Having just one or two spokes loose, can make a wheel out-of-balance. The longer a wheel runs out of balance the more damaging the effect to the organization. When the wheel on a cart becomes so unstable that its primary function fails, you would simply replace the wheel. Obviously, an organization cannot simply replace itself... but your Customer can and will replace the wheel (you the Supplier) if you fail to perform to the Customers' needs and expectations.

Obviously this is a very simplistic and extreme analogy about the operation of an organization. But, when you step back and look at the products and services you purchase yourself, it actually becomes a little more understandable. You wouldn't maintain a business relationship with a supplier if the suppliers' own internal Business Processes prevented the supplier from performing its best. You would probably go to another supplier.

Organizational structure throughout the many diverse industries vary, but for the most part, all organizations perform similar Business Processes. Whether you are from a large or small corporation, government agency, or a non-profit association, to a large extent, you share common Business Processes with other industries. The Business Process of Human Resources for one industry can be very similar to another. In fact, the Human Resource Business Processes may even be a Critical Success Factor for another industry such as an Employee Temp Service. So being able to Benchmark with that other industry is going to help you bring your own Human Resources Business Process to even higher standards than your own industry standard. Net effect, after implementing change from your Benchmarking exercise, you hopefully become the new Industry Leader for that particular Business Process.

So where does The Benchmarking Exchange come into play? The following list of Business Processes are just some of the many Business Processes covered on TBE. TBE members help each other by exchanging information in the form of surveys, completed benchmarking studies, question sets, list of Best-In-Class companies, and many other types of information as well as communicate with one another on the disciplines of benchmarking and process improvement.