Benchmarking Report and the Process of Research

INTRODUCTION

Human being is an exemplary creation of god. He always has a shared dream of exploring the world. The concept of analyzing and critically assessing natural things is a reason where we stand today. The ancient rulers have the appetite of analyzing the pace of development and critically assessing it with other twin cities. The idea of benchmarking against a known competitor help organisation built upon specific strategic plans into order to bring out the best. Benchmarking is an effective method and a start up point to make organisation goals at pat with their global counterparts. Setting a benchmark should always be accompanied by the finalizing extend and scope of benchmarks. Benchmarking is an essential part of planning to maximize the internal strength and minimize the internal threats (Holloway, Hinton & Mayle, n.d.). The Bankstown council area offers various strategic plans for the up gradation of local business community. The council area is designated with land use for manufacturing industry. Bankstown enjoys a close proximity to the Sydney, having it own Central Business district with multi ethic composition of business community catering to the residents of Bankstown and its hinterland, requires some planned business oriented steps to be taken up the Bankstown council which will increase the confidence of business community. Rise in income, employment to all and low unemployment rate will gradually result in rise of SEIFA ratings.

Process of Research

Research methodology carried for benchmarking the council’s business oriented strategies should be seen more of a never ending process. The primary objective of benchmarking should be to understand the rigorous process rather than setting an eye over achievement of targets (Camp 1995 p.15). Understanding the process of benchmarking is of paramount importance. There are various ways of benchmarking with respect to the business. The process of benchmarking used for Bankstown Council area to support its local business community is best illustrated by the model of APQC. The whole process is divided into four simple yet logical steps:- Step 01:- The needs and requirement of the council is brought into light, collection of information from secondary or primary sources is done. Planning for the local business community, organisational step up of banks town council must have all the data regarding the needs and aspiration of business community. Step 02: once the data is collected, a rigours process of interpretating the data qualitatively as well quantitatively will be the second step. Critical analyses will result in setting up the priority areas which will further help us to come with our action plan. Step 03: Based upon the critical analyze, certain policies of Bankstown council have to be re adapted in order to best suit the needs of local business community. This step will guide the council organisation to prioritize which policy is to be scrapped or what policy level changes have to be made. Step 04: Once the adaption of certain policy level framework, it’s the work of planning branch to come up with the proposal having the best of what business community wants and what the council based upon suitable allocation of resource and fund can offer. The final proposal should always be discussed with the primary stockholders.

Matrix to be used for selection of organisation

Determinants of Selection of Council	Reason
Population	Population as primary stockholder must be considered.
SEIFA Rating	Selection of council based on higher rating will result in development of broader perspective goals.
Industry	In order to draw comparison, Selection of councils should have same industry base as Bankstown.
Land use	Being a primary resource, area decides quantative volume of intervention at planning level.

Source: Author The selected council shall have population equal to or greater than the present population of Bankstown, it will result in clear picture as per resource allocation is concerned. The SEIFA rating is a direct indicator of social well being status of the people. Same type of industry base will result in case studies based on similar problems. Land use being the primary mode of intervention required is a constraint of planning. Based upon the following above given factors, two councils have been selected:- 1: Holdfast Bay (Adel) 2: Melville (Perth) A comparison has been shown below as per population density, SEIFA Rating etc. to have a clear picture of our understanding of all 3 councils. Figure 2 Comparison of Bankstown council against two selected Source: CMI Matrix

Matrix for comparison of organisation Initiatives

Source: Author From the above matrix, it is clear that Bankstown needs certain indigenous Business oriented measures to safe guard its community’s interest. Although The GSP share of all three council is very much similar, but the SEIFA rating present a striking feature for Bankstown council. Both Local Business and local jobs are currently growing but so do the rate of unemployment, which is very high as compared to both the councils. The Melville Council’s dedicated focus on Business Ethics is an important chapter foster the business in a rightful manner. Both Holdfast Bay and Melville focus on developing community relationship by creating a dedicated business oriented community infrastructure. The need to create diverse economic base is very much important. Both Melville Council & Holdfast Bay promoted and support creation on more than one economic base in order to reduce the dependency over one business sector, while in case of Bankstown, the dependency on manufacturing industry is proving to be a little chaotic. There is a huge gap in rate of unemployment in Bankstown Council as other two. The reason being the migration for the Bankstown Council, many people who are counted in local jobs and business survey are primarily come to work from other areas which is not the case with other two councils.

Renewal of Goals, Strategies & Targets

The banks town council needs to work on creating a secondary economic base to create a multi cultured workforce. All the goals and policies of the Bankstown council are focussing on present needs and present population. The need to think and plan for the future is of paramount importance. A detailed SWOT analysis is given below to review the goals, strategies and Targets of the Bankstown Council:- Strengths: - It is clear from the matrix that, Bankstown council has largest share of local jobs & local business. It is the main strength upon which future predictions are to be planned. The share of GRP in Gross State Product is also a strength which is the greatest positive asset considering the increased rate of unemployment. Weakness: - Increase rate of unemployment is a major weakness which needs to taken into consideration. The creation of secondary industry like retail, construction can act as counter measure to check the unemployment rate. Low rate of education is also linked with the unemployment. Opportunities: - Creating secondary sector of employment generation to check the rate of unemployment is an opportunity. Developing resource planning will be helpful in selecting the potential areas of the council. Focussing on awareness about the low rate of employment as a factor of less educated people in council can be an opportunity which will serve dual purpose. Threats: - The rate of migration is a threat which has resulted in increase rate of unemployment, checking the migration of those who go out for work and for those who come to work are both of primary importance. Policy level understanding should be made to intervene in minimizing the threats.

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