and enjoys one of the highest satisfaction levels.

The Global Benchmarking Network’s own research last year of over 400 organisations worldwide showed that benchmarking is the most popular improvement tool for the future.

What are the reasons behind none of the recent management gurus espousing the cause of benchmarking?
Best practice benchmarking is often seen as a required subset of a large improvement effort. Witness six sigma, or the quality improvement awards such as the Baldrige or EFQM. You must prove excellence by knowing what the “benchmark” is to deserve the award. Benchmarking is an excellence requirement for sustainable results in over 80 different countries.

can you give examples of some Indian companies that' successfully practiced benchmarking over the last decade and added to their bottom-line?

There have been several Indian companies who have achieved operational improvements through best practice benchmarking. Among them is Tata and its steel subsidiary, Tisco. I was privileged to audit some dozen projects at their mill in Jamshedpur, which were done with distinction. Following the audit that I conducted, their accepted benchmarks were reset and gave rise to innovation and fresh thinking in areas that they, and perhaps  global competitors, had not previously considered.

In India, benchmarking is often associated with espionage. Is there an ethical approach benchmark?

This is a major point of misinformation. Best practice benchmarking is a sharing experience to mutually learn from each other. The test should be “do not to ask for information you are not prepared to share in return.” That solves close to 90% of the issue.

Another way to examine the question is to categorise the processes that need improvement. There are three; enterprise, operational and administrative. The enterprise and administrative, I.e. goal setting, HR, IT are common across all types of organisations and therefore not sensitive. And even in the operational group many are shared with the assistance of third parties. lf espionage had been such a huge concern, best practice benchmarking would not have sustained for around 20 years.

Based on your wide knowledge on the subject, is India being benchmarked for any best practices?
If not, it should be! The excellent performance in the IT world by leaders such as InfoSys, Tata and others is evidence that best practices are being pursued and followed by their global peers. Otherwise why would they be leaders in IT outsourcing?

What role does benchmarking play in innovation? can you take us through an example?
Benchmarking is a necessary ingredient in innovation. First it is necessary to benchmark the extent of the innovation focus through a search. Defining the standard or benchmark is in itself a creative process, so innovation and benchmarking are concepts that are inter-linked from the very start.

Secondly, combining the creative and innovative talents of the innovation team members with the insights gained through benchmarking is a powerful and often revealing experience and may markedly improve the result. Further, the actual process of people going through the exercise opens their minds and brings about new ideas and thinking.

Dr Robert Camp

CREDITS: Dr Robert Camp, Chairman, Best Practice Institute, USA
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