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Simple, common-sense things like getting annual insurance quotes from 3 independent agents, often get forgotten. It is always easier to get lulled into maintaining the status quo, and not shop. Big mistake. Best friend, or whoever, insurance agents need to be kept honest. On so many occasions, I find initial clients who have not shopped for years. So many new insurances are out there now (particularly employee related), liabilities are more widespread, and costs are skyrocketing, not only in health, but most other insurances. Put the burden on those bidding to quote you on EVERY possible insurance, and then back out what does not make economic sense to you, after careful consideration. Catastrophic incidences can cost you a lot of money if not insured, sometimes only out of ignorance that that coverage existed, and at a reasonable price. Do not put yourself unnecessarily at risk! Your agents job is to do what you ask them to do. Like everything else in life, without competition of checks and balances, costs tend to creep up unnecessarily, and more importantly, without being challenged, agents may leave out a very important type of coverage. You will appreciate the small amount of time this takes if something should happen and not be covered. If your financial manager does this for you, review it yourself annually.

I am amazed at how often with new clients that I review meeting minutes from 2-3 years ago and the same topics are still being discussed. Closure is not happening. The meeting are "feel-good" meetings and a 99% waste of time. People have this false sense of accomplishments that the spoke about specific issues, and somehow, magically, as a result, the issue will be resolved. I have at times assigned key members to report back at the next meeting how many times a topic has been discussed, It is really comical, and generally get a lot of laughs. But, a very sad happening (or non-happening, more appropriately).

In almost all cases, no accountability was ever established, no specific person was assigned the project, and no deadline was set. No benchmarks were set up to measure progress, and no prioritization was given to the project to even determine if it really required attention. Generally, when I add up the time it took to discuss it, times the number of people tied up during all these discussions, it could have been brought to closure many times over with all of that firepower. Do not let this happen in your company.

Take your meeting minutes home some night when you are bored? And see how often this happens in your company. I promise you will have a whole different outlook, and a good laugh too as a bonus.

A copy of my memo to an owner in a manufacturing shop:

The overtime analysis you gave is reasonably accurate, however what it does not consider is that a less skilled or less experienced worker will not perform at the same level as the trained, experienced one. The people working the extra hours tend to get into a groove and productivity actually increases during OT, if the task is the same. Therefore, it is almost always better to use existing in-house OT first. It allows the existing employee base the ability to take advantage of premium pay, and it builds morale. If the existing employees refuse OT, it gives you a legitimate reason to go outside.

The preferred "short-term" choice (after 6-10 weeks of consistent OT, fatigue sets in and productivity suffers, and people tend to refuse to work not matter what it means in dollars), is to work existing staff (always). The cost per unit will almost always be less by paying for OT, and that's what counts.

The philosophy of "back to basics" is very applicable to business reports, be it financial statements, routine reports, or memos. Don't cloud the point you are trying to make by putting out any more superfluous facts, figures, conjectures, and details than are necessary to get your point across. Studies indicate that the more complicated the statement, the harder the ability to understand the intended point is. In fact, too much elaboration may very well hide the real point so deep that it is totally missed or the reader perceives a whole different assumption than was intended. Don't make your readers work to understand your point.

One example I often see is a financial statement (usually a P&L) that goes in to extreme detail when the reader (owner/managers) don't even understand the basics. It only confuses any hope of understanding that might exist. Keep it simple! You put your CFO/Controller/Bookkeeper to a lot of work to break out bills into various categories unnecessarily when the output is meaningless and not understood.

As a matter of routine, the CFO should review the financial information with ALL readers and ask and answer all questions to assure that all is understand. It is that position's function to interpret this information so that it is understood. 85% of these people think their only duty is to pass out the information, not attest to it's integrity and assure that it is totally understood. This is how the government works, not business!

Understanding your actual, true costs, for better of worse, is critical to a proper pricing policy. Too many companies either price themselves out of the market by being too high because they are not sure and/or have multiple-multiple layers of "fudge factors" built into their pricing, or too low, because they don't know, and have the make it up on volume philosophy. Less than 8% of companies surveyed bid properly, especially related to their current workflow needs and staffing. True out-of-pocket costs, incremental to a specific job being considered, are essential to decision making in a profitable company. Knowing specifics of the job you are estimating is essential to success, and to bidding apples to apples for your customers comparative analysis. Multiple, or tiered bids that allow your customers to match accordingly and fairly are often a positive step and broaden your opportunity of success. Not only are you more likely to get the job, but when you do, it will be more clearly defined, and the risk factor due to misunderstandings will be diminished. It gives you the opportunity to explain options and add-ons, pros and cons. See an expanded article in a future newsletter for more details.

