Tempering Success With Goals, Not Benchmarks.

When measuring success, who or what do you compare yourself against?

Those interested in consistent self-improvement often (always?) have goals they set in order to achieve new levels of success. Those who are competitive often compare themselves against others. In our daily lives, we have our idols, those superstars of sports, entertainment, and business we wish we could be more like.

Businesses often turn to their peers, other companies in their respective industry. Many industries have various industry benchmarks from which to determine whether they are successful or failing. But what happens when you are a leader in your industry? Or worse, what happens if your industry is sick? Just who or what can a company compare itself against?

Many companies make the unfortunate mistake of not only comparing themselves against others within their industry but blindly thinking those industry standards are the only metrics by which success can be measured, ultimately falling victim to one of two mistakes:

1. Death by auto-pilot: Resting on their laurels, thinking they are good enough because they are a leader in their industry according to the traditional benchmarks and cease any efforts for continuous improvement.
2. Change or perish: Succumbing to the notion you have to change and become like your competition in every way, undermining the core values that brought the company to its present level of success.

While using industry benchmarks give you a low watermark, it is important to realize that once you are a leader, or wish to become a leader in your industry, you have to be the one breaking and setting the new paradigms of tomorrow. This can often be a difficult challenge and can often include the need to be predictive of future marketplace trends.

Another fallacy is the belief that companies have to be just like the new and exciting kid (or company) in town. Simply look to the great Circuit City who attempted to compete directly against Best Buy, Radio Shack, and even the likes of Wal-Mart. Companies often lose sight of being true to what made them successful and think the new world might no longer accept them for who and what they are.

Setting your eyes on the higher prize, the company itself must breed a culture of consistent self-reflection and rededication to achieving that next level. A company’s team members must take your business seriously and be always be re-evaluating the business to ensure every single shred of your company’s process is as efficient as possible and more importantly overlays the market and the customer base appropriately; in a nutshell – you must ensure your company is always relevant and on-course.

Are you accepting customer calls in a timely fashion, are your DSO’s in line, how is your cash flow, and are collections in order. From start to finish are you selling, shipping, and collecting payment accurately and on-time? That constant re-examination allows the company’s management to ascertain if all people and processes are in alignment and can even serve to empower each and every team member with a sense of higher purpose.

While, it is both important to know where you stand against your competition and where your customers want you to be today as well as tomorrow, you can never allow complacency or an irrational fear guide your decisions. Just as well, a company must guard against allowing industry benchmarks and comparative analysis to temper its resolve. After all, it is subjecting the steel to fire which makes it stronger.

Image courtesy of kevinzhengli

Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. Ken is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.