Major Problem regarding Benchmarking??

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make when first benchmarking is that they limit their benchmarking activity to their own industry. Benchmarking within your industry is essential. However, you already have a pretty good idea how your industry performs so it's imperative that you reach outside and above your own industry into other industries that perform a similar process but may have to perform this process extremely well in order to succeed. Here are a couple examples of how one industry can leapfrog their competitor by learning and adapting a similar process from a totally different industry:-

Problem	Solution
Customer surveys indicate long wait times for hotel rooms, especially for repeat Customers.	Benchmarked admittance process with hospital emergency room departments resulting in dramatically reduced check-in times. Also netted less employees needed, automation for frequent hotel guests, and many more process improvements.
Routine maintenance on aircraft between flights such as refuelling, cleaning, tire checks taking too long. Plane on the ground means more planes and personnel are required to maintain high level of service and schedules. Need to reduce ground time required in between flights without sacrificing quality or safety of passengers.	Brainstormed and discovered Indy 500 racing team pit crews have a similar maintenance process and a similar requirement to get their vehicle back on the track as quickly and safely as possible. After benchmarking pit crews maintenance turn-around-times for aircraft between flights were reduced by more than half saving/making the airline millions of dollars within the first few years

Through Benchmarking you will discover:-

1. Who performs the business process very well and has process practices that are adaptable to your own organization?

2. Who is the most compatible for you to benchmark with?

3. If you need to conduct a comprehensive benchmark study or if you can obtain 80-90% of what you need from just using telephone, emails, or an electronic survey to communicate your needs with the other members on The Benchmarking Exchange.

What exactly is BENCHMARKING??

Benchmarking is the process of measuring an organization's internal processes then identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices from other organizations considered to be best-in-class.

The term benchmarking was first used by cobblers to measure people's feet for shoes. They would place someone's foot on a "bench" and mark it out to make the pattern for the shoes. Benchmarking is most used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure or defects per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is then compared to others.

Most business processes are common throughout industries. For examples: NASA has the same basic Human resources requirements for hiring and developing employees as does American Express. British telecom has the same Customer Satisfaction Survey process as Brooklyn Union Gas. these processes, albeit from different industries, are all common and can be benchmarked very effectively. It's called "Getting Out Of The Box".

In other words, Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time, and cost. Improvements from learning mean doing things better, faster, and cheaper.

10 Step Strategies for Going Global

1. Conduct market research to identify your prime target markets.
2. Search out the data you need to predict how your product will sell in a specific geographic location.
3. Update your database rigorously with a view to focusing more closely on those products or services which are in demand and dropping those which are not.
4. Articulate your business plan for accessing global markets.
5. Get companywide commitment.
6. Build a web site and implement your international plan sensibly.
7. Factor in a two year lead time for world market penetration.
8. Make personal contact with your new targets armed with culture specific information and courtesies, professionalism and consistency.
9. Value the relationship more than the deal; the individual is more important than closing the deal under discussion.
10. Welcome the unknown

What does it take to go GLOBAL??

Any small business owner must be adaptable, strategic and willing to take calculated risks. But becoming a successful global small business requires the following commitments:-

1. Be comfortable with change.
2. Welcome new experiences; and learn as much as possible about the Culture in which you are interested in doing business.
3. Be willing to take risks, even though it may create short term challenges.
4. Push yourself to continuously innovate.

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Why should we go GLOBAL??

The Playing field is wide open for small business. Here’s why both men and women should consider going global:-

1. Increase sales.
2. Generate economies of scale in production.
3. Raise profitability.
4. Insulate seasonal domestic sales by finding new foreign markets.
5. Create jobs, productivity growth and wealth.
6. Encourage the exchange of views, ideas and information.

Small business in particular can take a mentoring role in educating other men and women in going global. They can establish educational programs, conferences and other activities to advance their colleagues, and in doing so, promote professional growth and leadership among all small business owners. The best is truly yet to come.

Small business potential going for Global

Small businesses and entrepreneurs represent a powerful force both in the traditional and the new global e-business marketplace evidenced the following data points:-

1. There are more than 230,000 small businesses exporting in the United States alone.
2. The number of small business exporters rose 250 percent from 1987 to 2001.
3. About one of every five U.S. factory jobs depends on exports.
4. Exports mean new customers and more than 95 percent of the worlds Consumers live outside the United States.
5. Small businesses with fewer than 500 employees export roughly U.S. $182 billion a year or 29 percent of all exports.

Despite these compelling numbers, small businesses have not yet fully realized their potential for global trade. Only about 10 percent of small businesses are involved in the global marketplace. Research indicates unique reasons why businesses have a difficult time going global. They lack knowledge, resources, technology, incentives, support, brand recognition, competitive pricing and, in some cases, guts. Although these arguments are tentative, they are indeed a reality and must be taken into account when addressing how small businesses and entrepreneurs can best realize their potential in the global marketplace.

The good news is, however, that even with inherent barriers, small businesses are well positioned to overcome obstacles and seize the global frontier before them.

Here’s why:-

1. Export data analysis shows that 97 percent of U.S. companies that export Merchandise is small businesses.
2. Web based small businesses are far more likely to communicate and attempt to do business with people anywhere in the world versus those that do not have an online presence.
3. Entrepreneurs start to go global soon after start up.
4. Nearly 55 percent of business owners take their first active step toward exporting within two years.
5. The size of a company does not hinder exporting initiatives because more than two thirds of U.S. exporters have fewer than 20 employees.
6. Preparation time for entering a first foreign market is minimal, reflecting the opportunistic nature of many first time exporters.
7. Small businesses going global play an instrumental role in economic prosperity.
8. Studies show that exporting firms regularly outperform those that stay at home.
9. Most firms indicate that their product or service lends itself to international markets or customers.
10. Small businesses not only can compete on a more level playing field, but also can enter international markets with less financial risk.

The World is your market: Small businesses gear up for Globalization

Never, in the history of the world, has the entrepreneurial and small businessspirit been more alive.The fight for your life attitude caused by extreme uncertain times along with the explosive growth of the Internet has levelled

the playing field and emancipated the entrepreneurial and small business process. There is no end in sight. Rather, a beginning to realizing the world is your market. This brave new global economy of ours offers unlimited export opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses. International trade increases sales and profits, enhances a company's prestige, creates jobs and offers a valuable way to level seasonal fluctuations. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and small businesses think that going global, or becoming a “border buster” is too complicated and confusing. It does present an intimidating undertaking, yet in today’s turbulent global market, it’s the small business owners of the world who are busting borders, discovering unlimited potential for growth and profit and changing the shape of the world economy.

Small business and entrepreneurs need help in navigating through these radical times and expanding internationally. They are a huge group that has soared 75 percent in the last 20 years to 23 million. The combined economic value to America is staggering. If U.S. small business were a nation of their own, that nation would have the third largest gross domestic product in the world.