A Single Horse Wins the Race Every Time

If a horse is running a race by itself, it will win every time. Unfortunately, your business is anything but a single-horse race, and even a personal-best doesn’t necessarily lead to long-term sustainability.  In every industry, there are many other horses (i.e. competitors) and globalization will only increase your competition in future races.

“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”                                                       - Jack Welch

Knowing how your company ranks relative to others -- before the starting bell, halfway through the race and right before its conclusion – can empower you to better evaluate your company’s performance.  Armed with that detailed background information you can more readily adapt your strategy and tactics to improve business performance.

Many business owners see value in using peer group benchmarks both to understand the current situation and identify opportunities.  Industry comparisons are a valuable part of understanding and improving business performance as they can point out areas that you need to take a look at and see why you may be performing below the rest of the industry in any given area.

For a collection of other benchmarking articles, select the following link -- Benchmarking Articles

Know Your Numbers.  Know Your Business.