the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

I have written before on my variation to the Mark Twain proposal that there are Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics, mine going on to suggest procurement savings as the next step in that progression. But I am in danger of digressing here, so will drop back to statistics.

This musing on benchmarking is prompted by a Q&A session at the end of a presentation to a business forum the other week. The speaker was asked about the process that they had gone through before awarding the contract that they had presented on, and they spoke at some length about having benchmarked similar organisations before making their choice. That would have been acceptable, but for two things. Firstly, their presentation had majored on their organisation having unique needs, and secondly the benchmarking had been on cost.

Taking the second point first, there is little point in making cost comparisons unless you have a good understanding of what you are comparing. For example, comparing cleaning costs per square metre might be acceptable, but only if the same cleaning specification is being used. If the needs of the organisation were so unique, finding common ground was surely difficult? The speaker was somewhat vague in their answer to that question.

Benchmarking comes from the crafts: marking your bench so that you could replicate a cut, but in modern business parlance it is just another statistic and therefore can be extremely dubious as a result. I love numbers almost as much as I love words, and, just as words can be used to deflect, deceive and convince, so can numbers. You don’t lie as such, just use a version of the truth that supports the case that you are trying to make.

Benchmarking done well is very effective, but, like many things, it isn’t always easy. For a start it often requires commercially sensitive information to be shared, so if you want to benchmark against like organisations in your sector you are asking competitors to tell you their secrets. Professional bodies and trade organisations often try to put these things together with varying degrees of success, perhaps the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) is the best example.

Statistics, including benchmarking, are something that, in my experience, need to be handled with care as part of the decision making process. If you have an understanding of where the numbers you are being presented with have come from and can use your own judgement as to what weight to give them, then you will have a better chance of getting to the right decision.

Beware of the numbers: That’ snot a bad maxim for any manager.