Through benchmarking, an organization is capable of comparing its own performance against that of its rivals, narrowing down on strengths, weaknesses, as well as specific advantages that they may be able to leverage in the head to head competition.

As the famous Daft Punk song goes, all successful businesses nowadays are looking for ways in which they can become better at gauging their competitors, faster at adapting to industry or market changes and stronger when it comes to dealing with hardship and unfavourable conditions. This is where benchmarking comes into play as the premiere method of achieving all these plans and more, given that it enables organizations to highlight pressure points – either their own or their rivals’, with pinpoint accuracy.

Since striving for the best possible results has always been our mantra, here at The KPI Institute we’ve developed the Certified Benchmarking Professional course, in order to help those who wish to share it. Whether you’re an expert in delivery & support functions, top/middle/lower management or simply a professional interested in benchmarking practices, the C-B course endorses you for both your knowledge in improving performance through best practices, as well as your ability to implement benchmarking strategies in your own organization.

Learning objectives

• Align benchmarking objectives with the organizational strategy
• Design a benchmarking plan for your organization
• Understand the fundamentals of benchmarking methodologies
• Assess performance gaps according to benchmarking data
• Select the relevant benchmarks and establish a monitoring process

Benchmarking’s methodological uniqueness is represented by the identification of those processes that lead to superior performance, followed by the analysis of the best practices which lie behind that level of success.

In order to put together a successful benchmarking study, professionals should not only become familiar with the best way to select those variables which will be measured, but also with the most appropriate method of determining the comparison compatibility of your selected measurable processes, allocating resources accordingly.

This is why our course focuses on ensuring you’ll have a solid understand of the basics of benchmarking, as well as how the entire process can then be integrated into existing structures with your organizational framework, from linking it to the overarching business strategy, to performance objectives, goals, KPIs and initiatives.

By attending our Certified Benchmarking Professional training session, attendees will be learning all there is about formal vs informal benchmarking, performance, process and strategic benchmarking, the APQC methodology, the Camp R.C. model, the TRADE methodology, as well as scoping, data collection, validation & adjustment, in addition to tackling a few legal and ethical issues surrounding benchmarking.

To provide you with a brief overview of the course, we’ve dismantled it into 5 modules:

1.Understanding the benchmarking concept and its advantages

• About the benchmarking concept
• The importance and use of benchmarking
• Benchmarking types

2.Becoming familiar with the general methodology

• What is being benchmarked?
• Against what is an organization benchmarked?
• How is benchmarking used?

3.Generating a benchmarking plan

• Design the preparation phase
• Establish the comparison phase
• Steps to follow in the analysis phase

4.Understanding data collection and analysis

• Identify data sources
• Analyze data

5.Improving performance

• Generate value from the information gathered
• Improve your organization’s performance
• Monitor the organization’s performance

Benchmarking is the process through which you take an overview of a situation, develop a plan for improvement, establish a data governance team that collections and analyzes information, out of which you will ultimately generate value for your company.

If you’re still wondering whether benchmarking is worth your time or not, here are 8 key advantages that the biggest companies around the world give when asked why they make use of this process:

• IIt allows you to measure and company your processes against those of another company’s, allowing you to discover inefficiency at the operational level.

• This then enables you to discover performance gaps that you may not otherwise be able to find.

• Through benchmarking, you can incorporate a leading company’s processes and practices into your own flow, to increase results and slowly close the gap.

• I Benchmarking allows perspicacious individuals to improve resource prioritization, through better future goal setting.

• For those companies unsure of their position within the market, the process of benchmarking offers you the possibility of identifying what your current state is in your industry, as well as how you would compare yourself to others, if the industry was different in any way.
• In many organizations, the introduction of performance measures feels like a dictator spouting orders around. By making use of benchmarks, you now have an argumentum ad verecundiam to introduce said measures.
• The process of benchmarking ensures a 24/7 monitoring of the overall organizational performance.
• Benchmarking equips you with the necessary knowledge to set targets in alignment with the organizational strategies that are currently in place. Moreover, because it places a heavy emphasis on data & analysis, it allows for improved task prioritization.

