Operations: Two industry veterans share their insights on using Benchmarks & Best Practices

CS: Are internal benchmarks more helpful than external ones?

Barry: One of the most effective ways to benchmark is against yourself, one season to another, or year over year, against a standard or expectation. External benchmarks give you a general idea of where to zero in.

Internal benchmarking allows you to focus on trends in specific areas and make positive changes where possible. You may have internal benchmarks that say some aspect of your operations are at 90 percent, but if you have no external benchmark of what’s good, you could mislead yourself into thinking 90 percent is good, when it may not be. A combination of internal and external benchmarks works best.