How can you demonstrate the value of your organization compared to your peers?

​

Benchmark your organization against your peers to gauge your strengths and weaknesses, as well as to inform evidence-based decision making. Large organizations and governments that are responsible for multiple programs can use benchmarking to better understand their portfolio of programs.

 

TEN benchmarks organizations that support businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators, researchers, and community-builders in terms of their inputs, activities, and impacts on clients. Benchmarking on impacts is most critical because impact is what matters.

​

The figures below show example results from TEN’s benchmarking product. Each chart incorporates data from over 10,000 companies and each bar is derived from a program assessment.

​

In the figure below, each dot represents a program and the horizontal bars indicate the average score of all programs on the measure.  TEN uses survey respondents’ judgment of attribution to estimate impact on four standard measures of impact on company resources and capabilities (impact on business expertise, business linkages, financial linkages, promotional opportunities), and four standard measures of impact on performance (time to market, investments received, revenues, employment).  Because the approach abstracts from the specifics of program activities to consider impacts on company capabilities and performance, the results are comparable across a diverse range of programs.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Benchmarking Business Support Programs in terms of Impacts on Company Resources, Capabilities, and Performance

 

 

Two programs have been identified in the figures below. The first, X Services, shown in yellow, offers advisory services. The second, Y Services and funding, shown in dark blue, offers both advisory services and funding.

​

Not surprisingly, the program that offers both services and funding has a greater average impact on both the revenues and employment of client companies than the program that offers services only. Findings such as these indicate specific areas of performance improvement for our clients and support evidence based programming decisions.

 

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

​

​

 

​

​

Benchmark of Average Impact on Annual Revenues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benchmark of Average Impact on Employment

​

The following two charts weight the average impact by the number of companies served. When this additional information is taken into account the ranking of X Services improves considerably, while Y Services and funding improves in terms of impact on employment but falls one rank in terms of impact on revenues.

​

For the X Services organization these findings suggest that having a smaller impact on a larger number of clients can lead to important impacts on the economy by increasing revenues and employment in the communities served. Information such as this is useful for presentation to stakeholders and funding bodies as it shows the impact of the X Services organization in comparison to their peers, including those that provide funding to their clients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

Benchmark of Average Impact on Revenue * Number of Companies Served

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benchmark of Average Impact on Employment * Number of Companies Served

​