Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Competitiveness Benchmarking

The LEO Network is working with Enterprise Ireland to bring you Competitiveness Benchmarking.  You will be able to get hard facts about how well your business is performing and objectively compare against industry standards.

The Enterprise Ireland Competitiveness Benchmarking system is based on the global level tools used by Enterprise Ireland, for and with its clients.

What is a LEO COMPETITIVENESS BENCHMARK?

The LEO Competitiveness Benchmark is a simple diagnostic tool developed specifically for LEO client companies.   It will:

  • measure your company’s performance against best practice
  • identify strengths and weaknesses
  • will be a springboard for improving your competitiveness and growing your business
  • could be a starting point for some companies to ensure their survival and growth

Research has shown that good practice leads to good performance.

Why carry out a LEO COMPETITIVENESS BENCHMARK?

How competitive is your company?  Do you know?
If you want to improve your company performance, you need to know your current level of competitiveness and performance. Using the analogy of a road map, you can pinpoint your desired destination but unless you know where you are starting from how will you get there?  Carrying out a Competitiveness Benchmark before and after improvement activity will help prioritise issue areas and will help measure the level of improvement achieved.

GOAL:

  • to improve your competitiveness position
  • improve profitability
  • improve productivity
  • deliver best in class products & services
  • help aim for superiority rather than parity

How does it work?

It combines a quantitative and qualitative approach.  Any emerging trends are presented in terms of strengths and weaknesses are used to highlight areas for improvement

The quantitative approach will give a quick overview of what the accounts are saying. It analyses the company’s financial accounts in a number of different ways and compares the results with industry norms.  The outputs are presented as financial ratios and are grouped into relevant clusters as follows:

  • Liquidity Ratios – to see if the company has the cash to keep it alive
  • Profitability Ratios – to examine the profits & costs against a number of benchmarks
  • Productivity Ratios – to examine the employee and process efficiency within the firm
  • Growth Ratios – to measure the growth of a number of factors over a two year period
  • Investment / Gearing Ratios – to measure the level of investment along with the level of borrowing in the firm.

The qualitative approach / INTROSCOPE is a simple benchmarking tool.  It is designed to introduce people working in a wide variety of businesses and organisations to the power of benchmarking.  Using a sample of questions drawn from some of the best available benchmarking tools, INTROSCOPE invites you (perhaps with a few colleagues) to assess some of your organisation’s key practices and performance aspects against a model of “best practice”.

The Process:

  • Complete the LEO questionnaire.
  • All company data will be treated confidentially
  • Company anonymity is guaranteed throughout the process
  • The feedback report will include a summary of the company’s strengths and weaknesses and areas for improvement.

How to initiate a LEO Competitiveness Benchmark?

Contact your Local Enterprise Office or your LEO Business Advisor.

If you find the LEO Competitiveness Benchmark and its outputs useful, ask about the range of more sophisticated benchmarking tools that may be appropriate for your needs.  You must invest a little more effort, but you are likely to find this well worthwhile as benchmarking results help you to shape your improvement plans with confidence.