Captains of industry make the point over and over—if you want to be competitive, it is essential to benchmark your supply chain. Depending on their various fields of expertise, they tend to drive the lesson home in their own styles. Below we offer a selection of some of their choicest words.
Thought Leaders on the Importance of Supply Chain Benchmarking
Supply chain industry thought leaders may speak with one voice when it comes to championing the cause of benchmarking, but, as to be expected, they all have different ways of saying pretty much the same thing.
Their message, in a nutshell: Know who you are, and know who and what you have to beat. The only way to do this, they stress, is to benchmark your supply chain and compare it with those of your competitors.
Their message is finally being heard and these days benchmarking is considered an industry norm. Companies that pooh-pooh Peter Drucker’s oft-quoted dictum: “What gets measured gets improved”, do so at their peril.
What the Experts are Saying:
“If you’re not benchmarking your performance against your competitors,
you’re just playing with yourself.”
-Director of Washington-based Telspan, Al Paison. The company facilitates audio, web and video conferencing, as well as streaming events.
“It’s no longer companies competing against companies, it is supply
chains competing against supply chains.”
Bram DeSmet in his book, Supply Chain Strategy and Financial Metrics (Page XXI, Kindle edition). Dr. DeSmet is an adjunct professor at Vlerick Business School and is also CEO of Solventure, a company that specialises in implementing sales and operations planning using Arkieva software.
“Every day someone is out there starting a business whose entire goal is to beat the
hell out of yours. How cool is that?”
US businessman and investor Mark Cuban, who owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and is co-owner of 2929 Entertainment, and chairman of AXS TV.
“What a business needs most for its decisions—especially its strategic ones—are data about what goes on outside it. Only outside a business are there results, opportunities, and threats.”
The late Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author, Peter Drucker, who is considered the father of modern management.
“All the good-to-great companies began the process of finding a path to greatness by confronting the brutal facts of their current reality. When you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth of your situation, the right decisions often become self-evident.”
Jim Collins, author of the top-selling book, “Good to Great”.
Heed These Wise Words From the Gurus
If you have been one of the waverers—and there still are many—sooner or later you will have no choice but to embrace supply chain benchmarking. The ultra-successful business leaders quoted above would, on this point, chant in total harmony: “The sooner the better.”
Convinced that you need to put some focus on supply chain benchmarking? Why not check out our services pages to see how our team can be of help to your company?
