Creating benchmarks for high performing organisations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how decision makers in organizations can emulate the practices of winning organisations and in so doing, improve their own managerial practices. The paper draws on a four‐year empirical study of 11 of Australia's high performing organisations that identified their winning characteristics over a 25 year period. The detailed research outcomes have been published in 2007 in a book titled The First X1: Winning Organisations in Australia and are summarised as a Winning Framework with nine key elements for long‐term success. More recently, the author has been part of a team that has developed a sophisticated web‐based diagnostic survey, the purpose of which is to allow decision makers to benchmark their organisational performance against the best practices identified in the original research. Design/methodology/approach – The research involved designing a series of 90 questions based on the Winning Framework and building an online diagnostic system for gathering and analysing data for benchmarking studies by organisations in a wide range of industry sectors. Findings – Concepts for conducting the survey in medium to large organisations are discussed and some initial results and case studies from trials of the survey instruments are also presented. The most valuable reporting techniques appear to be an organisational wide radar map, performance ranges and averages and detailed analysis from different organisational levels. Originality/value – Feedback from senior executives indicates that the holistic nature of the survey and the benchmarking process, coupled with the range of alternatives to analyse and display the results, provide unique and valuable insights into those operational and management opportunities that should accelerate their journey towards organisational excellence.