

After comparing the differences on how they did the process with how his company did it, the VP was able to identify major gaps. He chose companies who were not competitors in the hopes they would be more cooperative and open on how they do month-end closing.Īfter identifying three potential companies, he reached out to his counterparts and asked if they would agree to meet and discuss how they do their process.

He decided to benchmark their closing process against other companies noted for being the best in class for their financial processes. The VP of Finance was frustrated that month-end closing of the books was always late and took too long. Incremental vs Breakthrough Improvement An industry example of benchmarking The graphic below shows the concept of incremental versus breakthrough improvements that can be achieved via benchmarking. These can be incremental, continuous improvements or breakthrough improvements.

Identify data sources – where will you get the needed data?.Identify potential partners – who do you want to benchmark against?.Define the process – how are you going to do your benchmarking?.Select subject – what aspect of your organization do you want to benchmark?.The following methodology was developed by Robert Camp who, in 1989, wrote one of the earliest books on benchmarking. While there is a common definition of benchmarking, there is no standard procedure for doing it. The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to compare yourself to your competitors but to any organization who does something particularly well. Unless your organization is the best in every aspect of your business, there are things to learn by comparing what you do, to how other organizations do it.