Periodically rank (and have your managers) rank employees from top to bottom by whatever criteria you agree upon as being the most fair. Take the resultant bottom 20% and review what can be done to upgrade each of these individuals to be in a higher quartile at the next measurement. Evaluate why are they still there. What purpose do they serve (such as a legitimate "someone has to do that job")? Have a written plan to correct the issues. Set timetables that if specific criteria are not met by a certain time, changes will be made. Generally, your employees evaluate you more often then you them! Could they be smarter to reassess and reprioritize more often than you?

Treat your employees as you would want to be treated. If you came up through the ranks, remember how you promised yourself that if you were ever in charge, you would treat people right; the fair and humane method that you always knew was right. Don't lose sight of that now that you can have an impact. It is such a win-win situation. You get more out of your employees, everyone feels better in general, productivity increases, and it will keep your life balanced and make you feel better about yourself. Don't ever lose the concept of fairness! As an owner, you set the example for your managers to follow. Do it right. (Share this though with managers you feel might benefit)

What I Used to Think: Accountants know a lot more than you do about business.

Nobody Told Me: Many accountants are nothing more than tax preparers. Even the best accountant probably can't run your company. I used to think accountants knew everything about business from working so closely with so many companies. Just because you watch football games every Sunday, however, doesn't mean you can be a quarterback. Accountants, by the same token, can't tell you how to make money just because they look at financial statements every day. You have to figure out how to do that yourself. Good accounting never has made a business, but poor accounting has ruined a lot of them.

Your accountant is like a navigator on a ship. The accountant's job is to keep you appraised of things like your longitude and latitude. You may be doing a phenomenal job of steering the ship, getting through storms and narrow passages. But if you're going in the wrong direction, it doesn't matter. You're the one who has to pay the price if your accountant miscalculates your inventory or fails to tell you that you're growing too fast or your budget is unrealistic. You can't just leave financial matters in your accountant's hands and assume everything will be OK.

You have to hire an experienced accountant and ask that person to play a supporting role in running your company. When you're interviewing prospective accountants, ask them what they think are critical areas to watch. If they start talking about trust funds and tax planning, they may not understand growing businesses. Those things are important, but only after you've addressed issues like cash flow, inventory, and budgeting.

Lesson #115: Accountants aren't gods in gray suits. They aren't even minor deities, but they do play a vital supporting role in running your business.

Many of my clients are outgrowing the number of trunk lines they have. Sounds like a small issue? Not so! Busy signals turn away customers that you have worked so hard to get. I call my clients at selected times periodically to check my ability to get through. Have your spouse or a friend do this for you at designated times. If they get through, they will be able to also evaluate the user-friendliness of the answerer, and give you input on hold times. For all that you spend to get customers, the cost of additional lines is minimal. Generally your phone provider can offer you a short period time-study report of how many people get busy signals, often in increments by hours or less. Remind the people who answer your phones that putting someone on hold ties up a line for a long time. A message or transfer to voice mail is often more effective. The caller gets no joy while on hold. When this does have to happen, consider having a recorded promotional message (done tastefully) played while on hold, letting them know of new products, new offers, services they should take advantage of, and other pertinent information about your company. Inform them and entertain them. Have a long looping tape message so as not to bore them, and change it often. If I were responsible for sales in a company with this "small problem", I would make something happen very fast. You should too!

Periodically evaluate your software packages, and consider how much of what you bought that sounded so good, are you really now using. Literally go through the menus on packages you purchased, and determine which options you really use (be honest). I have never been with a client that used more that 50% of what was available to them. Remember, software is only effective as you use it. The best packages are no better then the low-end packages if you do not use the add-ons. Without one of your employees being an in-house champion, you will go nowhere. Make sure that, as purchase software, you have, or will acquire, someone committed who will make sure it is properly installed and utilized, and will train others on that package. (Major article to follow)

Small businesses generally have no formal purchasing procedures, much less a real purchasing agent. That doesn't mean you should not pay attention to getting every concession available to you. I have one client who is the best vendor negotiator I have met. He gets concessions companies much larger than his never even knew existed. He is tough, persistent, and fair. Vendors/suppliers will never volunteer concessions. You have to ask! Each vendor has their own different rules as to what, and how, they can give you more for less. But, believe that they can all give you more than they are.