Whether you feel that benchmarking is useful or useless, the point of the matter is that many organizations around the world have seen leaps of improvement once they’ve decided that they should integrate at least some aspects related to this process. It should come as no surprise that the biggest users of benchmarking are actually the leading actors in every industry, as they have an incentive to make use of the process – they want to stay at the top.

For those looking to become challengers and eventually replace the dominant status-quo, remember that better results come one step at a time, which is exactly how we’ve structured our C-B course. We’ll be going from the basics, all the way to advanced practical exercises, where we make use of Motorola, AT&T, IBM, Xerox and TKI’s own methodology, in order to find what works best for your organization.

Facilitated by Teodora Gorski, Managing Director MENA, this in-house training course was delivered between 24^th – 28^th of June 2018, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for a public-sector company.

This company is a major regional player renowned for innovation and is serving clients in all industries across local and national levels.

Certified KPI Professional and Practitioner Training Course it is part of a series of certification courses dedicated to rigorous usage of KPIs in practice.

The training course was attended by professionals from United Arab Emirates, having diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise.

We approached the following key topics:

• KPI typology & taxonomy;
• KPI Documentation and Target Setting;
• Data Gathering and Visualization;
• Applied Exercises

To enable both the theoretical understanding and practical experience of using the performance management tools and techniques, we have integrated group discussions, exercises, simulations and case studies.

There was a remarkable active involvement of all the participants in a collaborative learning environment where opinions and experiences were shared.

If the opportunity of customized KPI training courses is of interest to you, email us at [email protected]  and you will receive a tailored offer.

For more information contact one of our representatives:

Alexandru Muntean

[email protected]

Facilitated by Doina Maltev, Partnership Manager this course was held in Panama City, Panama, between 20^th and 22^nd of June 2018 in partnership with Transiciones and is part of a series of certification courses dedicated to rigorous usage of KPIs in practice. 

In the first day, the course agenda covered the following subjects:

• The world of KPIs;
• Understanding KPIs;
• KPI typology;
• KPI taxonomy.

The second day sessions covered the following discussion topics:

• KPI Selection;
• KPI Alignment;
• KPI Documentation;
• Working with targets.

In the third day of the course the next themes were approached:

• Data gathering;
• Data visualization;
• Review and Certification Exam.

In order to enable both the theoretical understanding and practical experience of using a variety performance management tools and techniques for deploying KPIs correctly across different industries and functional areas, some of the methods used throughout the course were:

• Group discussions, exercises, simulations and case studies;
• Explanation of the theory regarding performance measurement;
• Presentation of the performance management templates as tools to support the integration of performance management practices in organizations;
• Customized feedback regarding the present use and the future plans for implementing performance management systems;
• Active involvement of all the participants in a collaborative learning environment where opinions and experiences are shared.

The course was attended by professionals from Panama having different backgrounds and areas of expertise in their working fields like Consulting, Banking, Transportation and Real Estate.

Before beginning the course, sharing challenges of previous experience in working with KPIs was encouraged and some of them were:

• Obtaining the information
• Setting of the objectives
• Alignment of objectives
• Commitment to KPIs
• Make KPIs part of the organizational culture
• What are the KPIs selection criteria?
• How to define KPIs?

Participants were invited to express some learning needs and they communicated the following expectations from the course:

• Interpretation of the data
• How to prioritize KPIs (select)
• Change management at the company level
• How to define tasks and KPIs
• Establish strategic initiatives (not just keep the measurement)
• Ensure that initiatives are well designed
• Simplification of the process (how to make it easy and understandable for all)

In addition to the training sessions, the learning experience is comprised of a pre-course stage, a core course stage and an after-course stage. Upon participating at the face to face training course and completing all the activities on our eLearning platform participants will receive the following:

• Certificate of Completion (soft copy): after completing pre-course activities and passing the Certification Exam;
• Certificate of Attendance (hard copy): after participating at the 3 days of on-site training course;
• Certified KPI Professional diploma (hard copy): after you have successfully completed all of the 3 stages of the learning experience.

We strongly advise participants to ensure they will receive the Certified KPI Professional title, as this certification recognizes the professionals’ ability to deploy and use KPIs in accordance with The KPI Institute’s Key Performance Indicators Management Framework, the main body of knowledge on the rigorous use of KPIs in business.

To find out more details, please visit the KPI Professional certification page.

