About Benchmarking Partnerships
Connecting people, knowledge and ideas

What we do
Benchmarking Partnerships is a benchmarking firm based in Australia with global reach. We partner people in different organizations and different industries so that through shared learning and partnership networking they can rapidly improve.

How we do it
We do this by facilitating think tanks, sharing of best practices and ideas leadership through networking and benchmarking to help organizations to accelerate improvement. Bruce Searles and Anton Benc are the founders and front line managing partners of all projects with all customers delivering a boutique customer outcome focused service.

Networks for you

Our networks include over 5,000 people across Australia, Asia, NZ and also extend into other continents internationally. These networks include partnerships with the Asian Productivity Organization – (we are the APO designated benchmarking experts to support 20 Asian countries), NZ Business Excellence Foundation (NZBEF), BPIR.com Ltd (New Zealand), Singapore Productivity Association (SPA), Thailand Productivity Institute (FTPI), Training and Productivity Authority of Fiji (TPAF) and the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC). The networks also include partnerships with high value topic experts for processes like Measurement, Innovation, Project Management, Strategy Deployment, Leadership, People Management, Customer and Marketing, Strategic Planning etc. We are a Board Member of the Global Benchmarking Network Community which has members from the UK, Czech Republic, Dubai, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mauritius, Moldavia, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Canada and the USA.

How we started
We commenced as sole Benchmarking delivery partners with the Australian Quality Council (AQC), a not-for-profit peak body recognized by the Commonwealth of Australia to facilitate business excellence and productivity improvements amongst Australian public and private sector organisations.

Our core products and services include:

• Best practice learning and sharing workshops – you can host your own best practice workshop to learn best practices to improve your strategic needs – we bring the best practices and networking to you
• Business Excellence Study Tours (B.E.S.T.)
• Partnership benchmarking networks and Communities of Practice
• Telemark telephone conferences – to share and learn ideas on a specific topic
• Strategic prioritization of improvement needs - In-house workshops (1/2 day) to innovatively rethink and prioritise your business improvement needs
• Key Performance Indicator development, Gap analysis and benchmark reports. These have included benchmarks of KPIs relating to OHS / Safety, Corporate Services efficiency and effectiveness, Power Generation – nominate your need and we’ll help you to develop and benchmark your KPIs
  1. How to do benchmarking workshops and training for senior management and benchmarking teams
  2. Organisational capability assessments & Operational excellence
  3. Workshops and in-house training to share known best practices from our benchmarking on Innovation, Customer Relationship Management, Strategic Value Creation, Organisational Excellence, Business Intelligence, Project Management, Recognition & Reward, Supply Chain, Strategic Planning etc
  4. Facilitation of Process Innovation to develop recommendations within 3-4 days – Strategic Business Process Re-engineering, generally saving between 30 to 50% of costs and significantly improving quality
  5. Diagnostics and analyses to assess organizational maturity linked to international business excellence frameworks, employee climate surveys and for core processes

New initiatives in 2008/2009

• We do the benchmarking for you – find and report the best practices according to your focused needs
• Networking luncheon Forums
• On - line benchmark capability assessments
• International benchmarking workshops, study tours and Roadshows in Canada and India
• Tailored Business Excellence Frameworks and Self Assessments to suit your organisation
• Training courses in Benchmarking, Basics of Quality and the Tools, Customer Focus Excellence, Strategic Planning to Results etc – public and in-house
• NZ best practice workshops to extend your networking opportunities
• Collect benchmark KPI data to suit your needs
• Best Practice Compendiums on selected topics
• International Business Excellence Knowledge Management Study Tour in Germany

Brief History

• Appointed by Asian Productivity Organization as Benchmarking Experts
• Led over 100 different benchmarking studies in Australia and Internationally involving over 1,000 organizations in Australia and Asia. Topics have included Innovation, Project Management, Risk Management, Senior Executive Leadership, Internal Communications, Leading and Managing Change, Telephone Call Centres, Supply Chain Management, Construction Industry, Food Risk Management and Safety, Client Service & Satisfaction and Finance.
• Previously sole delivery partners for benchmarking for Australian Quality Council (AQC), a not-for-profit peak body recognized by the Commonwealth as the peak body for business improvement in Australia. We have continued to conduct the benchmarking services since then, as we purchased the AQC’s benchmarking intellectual property.
• Bruce Searles has been an Accredited Delivery Partner for Benchmarking with the Australian Quality Council (AQC) and is Director for Benchmarking Partnerships, who now own Australian Quality Council Benchmarking. He has delivered training and international presentations on benchmarking in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, USA, Nepal, Seoul, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Canada and Taipei. He leads the strategic relationship and benchmarking projects with the Asian Productivity Organisation, Singapore Productivity Association, FTPI in Thailand, Development Academy of the Philippines, Training and productivity Authority of Fiji (TPAF), NPC Malaysia, National Qualiy Institute in Canada and the APQC in the USA. Bruce has qualifications including Bachelor of Engineering, Masters of Engineering Science and Certificate IV in Quality Management (AQC). He is a Fellow of Engineers Australia. He was previously Executive for International Best Practice for Australia’s largest general insurance company (NRMA Limited). Locally, Bruce is assisting many public and private organisations to drive sustainable improvement from benchmarking projects and strategic business and action planning initiatives. Bruce is a member of Board of Directors for the Global Benchmarking Network.
• Anton Benc has been an Accredited Delivery Partner for the Australian Quality Council (AQC) and is Director for Benchmarking Partnerships, who now own Australian Quality Council Benchmarking. He has qualifications including  Bachelor of Electro-mechanical Engineering and Certificate IV in Quality Management (AQC). He is currently developing joint projects in conjunction with the NZ Business Excellence Foundation, pilot projects with SAI Global, Best Practice workshops in NZ and Australia and working across Australasia to plan and manage International Study Tours in Australia/ NZ. He is also involved in benchmarking partnerships with the APQC, Singapore Productivity Association and the NZ Business Excellence Foundation. Anton is a member of the Global Benchmarking Network (GBN). Locally, Anton is assisting many public and private organisations to drive sustainable improvement from benchmarking projects and strategic business and action planning initiatives. Anton previously was Project Director for the AQC, heading up the national benchmarking initiative responsible for the strategic development and business growth and running of the suite of national benchmarking network processes across Australia. 

Anton Benc: email: anton@benchmarkingpartnerships.com.au           Phone: 0409 145 033

Bruce Searles: email: bruce@benchmarkingpartnerships.com.au        Phone: 0418 267 794

Benchmarking is a Business Excellence tool for finding, adapting and implementing outstanding practices in order to achieve superior performance. Benchmarking comprises prioritisation of strategic improvement needs (the why), measurement (the what - the Benchmarks) and practices (the how – the doing of benchmarking). Re-measure tracks performance improvement.