I once had one of my larger client's Sales Managers, who prior to joining my client, sold to them, give a speech to the members of the purchasing department. When he told them what he would have given them easily and willingly, if only they had asked, there was total silence in the group. He had credibility because 12 months prior, he had sold to them. Try getting someone similar to help you. Perhaps a trusted vendor, a friend who sells similar products, or me.

The point is, there are a multitude of things vendors can give you. It is your job to figure out what their hot buttons are. Cash discounts, bigger trade discounts based on annual commitments or blanket orders, extended payment terms, freight terms, advertising and promotional monies, annual rebates, shortened lead times, enhanced return policies, consignment, stocking orders, JIT deliveries, and other things I can't even think of. Get creative! If you don't ask, for sure, you will not get!

Remember, the sales rep who calls on you depends on you for commissions. He wants to help you, but is paid by the other side. Get him to work for you. Be at least as demanding of your vendors as your customers are of you.

Small businesses tend to be very lenient on credit policies, first because they usually have no formal Credit Manager, and secondly, desperation for business often precludes the necessary credit checks. Hope springs eternal. The mechanics are often not in place to allow accurate credit checks on customers. But they can be. They are really not difficult, basically requiring mainly discipline. Without this, bad debt and receivable turns quickly exceed normal ratios. Initiate a standard credit application, especially for smaller customers. "Fortune 500" customers are not a problem (in fact, when asked, they will often give preferred payment terms to smaller businesses, understanding that cash flow issues can affect their deliveries) , but smaller, startup customers can quickly get their exposure risk to you much higher than you can afford. Who watches this in your company? One big hit can easily wipe out an entire year's profits.

Staying on top of aged receivables is critical. Someone in your organization has to do this. We all know studies prove that every day that a debt exceeds normal terms, the likelihood of collecting the debt lessens significantly. "The squeaky wheel gets the oil" philosophy should push you to delegate collection efforts to someone appropriate within your organization. Plus, often, you lose the ability to take cash discounts from your vendors when you "bank" your customers for extended periods.

Think about what made your business the success that it is. Which of your contributions as owner were, and have been the most valuable to the success of the company? How many have you gravitated away from due to lack of time and refocusing of efforts? There are certain functions only you can do. Customers demand that. You need to evaluate the allocation of your time, refocus your priorities, play to your strengths, and delegate the other tasks to the good hires you have made. If you really can't find the time to do those critical things, than obviously you have not hired the right employees and managers, or you have, and you foolishly can't let go. Either way, you lose. You simply reach a point that you can't do it all anymore. It is true that you still might be able to do many tasks better then anyone else, but think about it. How will you ever free yourself to do those critical things if you don't let go. Start now!

A client and I recently very easily justified what appeared to be an expensive new hire. An Operations Manager who would control about 30 shop employees was brought in to bring order to a chaotic situation created as a result of extremely rapid growth. Understanding that if he controlled these approximate 70,000 billable hours a year, and a great job cost system indicated that every hour of direct labor worked to goal created about $57 of sales, and more importantly, about $28.00 of gross profit (contribution dollars), we knew that a simple 25% improvement in productivity would yield a savings of about $490,000! This was derived by 25% of 70,000 hours, being redirected to new work (in our case, always available) at $28 an hour of incremental contribution dollars. Not so magically, a near $500,000 savings annually, a much improved delivery schedule, happier customers, a higher quality product, and chaos removed. Had the owners been able to go out for the same amount of time, the savings would have doubled or even tripled, but customer demands on their time would have never allowed that.

We hired the best possible person for this position, were not at all sensitive to his cost, and are being justly rewarded for this move now. Sometimes it really is that simple when you hire the right person and give them the time and the tools! The only impediment in this case was a reluctance by the owners to let go of control. Needless to say, they now feel good about the decision, although it was not an easy sell in the beginning.

Hopefully, a real life example of how a good hire can make you substantial profits, improve your quality of life, and help grow your business by improving customer satisfaction. All because they were finally willing to let go.

The major lesson for all owners is you can not do it all yourself. An educated hire (once removing the sticker shock of the new salary) and a good plan can make it work for you too.