If the opportunity of customized KPI training courses is of interest to you, email us at [email protected] and you will receive a tailored offer.

For more information contact one of our representatives:

Doina Maltev
[email protected]

Facilitated by Mihai Toma, Management Consultant, this in-house training course was delivered between 19^th – 24^th of June 2018, in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates for a private sector company that is specialized in Retail.

This company is a major regional player renowned for innovation and is serving clients in several industries across local, national, regional and international levels.

“Highly recommended to organizations or individuals who want to measure and improve their performance levels!” said Mr. Muqtadir Ahmed Siddiqul Maqsood Ahmed Siddiqui

Certified KPI Professional Training Course it is part of a series of certification courses dedicated to rigorous usage of KPIs in practice.

The training course was attended by professionals from United Arab Emirates, having diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise in Retail area.

We approached the following key topics:

• KPI typology & taxonomy;
• KPI Documentation and Target Setting;
• Data Gathering and Visualization;
• Practical exercises.

“The course is very helpful for professionals interested into applying KPIs in their respective field.” said Mr. Mohamed Abdalla Salman Sulaiman Alamri

To enable both the theoretical understanding and practical experience of using the performance management tools and techniques, we have integrated group discussions, exercises, simulations and case studies.

There was a remarkable active involvement of all the participants in a collaborative learning environment where opinions and experiences were shared.

If the opportunity of customized KPI training courses is of interest to you, email us at [email protected]  and you will receive a tailored offer.

For more information contact one of our representatives:

Alexandru Muntean

[email protected]

Facilitated by Andrea Minelli, Management Consultant this course was held in Belgrade, Serbia, between 4^th and 6^th of June 2018 in partnership with TD Consulting and is part of a series of certification courses dedicated to rigorous usage of KPIs in practice.

In the first day, the course agenda covered the following subjects:

• The world of KPIs;
• Understanding KPIs;
• KPI typology;
• KPI taxonomy.

The second day sessions covered the following discussion topics:

• KPI Selection;
• KPI Alignment;
• KPI Documentation;
• Working with targets.

In the third day of the course the next themes were approached:

• Data gathering;
• Data visualization;
• Review and Certification Exam.

In order to enable both the theoretical understanding and practical experience of using a variety performance management tools and techniques for deploying KPIs correctly across different industries and functional areas, some of the methods used throughout the course were:

• Group discussions, exercises, simulations and case studies;
• Explanation of the theory regarding performance measurement;
• Presentation of the performance management templates as tools to support the integration of performance management practices in organizations;
• Customized feedback regarding the present use and the future plans for implementing performance management systems;
• Active involvement of all the participants in a collaborative learning environment where opinions and experiences are shared.

The course was attended by professionals from Serbia having different backgrounds and areas of expertise in their working fields like Energy, Education and Consulting.

Before beginning the course, sharing challenges of previous experience in working with KPIs was encouraged and some of them were:

• What to measure – is it relevant
• How to measure KPIs
• Selection of representative KPIs
• KPI implementation degree (ORG/DEP/BUs/IND)
• Collect KPI Data
• Target Setting KPIs
• KPI Infrastructure – forward/backward looking

Participants were invited to express some learning needs and they communicated the following expectations from the course:

• Selection of KPIs
• Benchmarking between BU’s
• Metrics vs KPIs vs Target
• Performance Management Tools
• KPI’s Alignment with strategic Objectives
• KPIs Lifecycle

In addition to the training sessions, the learning experience is comprised of a pre-course stage, a core course stage and an after-course stage. Upon participating at the face to face training course and completing all the activities on our eLearning platform participants will receive the following:

• Certificate of Completion (soft copy): after completing pre-course activities and passing the Certification Exam;
• Certificate of Attendance (hard copy): after participating at the 3 days of on-site training course;
• Certified KPI Professional diploma (hard copy): after you have successfully completed all of the 3 stages of the learning experience.

We strongly advise participants to ensure they will receive the Certified KPI Professional title, as this certification recognizes the professionals’ ability to deploy and use KPIs in accordance with The KPI Institute’s Key Performance Indicators Management Framework, the main body of knowledge on the rigorous use of KPIs in business.

To find out more details, please visit the KPI Professional certification page.

