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By Kent
Meredith
When was the last time you
called or e-mailed one of your peers in the facility management industry to
inquire about their staffing procedures, what they charge for parking, or
the gross for a particular show to compare how your venue stacked up? In the
simplest form, this is benchmarking.
Volumes have been written about the practice of benchmarking, so I won’t
attempt to summarize this vast amount of information into this short column.
Instead, I’ll focus simply on who to benchmark against, and why it’s
important to keep up with others within our industry.
Understanding Benchmarking
Benchmarking is a term that comes from land surveying, where a mark is made
and other measurements are taken using the original mark as a measure. The
term gained in popularity in business operations when the Xerox Corp.
started using it in the late ’70s to compare themselves to the “best of the
best” to analyze and implement the best practices in the industry. David T.
Kearns, the chief executive officer of Xerox, describes benchmarking as “the
continuous process of measuring products, services, and practices against
the toughest competitors or those companies recognized as industry leaders.”
Arena managers can use benchmarking as a tool to help them compare their
operations with others within and outside of the facility management
industry. Venue managers should always be monitoring industry practices to
ensure their facility is staying up with industry standards — but by looking
at the “best of the best” within our industry, facility managers can also
help ensure their operations are looked upon as one of the tops in the
industry. This doesn’t mean to copy what the leaders in our industry are
doing; rather it means to take a look at what industry leaders are doing
that puts them in the category of “the best” in operations and services.
Simply the Best
Companies that have successfully used benchmarking as a business tool to
help improve their performance not only look at others within their
industry, but they go outside of their specific industry to search for the
best of the best.
This is true of our industry; we can certainly benefit from looking outward
at successful operations, but this article will focus only on benchmarking
against the best of the best within our industry.
Which then begs the question, “Who is the best in our industry?” And what is
the criterion to be considered “the best?” Do arenas typically qualify for
national awards such as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award or J.B.
Power & Associates?
I personally think that many arenas do qualify, but I don’t think public
assembly venues have been traditionally considered (although they should be,
but that’s for a future article). About the only formal recognition awards
program for facilities is the Pollstar Annual Awards, where they present
“Arena of the Year” and “Facility Executive of the Year.”
These awards, however, are specifically related to concert touring shows and
don’t take into consideration the many other activities and functions
associated with arenas.
So back to the question: Who is the best of the best in our industry that we
can benchmark our own venue against?
Perhaps we don’t have to have formally recognized award-winning venues; we
just have to have arenas that have best practices recognized by our industry
and the general public as well-operated facilities.
How Do You Stack Up?
If you’ve never compared your operation to those of others in the industry,
how do you know you’re performing at your best, or at least at industry
standards? The goal of benchmarking is to help identify best practices to
help improve performance and processes, but it can also help to show where
your operation is compared to others.
When you start comparing notes with other arena managers, you might find
your operation is performing better than most, so benchmarking can also help
with validation. Most arenas — regardless if managed publicly, or by a
private management company or the major tenant (NBA, NHL) — have one person
who’s ultimately responsible for making the day-to-day decisions about
operations.
At some point and time, this person, regardless of the years of experience
brought to this profession, will be challenged on a decision he makes — be
it from his supervisors, the arena advisory board, the media, fans or his
own employees — and he’ll need to justify his reasons for doing things the
way he does them. Obviously, a good, common-sense reply should satisfy some,
but it would definitely be helpful to show that others in the industry have
the same or similar proven rules or procedures. By following what could be
called best practices, a facility manager should be able to articulate his
reasoning to satisfy even the most demanding critic.
The 2006 Arena Management Conference will feature a session on benchmarking.
This year’s conference will be held Sept. 16-19 in Memphis, Tenn., and will
allow plenty of opportunities for arena managers to gather information and
start the benchmarking process.
Kent Meredith is director of the
United Spirit Arena at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. |
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