Appreciate those customers who are kind enough to complain. Thank them. Normally 4% or less of your total customer base will complain. You can not assume that the rest are happy. A portion of the rest will quietly take their business elsewhere in the future, and you'll have no clue as to why. Review your customer base for the last 5 years and add up customers lost in attrition. You will be amazed. Remedy this before it is too late. Stay in touch with all of your customers. Set aside time every week to hear from your customers first hand what they really think. Often what they may express to your sales staff or inside sales people is never related to you. Prod your customers when you call as to how you can better service them. Often they will not volunteer information without your help. Explain to them how important their opinion is to you. I can think of few things more valuable for an owner or sales manager to do.

Be cautious of hiring people with extensive big company experience for your smaller business. While the initial read might be that it would be great to have someone from inside a large company working for you (since assumably that's where you want to go), that type of background may have been both too pigeon-holed in experience, and not structured to wear many hats as is often necessary in a smaller company. Be sure that the potential hire can make this big transition and is (or can get) comfortable with it. Can they fit the established culture of your company, deal with the differences, work with probable increased demands and variables, and be capable of becoming more proactive than they were probably allowed to be in the larger company. Will their expectations of benefits, time off, and office environment lead to an eventual disappointment on their part? If you can't get past that upfront, in may be a short tenure, and lead to another hiring process. Do not underestimate the magnitude of the adjustment here.

"Going to work for a large company is like getting on a train. Are you going 60 MPH or is the train going 60 MPH and you're just sitting still?"   - J. Paul Getty

An effective tool I use for unorganized people in management positions, or employees in general, is to give them a “To Do” list on a clip board, with specific projects and deadlines. Once I give it to them, and explain (and they accept and understand the project), I’m done, unless they have a problem either executing, or meeting the date or time as scheduled and agreed upon. They keep the clipboard on their desks where they, or I, can review open projects at will, always knowing where they stand. The burden has now been passed to them, and unless I hear otherwise, the assumption is it is and will be done, and according to specs. I have now effectively passed that monkey on to them, and who can argue with a black and white list which has been pre-agreed to? Really a very effective and simple management tool that helps many owners.

Hiring and Employee Retainage are Becoming a National Crisis

Today's great economy is fast becoming the number one problem to businesses from the point of view of finding quality help. Good help to properly grow a company is getting harder and harder to find. This is true at all levels. It is true in almost all areas of the country. The traditional methods of hiring are ineffective now. It is an employee' market.

We all need to seek out new, innovative ways to hire employees. More importantly, the current market is making it attractive for even mediocre employees to change jobs and get more money and benefits.

Review your current employee benefit package, particularly health care. Make sure it is up to or exceeds your industry standards. Rethink how you relate (or do not) to incumbent employees. Get better at it fast. Lost productivity and learning curves when replacing lost employees are cost prohibitive in an economy growing as fast as ours. Pay BETTER than the market average. Pay it in bonuses and rewards that can be pulled back when the market becomes more employer oriented.

In many of my clients cases, even a mediocre employee will pay for himself 3 times over. That's how good the economy is, and that's also why if you are not doing well, it still makes sense for other employers to hire away yours.

Where as not so long ago I would get hundreds of responses to a well placed and conceived ad, I now only get a third of those (if I am lucky). The quality of responses is down significantly. I find myself resorting to recruiting from competition more and more.

Next issue will focus more on this topic. Please send or e-mail any suggestion you wish to share.

We live in an impatient world with fierce competition and fleeting opportunities. Operate your company with a sense of urgency. Listen, and react, and keep repeating the process. Prevent price being the only issue you have to stand on. Know which of your accounts are "fringe accounts" based on price sensitivity or other issues. Be proactive, and before you lose them, or they come to you with unreasonable demands, address issues head-on. Invite your customers in to see your facility, and go visit theirs. Bond with more that one person in this new world of ever changing faces in purchasing decision-making.

In a small business you (the owner) can deal directly with the customer. Most larger companies can send a Sales Manager, but will rarely show the interest you can by getting involved personally. Take advantage of this benefit. Conversely, the "garage shop", low price competition can not impress the customer with the staff and facilities you have. Where you may feel this is a disadvantage against larger competitors, it is a clear advantage over the price-only sellers. Use it! Focus your customers on the value-added advantages you have to offer over either extreme of the competitors. Stay away from price and use that as a last resort.