If the opportunity of customized KPI training courses is of interest to you, email us at [email protected] and you will receive a tailored offer.

For more information contact one of our representatives:

Daniela Crisan
[email protected]

Encompassing The KPI Institute’s experience, research and expertise, PERFORMANCE Magazine – Printed Edition provides its readership with first-hand how-to, resources, and insights from practice, so as to assist them in their performance endeavors and in becoming state-of-the art professionals.

With these thoughts in mind, we proudly announce the launch of our 11^th issue of PERFORMANCE Magazine. PERFORMANCE Magazine is The KPI Institute’s prime resource for insights into the discipline of Performance Management.

The content published in PERFORMANCE Magazine pursues high and wide for some of the best, latest and most pressing topics of discussion in Performance Management and in adjacent areas of interest.

This edition provides details on the subjects of Performance Improvement, Digital Performance, Individual Performance, Balanced Scorecard, KPIs, among others.

Flip through pages of interviews with renowned experts, extensive research studies, concept presentations, insights from practice, alongside software or hardware reviews, and books and movie recommendations, all related to performance management.

In our 11^th issue of PERFORMANCE Magazine, we shall delve into the professional life of Tor Inge Vasshus, Founder and CEO of Corporater, Norway.

Mr. Vasshus is an experienced practitioner, consultant and advisor of management methodologies, an international speaker on performance management at conferences and universities, as well as an innovative software solutions provider to enterprises that aspire performance excellence.

His approximately 30 years of experience in the field have led him to the conclusion that KPIs, and Performance Management in general, are much more than mere numbers and measurement methodologies. His company, Corporater, builds upon this mindset and has integrated it in its core vision:

“KPIs are more than just numbers. KPIs tell stories, backed up by analytics, management and actions.”

Take part in public sector implementation processes from various countries and nations, as each edition will feature extensive analyses on the subject, compliments of our writers. Also, best practices, alongside the latest trends, will be offered for a wide variety of performance-related sub-domains, from KPIs & the Balanced Scorecard, to Operational Performance.

Last, but not least, the magazine features recommended resources for professionals interested in combining leisure and professional development, such as books and documentaries.

So now we invite you to take part in a world dedicated to improving performance and everything that pertains to it, in its smallest details. Enjoy our latest edition of PERFORMANCE Magazine!

The KPI Institute and Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) are proud to announce that they will be working together as institutional partners on implementing the newly outlined GCC Utilities Performance Program.

The program aims at creating a network of utilities companies where sharing best practice, collaboration and learning from each other’s experience is the key goal.

The GCC Utilities Performance Program was created based on the GCCIA’s knowledge in the field and The KPI Institute’s first-hand experience in the industry, gained by working closely with some important utilities companies.

The program contains 5 modules, with any company interested in the program being given the option of choosing whether it wants only one module, multiple ones or all of them. The modules are as follows:

1. Strategy Execution Audit: provision of strategy and performance audit solutions to nurture an improvement of the maturity level of participating organizations.
   

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2. Performance Benchmarking: a structured operational performance benchmarking project, customized to the GCC context, but anchored in international best practices.
   

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3. Diploma in Performance Improvement: provision of a professional diploma in utilities performance improvement, with courses delivered both online and in a classroom environment.
   

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4. Performance Improvement Conference: an annual one-day event dedicated to sharing of best practices in strategy execution, operational excellence and innovation among GCC electricity utilities.
   

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5. Community of Practice: operate a series of quarterly meetings dedicated to performance improvement in electricity utilities, in both face to face and webinar format.
   

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Moreover, any organization that wishes to partake in the program will benefit from several advantages:

a. Cost savings, through discounts of more than 50% of the current market price;

b. Organizational development, by benchmarking with regional leaders, learning best practices on strategy and performance through assessments, trainings programs, events or by becoming part of a community and keeping up to date with the latest developments in the field of performance measurement and management;

c. Reputational benefits, since a premium recognition of being part of a unique international performance improvement program will be granted.

Any collaborative efforts in making this Utilities Performance Program a catalyst of improvement for GCC utilities companies are highly welcomed. As such, we extend this open invitation to any parties interested.

Get in contact with us at [email protected], in order to discuss further details and become an active actor in paving the way for a better, more sustainable future!