Benchmarking?

As most of us know, benchmarking is that process of comparing one’s own performance against that of others, typically those who are considered to be the best in their field. This is not something we do too much in America, because we are so much individualistic, and by doing so, we sometimes love to reinvent the wheel. 

This said, as a Nation, we’re much worse, because we believe in “American Exceptionalism” among other nonsense, which means we’ve always been, we are and will always be the very BEST of all nations. We simply don’t even try to look at them! Yet, by ignoring the practice of benchmarking we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. 

As a country, we’re missing to measure our own products, services, and processes against the rest of the world, and by doing so, we miss a lot of good opportunities as we’ve got a tough time identifying best practices that could be adopted to improve our country’s performance. Sure, we aren’t too shabby, but we sure could do better, to at least maintain our level, as we are in decline in many domains.

Consider for instance the metric system, some European children education methods, cost-effective public health care systems, all that way to our very own Constitution! Benchmarking could be used to improve any aspect of our country, from administrative efficiency, to voting system and to citizens’ satisfaction. It would also help us identify new opportunities and help us stay well ahead of our competition that is the whole wide world. 

Instead, we have the largest defense budget in the world that is probably not the most cost-efficient, nor the most nimble and effective (look at Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan). Adopting benchmarking would mean so much to us, like improving our performance and help us identify areas where we can do better like controlling greenhouse emissions and developing sustainable new energy sources. 

It would also reduce costs, by adopting cost-saving best practices on things like materials, labor, and energy. It would also make for a more improved citizenry’s satisfaction by improving the value and the quality of our lives, which could lead to a happier country. So, what are we waiting for?