Benchmarking is a process in which organizations look at various aspects of their processes in relation to the best practice. Benchmarking allows organizations to develop plans on how to adopt such best practices in their respective environments while keeping a target of increasing the work performance. The common procedure of benchmarking is composed of the following: (1) Identifying the company's problem areas; (2) Identifying other industries that have similar processes; (3) Identifying organizations that are leaders in the respective market; (4) Surveying companies for measure and practices; (5) Visiting the leading companies (if the company allows) with the "best practice" to identify leading edge practices; (6) Implementing new and improved business practices.
In the Global Communications scenario the company faced the problem of having too much competition. There were local, long-distance and international markets all competing for the same business. The response from the senior leadership team was to initiate a growth plan through the introduction of new services. Through collaborating with satellite providers to offer video services as well as broadband capabilities, they decided to venture in that direction for their growth. The team also recognized that profitability would be met if cost-cutting measures were taken into affect. They knew that a lot of jobs would be downsized at current call centers that would be shut down. However, they did not approach the human resources department correctly causing bad chemistry with the worker's union. Global Communications did not completely look at the resolution of the blueprint at hand and found it difficult to deal with when implementing their growth plan. Many companies in our corporate world ...