Where do you go to find best practice? Companies can spend £000s on research to benchmark how they stack up against their competitors and other non-competing businesses.
And yet the variation in excellence within an organization can vastly exceed the variations between companies. For instance, I’m currently working with a number of buying teams at a UK retailer, helping them to accelerate the growth of their on-line business.
What I’ve found is that there are huge differences in the way different teams approach this process. These differences cover their ways of working and speed in getting tasks done, their willingness to take prudent risks and their ability to analytically review and manage performance.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the results of these teams have also varied significantly. But the truth is that the retailer already has some great ‘best practice’.
How well do you understand the differences in excellence across your organization? And how successful are you at spotting, sharing and embedding the best practices that already exist right under your nose?
Off The Record: Heart Of Gold by Neil Young
I’ve been to Hollywood, I’ve been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold
I’ve been in my mind, it’s such a fine line
That keeps me searching for a heart of gold