In 1993, discussions between the UK Benchmarking Centre, the SPI (USA), the SIQ (Sweden), the IZB (Germany) and the Benchmarking Club Italy came together to evaluate the possibility of a co-operative network. Then in 1994, after debate and agreement, the Global Benchmarking Network (GBN) was officially established by these founding members as a community of legally independent benchmarking centres, with the objective to achieve a consistent understanding of benchmarking as a management method and to promote its worldwide spread and utilisation. Dr Robert C. Camp, from the Best Practice Institute in the USA, who invented the benchmarking method, was appointed the first head of the Network.

Since its foundation, the GBN members hold at least one Annual General Meeting (AGM) per year to discuss GBN matters and exchange information and their respective activities. During the 1996 AGM, held in San Diego, California, the "Memorandum of Understanding" was ratified which defined the Network's vision and mission. At a meeting in Marsland, Sweden, also in 1996, the GBN agreed to set up a virtual office in the UK and appoint Tom Brock as a part time Secretary General. It was also agreed that annual affiliation fees would be charged. In 1998 the GBN Logo was approved and it was decided to set up a GBN website (www.globalbenchmarking.org) for marketing purposes, as well as to facilitate communication between GBN members.

The AGM in Madrid, Spain, in June 2001, saw the agreement to change the Officers' structure of the GBN. The position of President was established, with Bob Camp elected as the first President, having been the Chairman since 1994. Also, Peter Heisig, from the Information Centre Benchmarking (ICB) in Berlin, was elected Chairman, having been the Vice Chairman since 2000. At the 11th AGM in Harrogate, UK in October 2002 Tom Brock announced his retirement. As a result of this decision, both New Zealand and Germany offered to provide the future GBN Secretariat. A vote by GBN Affiliates resulted in the Secretariat moving to ICB in Berlin.

Also during the 2002 Harrogate AGM, the Affiliates agreed to remove from the Memorandum of Understanding the restrictive practice of one centre per country only and to allow as many Centres of Excellence in a country to Affiliate to the GBN, providing the existing Affiliate has no reasonable objections.

GBN Expansion, top

After the establishment of the GBN, one of the main objectives was to enlarge its scope and identify potential membership candidates. The spread of the benchmarking method quickly proved that the emphasis for this lay primarily with the USA and the UK, as well as those European countries which were economically the strongest. During recent years the interest in best practice benchmarking and the establishment of centres of competency have risen substantially in the Asia/Pacific region. Still, the European members continue to represent the majority of GBN Affiliates.

The GBN has intended, and still intends, to achieve geographical expansion rather than national penetration. Therefore, the recruitment of new members is considered an ongoing task, while the emphasis is put on the search for existing benchmarking centres in new member states. Since the market economy has opened for Middle-European countries, members from Hungary, Moldova, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have all joined the GBN. Malaysia and Mauritius have also recently joined the GBN as new member organisations and, as a result, have enlarged the Asia/Pacific presence which had already been built up by organisations from India and New Zealand.

Meanwhile the GBN comprises 19 Affiliates. Unfortunately there is no representative from the South American economic area at the moment. Almost since the Network's foundation, the South African benchmarking centre has been a very active member. Before the next Annual General Meeting in Copenhagen in 2004, the GBN plans to recruit further members.

Joint Benchmarking, top

The realisation of joint benchmarking projects on behalf of the GBN Affiliates and customers is still in the stages of development. However, a number of benchmarking projects have been carried out with the involvement of GBN Affiliates. In 1999/2000, for example, the first German Benchmarking Survey on Knowledge Management was conducted by the ICB (Germany). The project was actively supported by the European GBN Affiliates and the results were set out in a publication, and disseminated in Best Practice Transfer Workshops in Sweden, Spain, Switzerland and Mexico. Another example of a successful international benchmarking project is the co-operation between TECTEM (Szitzerland) and the ICB (Germany) regarding a further benchmarking survey on the topic knowledge management. The establishment of the EU-wide benchmarking database called BenchmarkIndex by the UK’s Small Business Service (SBS) – a GBN Affiliate – is being used extensively by other GBN Affiliates and reflects the co-operative nature of the network.

GBN Activities, top

The vision of the Network is to intensify the communication between national benchmarking centres and to facilitate and strengthen the exchange of Best Practices in order to help public and private organisations achieve performance improvement. The idea is that all members of the GBN continuously supply the Network with their knowledge and gain the valuable opportunity of learning from each other. The Network collects expert knowledge and information and makes it available to its members. By creating a network of benchmarking competency centres, that knowledge is promoted and applied, communication is enhanced and expert support offered to demonstrate significant business results. Especially beneficial for Affiliates is the Network's support in the worldwide search for partners for international benchmarking projects.

Affiliates also exchange selected publications, newsletters as well as information and marketing material among each other. These can also be circulated to the Centres’ national members. Via the respective national Benchmarking Centres, approximately 50.000 private and public enterprises are potentially involved in activities of the GBN. The strength of the GBN lies in the diversity of approaches to benchmarking and the pool of knowledge that it hosts: online quantitative benchmarking database for SMEs; a Best-Practice-Case-Study database; training packages; methods for Process Benchmarking and Consortia Benchmarking; Benchmarking for SMEs, Benchmarking Clubs and Circles; and Award Programmes. All these are Services that the GBN already offers and which any new members will benefit from significantly.

In general, the provided services include information about the benchmarking method in connection with training programmes, realisation of benchmarking projects, further development of the benchmarking method and the development of special tools for benchmarking. As part of an internal GBN project on Best Practice Transfer, managed by the German ICB, the individual Benchmarking Centres' services were recorded and classified and the demand for an exchange of knowledge was assessed.

Conclusion, top

The GBN has proven to be a successful network for more than ten years now, facilitating the worldwide exchange of benchmarking activities among centres and companies as well as public institutions. GBN Affiliates now support Governments (eg, Germany and the UK) as well as Ministries, with the creation of national Benchmarking Centres (eg, the Department of Trade and Commerce of the Slovak Republic), as well as supporting international organisations like the Benchmarking Competitiveness Group of the EU in Brussels and the international Trade Centre (ITC) of the World Trade Organisation in Geneva.