Benchmarking - Amgen Corporation - Case Study Example

Benchmarking - Amgen Corporation Amgen, the global leader in biotechnology manufactures pharmaceutical products particularly EPOGEN. Amgen has its strengths and weaknesses. Whereas it is able to manufacture exemplary pharmaceutical products, it has displayed weakness in managing the ever-increasing workforce, which has tremendously grown from 400 to over seven thousand employees. It has also faced challenge in product diversification. After SWOT analysis, Amgen decided to benchmark its sales training and development department to address the challenges of the increasing workforce. Amgen sought help from American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), which is a non-profit organization that assists companies with benchmarking. APQC provides Amgen with a list of 40 potential benchmarking companies from which Amgen selects the best seven. Amgen gets a chance to visit four of the companies while the other three are interviewed over the phone. After scaling itself against these companies, Amgen restructures its sales training and development department. After realizing the positive results from the benchmarking, Amgen sought to use the same concept to evaluate its mode of movement of the products from production stage to the end user. In the process, it has been able to learn many lessons. For instance, Amgen has learned that one of the hindrances to effective benchmarking is failure to make effective implementation of the learned concepts. Finding suitable companies willing to participate in the benchmarking is a challenge though APQC comes in handy in such instances. Through benchmarking, Amgen has been able to make a milestone development in various aspects of its operations. Discussion The best decision Amgen could ever have done was to initiate benchmarking concept in their business. It would have been disastrous for Amgen to continue with their business operations and ideas without measuring themselves against the top performers. Other competitors, who are performing better in human resource management, would have overtaken them. It is always important to keep constant evaluation of strengths and weaknesses in all aspects of business and then execute benchmarking to address the weaknesses. Amgen integrated the benchmarking idea just in time when it would have lost total control over the increasing number of employees. Certainly, Amgen will continue reaping the benefits of benchmarking even in future. For any business to be successful, it has to embrace the change of events that are prevalent with modern business conditions. Competition is on the rise and only the most competitive and organized businesses will remain in business. It is therefore important that companies measure themselves against other top performers to ensure that they remain relevant with time. Seeking for help from APCQ was a great idea. This is because looking for suitable benchmarking targets is a challenging task. APCQ comes in handy in facilitating the benchmarking process. It offered Amgen the much-needed training in benchmarking and helped them locate a list of potential benchmarking partners from which Amgen chose the best seven. APCQ being a non-profit and neutral organization is in the best place to offer unbiased assistance to companies seeking benchmarking assistance. Amgen would certainly have failed in their benchmarking endeavors especially because it was their first time in engaging this concept. AT & T Teleholdings Case Summary AT & T Teleholdings is a telecommunication service offering innovative telecommunication packages to its customers in Illinois and other neighboring regions. The company is one of the global leaders in exemplary service and financial performance. AT & T Teleholdings owes its success to effective benchmarking techniques, which it has perfected with time. The company has well-developed internal benchmarking experts, which oversees the efficient and effective benchmarking procedures. Benchmarking is an identity of the organizational culture and everybody is usually excited about possibilities of success through benchmarking. AT & T Teleholdings values three major benchmarking concepts that allow them to execute benchmarking successfully. They conduct internal benchmarking whereby a comparison is made between various departments within the firm. It also holds external benchmarking where they measure themselves against the best in class. They also benchmark against the best in telecommunication industry. They find unique hindrances and benefits as well from each benchmarking category. Although they hardly find any problem with internal benchmarking, competitive companies pose a challenge since they may not be willing to divulge all their information. Despite these challenges, the results are always worthwhile. Outstandingly, the code of conduct stands out as an exemplary example. According to their benchmarking code, they seek to keep things within the legal framework and being realistic when requesting for information. They also keep information discrete, keep close contact with benchmarking targets, and always seek permission as well as having adequate benchmarking expertise. Due to their commitment in benchmarking, they have been able to maintain their status in the telecommunication industry. Discussion Benchmarking is arguably the best tool for quality improvement for any business. It is a multivariate concept that can be used to evaluate and improve quality on virtually any business aspect. For instance, AT & T Teleholdings can use benchmarking to evaluate and improve on their customer care relationship, business communication, advertisement strategies, product branding, and market segmentation among others. AT & T Teleholdings have an excellent code of ethics. The process of obtaining information for benchmarking is open for abuse. Additionally, the information obtained could be used for wrongful purposes. For instance, a company may use the information to establish unfair competition, which is unethical in business terms. A strict code of conduct is necessary to ensure that all the benchmarking decisions are executed. Otherwise, no meaningful achievement will be accomplished. Benchmarking is particularly important for fast-paced industries. Due to stiff competition in performance and quality of service, companies have to keep constant evaluation of their performance against the top performers least they are left behind with the rapidly changing business and market conditions. Therefore, benchmarking should be one of the core concepts of any business in fast-paced industry. It is actually advisable if benchmarking was done continuously for these kinds of businesses. This is because a small error or mismatch with current events may cost fast-paced business a fortune both in status and financially. Read More