The transfer of best practices: how to build a culture of benchmarking and continuous learning – part 2

Part 2 of a two‐part article on the transfer of best practices. This article features two case studies. The first of these focuses on Xerox, the document company, and how quality has become embedded into the culture within the company. It tracks the quality progress from the early benchmarking visits in 1970 that provided a foundation for the current business culture within the organisation through to its business excellence certification process. The article details the key steps of the model of best practice and the enablers for the effective internal transfer of best practice. The quality deployment process adopted by Xerox is also included in the article. The second case study focuses on Nationwide Building Society, the largest mutual building society, and how internal best practice within its branch network created a culture of continuous improvement across the organisation. Considers how best practice was used to improve the performance of its branches, how branches were selected for the initiative, how best practitioners can be developed and deployed as internal consultants, steps in the branch change process, and the criticality of research to success of the initiative.