There is a point where the quicker you cover you annual fixed costs, the quicker you contribute to profit. You may still need to maintain your core sales", but you need to take a much deeper look at those jobs where you feel you are losing by a reasonably small amount. Always attempt to get feed-back on quotes you lose, why and how much. Do not have a predetermined formula for pricing that can not be deviated from. Rather, have a mentality of "why would I not take this order" if it contributes to overhead, and fills my fixed pot faster. You already invested in fixed costs that will not vary directly with volume.

Reasons to do this may be to break into a new customer or market, customer retainage, to be a player in a given market, and to simply make more money. This is often such a hard point to get across to many owners, who have built in so many "fluff and fudge factors" in their estimating or pricing structure that they forget that the purpose of quoting is to get the order. The customers will not pay for inefficiencies as they may have in the 80's and before. Work harder on figuring out why you are not competitive, rather than wallowing about how competitors can possibly come up with such low prices. They obviously are running a tighter ship! Chase your niche type business, those things that you have done well, are considered low risk, and is the type you are comfortable with. Incremental business often makes the difference between being profitable or not. More to follow in the next few issues.

As an owner (or manager) you have to be realistic as to what you have on staff, and ask yourself if you can get there from here. It is normal human nature to resist change until it is forced, but it is also sound business sense to surround yourself with the best people possible. Too many owners try to make people fit positions that even people know they do not fit, but are reluctant to say no for fear of losing their position in the company.

Owners tell me they never have success with new hires. I suggest that if that is the case, they did not do their homework upfront. I have had one wrong hire in the last 9 years. That is because I consider the culture and personality of the existing staff and ownership. And, although I always look for the most technically qualified candidate, it is more important that they fit the existing team, fit the existing group well, and compliment their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. I look for strengths in their past that will benefit my client.

This all assumes there is no one promotable from within. This is dangerous because most owners always try to rationalize that someone will fit an upward move because they will it to happen. Another reminder is in order, to match that person you may feel is promotable from within to the three strongest candidates solicited from the outside. Go through the exercise. You will feel a lot better about your ultimate decision, plus you get a much better feel about what is happening in the marketplace, and what current prices are for specific skills in your geographic area.

It is a tremendous advantage to me to have an "insiders understanding" of my clients needs, knowing the owners personality, the teams strengths and weaknesses, and what kind of person would really benefit my client. So do your homework right, don't procrastinate with a mediocre employee when you can have a great one.

Help yourself and your company.

The overtime premium is really minimal when you consider the costs of fringes on the substitute people, the lower percentage of productivity they will generate, the loss of quality in the product/ service, and that necessity for more intense management..

Until you reach the point where your key and top production people are suffering in productivity themselves due to long and abusive hours over a sustained period, they are clearly the wiser choice- they probably know the work better, will value the money, or at the worst, appreciate the need to use them and how much you value them, and the most important part; they will be more productive.

If a $20 per hour employee, who is well trained, can produce 100 widgets an hour, while a replacement at $15 per hour (temp or untrained) can produce 50 an hour until they reach a learning curve, the cost of the $20 employee is about $.20 each, since most of the major benefits (health, vacation, holidays, etc.) are already paid through the original 40 hours. The only other major incremental costs are pertinent FICA and other taxes. The less expensive $15 per hour temp or fill-in employee who might produce 50 widgets an hour, and carries a full benefit load of say 30% costs about $19.50 per hour, or $.39 each; twice what the trained employee would cost at overtime.

Therefore, in this example, the overtime employee is almost twice as cost effective. Use this formula to run your own numbers to test this theory. Your numbers will come out different, but if you are honest with yourself regarding realistic productivity issues, they will almost always come out positive to the side of the overtime option. Try it!

Leaders explain things in terms they understand, but often never even ask the listener (who has to execute the plan) if they understand the required result.

When you are done explaining, ask the listener to feed back to you in their words what they heard you say. Then clarify any misunderstandings immediately, and ask for clarification of that specific issue again. If they did not get it the first time, there's a good chance they may still not grasp it the second time.

Give, or ask for specific deadlines and put it in writing if possible. On any extended or ongoing projects, measure and benchmark at various stages. It is much less expensive to take the time during the project to do mid-course corrections, than to fix them after they have been finalized.

Make everyone comfortable in coming to you with questions as soon as they feel they might be off-track. Re-clarify whenever necessary, but think about why the issue was not clear in the first place. How could you have communicated it better for future reference?

Every person hears words differently. We are all different. Learn how each of your people best understands directions (audio, visual, self-directed, heavy supervision, etc.) and play to that person's strengths and weaknesses.

It will make you a better leader.

Advisors such as CMI should come in first! In the end, it is cheaper. I could offer many testimonials to that effect. Do yourself a favor. Pass it by a strategic business advisor. This may sound like an advertisement, but honestly, I feel bad coming in after mistakes and oversights are made.

Oversights include thinking about what the potential merger will do to the existing chemistry of the company, spreading management too thin, loss of key personnel from the potential acquisition, process integration between the two, and misrepresentation by the seller left uncovered until it is too late. If it's too good to be true, as they say, it probably is! There's always another (and a better deal) around the corner.

"Indecision is debilitating; it feeds upon itself; it is, one might almost say, habit forming. Not only that, but it is contagious; it transmits itself to others. Business is dependent upon action. It can not go forward by hesitation. Those in executive positions must fortify themselves with facts and accept responsibility for decisions based upon them. Often greater risk is involved in postponement than in making the wrong decision." H.A. Hopf

The BIG difference is I would never have let that employee get to that point. Reading your employees and understanding where their heads are, is one of your most important jobs. Generally what one employee feels, is prevalent in others. You need to be aware of signs of discontent as early as possible, determine the credibility of the perception (whether you like it or not) and act on it early, before it festers and multiplies. Once the bitterness reaches a higher level, and spreads to others through various vehicles, it becomes so much more difficult and expensive to remedy. Your job is to communicate with your employees and make them feel free to communicate with you (or one of your managers) before it reaches this stage. If an employee honestly reaches this stage in your company without having talked through the issues at least a number of times, something is drastically wrong with your communication structure. Finding out the truth at an exit interview is of little consolation, other than as a wake-up call to possibly save others who might already be looking, and fix the issues that causes it before they also leave.

Start a program to take an employee to lunch weekly or biweekly, and stay in touch with what is really happening in your company. They may not willingly walk into your office, and will not speak freely in a group environment, but in a one on one situation, you will be amazed at what you might learn, if you know how to ask the right leading questions, and then how to be quiet and just listen. Whether you like what you hear or not, take it seriously. Perception is reality! Plus, they are most likely speaking for others too. If they have a problem with their supervisor (assuming it is not you) who else can they constructively talk to who can be proactive other than you? Yes, you need to sort out the "real issues" from the "normal whining". But once you do that, you need to take whatever action you deem necessary to help your company. Do yourself a favor. Stay in touch before the costs of not doing so become cost prohibitive.

Stop accepting or even acknowledging excuses from managers and employees. Be sympathetic for a moment if you have to, but then go back to finding a remedy to accomplish the end result. Energy focused on discussing the validity of "excuses" or causes is totally wasted, while energy focused on executing the project to a successful culmination is properly channeled. To debate the validity of excuses puts you in the same class as the user and purveyor of the excuse. You are not moving forward, you are continuing to stagnate until you come up with the map to the finalization of the project. Determining if an excuse is right, wrong, valid, or invalid, is a waste of time. It causes animosity, ill feelings, it always seems too subjective, and goes nowhere. It leads to things being said that probably would never have been brought up. Kind of like arguing with your spouse. It goes nowhere positive, and often digs the hole deeper. DISARM the person with the excuses by explaining that at this point they are irrelevant. They are not worth wasting positive energy on. You can learn later (and this IS very important) why the "excuses" were not addressed earlier, and how this problem can be prevented earlier on future projects.

Generally, the excuses coming up much too late in the process are a flaw in the communication process within the company, an indication of the lack of benchmarking which would have forced the issues earlier. The only thing that matters now is getting to a successful conclusion.

Notice how often communication and benchmarking come up in my articles. This is no accident, but rather a crusade on my part to continually point out to you as owners (or managers) how these two relatively simple procedures can cure a lot of ills in any company, save a whole lot of money, and make the difference between success and failure. Benchmarking (done properly) keeps everyone on the same page, on track, prevents inevitable mistakes and misunderstandings from getting too far, is appreciated by all and not seen as leaning over someone's shoulder, and truly appreciated by those being measured, because it helps them, without stealing their independence, primarily because they were involved in establishing the benchmarks themselves (weren't they?).

They also are the two most common threads I see in the hundreds of companies I am exposed to that separate the winners from the losers. It would be nice to assume that everyone understands the first time, and that there is no need to measure project status because everyone must understand, but this concept is very idealistic, and in many cases, fatalistic.