1. Why Recreate The Wheel? Using
Best Practices in the Workplace
August |2010

2. Why Recreate The Wheel? Using Best Practices in the
Workplace
Many a company aspiring to be a trendsetter or market leader like an Apple or a
McDonalds doesn’t have to be as innovative as them to succeed in their respective
sectors / countries – they just need to learn (and borrow liberally) from the best…
Be it in the products or services they sell, the channels they sell them through, or
in the way they communicate with potential and existing customers, companies
are constantly looking to outdo their competitors, trying to gain an edge in any
way possible. Quite often, these efforts fail, with no discernible advantage gained,
and significant financial and human resources wasted. Some companies fail
because they try to bring something brand new to the market but receive little
response to their offering, others fail because they rely on a certain strategy that
just doesn’t fit their set of circumstances.
Companies need not recreate the wheel when they try to enhance themselves;
rather, they can do what thousands of others before them have done – copy from
the best. There are cases abound of companies that have gained an advantage in
their market / sector in this manner, though few admit it. Some examples that
have been openly announced and documented include:
Danaher Corporation: Considered by many to be the USA’s most successfully
managed conglomerate, the company openly admits its “Danaher Business
System” (a set of management tools, which it cites as the main reason for its
success) is borrowed liberally from the famed Toyota (TM ) Production System.
The program requires all employees (be it the CEO or a janitor) find ways to get
things done in a better manner every day. Over the past two decades, Danaher
has returned 25% to its shareholders annually, far outpacing companies like GE
(16%) and Berkshire Hathaway (21%), two other conglomerates in their market.
BankAtlantic: Struggling to grow, the US bank rebranded itself as “Florida’s Most
Convenient Bank” in 2002. The branding and strategy was almost completely
taken from Commerce Bank, a larger and highly successful bank operating in
another region in the country. By staying open seven days a week and until
midnight at some locations, the bank was able to grow impressively with this new
strategy – in 2001, the year before the rebranding, the bank managed to open
only 40,000 checking accounts – in 2006, this figure was up to 270,000.
Woolworth’s: Constantly learning and benefiting from the practices of its global
peers Tesco and Wal-Mart, Australia’s largest retailer Woolworth’s copied Tesco’s
model of selling fuel via it’s retail network (a practice which has been extremely
successful and profitable for Tesco, as they are now the UK’s largest fuel retailer).
Fuel-related income now account for 12% of the company’s overall revenues.

3. Ryanair – Another company that openly touts it copied another company’s model,
the European airline was losing significant money in its first six years of operation.
The airline’s executives then studied Southwest Airline’s operating model in the
USA, and copied many aspects of it. Ryanair is now highly successful, carrying over
60 million passengers last year alone. Most recently, the airline copied
Southwest’s customer software program “Ding,” which allows consumers to get
special offers, by launching its own version called “Bing.”
Ikea: This behemoth furniture company was inspired by Caesars Palace in the US
when designing its store layouts. The casino was the first to launch a routing
model whereby its hotel guests have to walk through the casino before they get
to check in to the hotel, a scheme which significantly boosted the company’s
casino revenues (as people can’t help but want to gamble when walking through
the casino). Ikea used the same concept in designing the layout of its stores,
whereby customers have to walk through the entire store to get to the checkout
registers – thus driving up the average basket, as people tend to buy things they
normally wouldn’t when forced to visit the entire store.
Companies looking to rely on best practices in bettering themselves need be
careful, however. Each best practice must be thoroughly vetted from numerous
perspectives before making a decision on whether to copy it or not. We
recommend the best practice be looked at from five specific perspectives before
making such a decision:
1. Recency: How recently the practice was a success is important – borrowing
an idea that has long since been bettered won’t do, as competitors will copy the
newer practice and achieve more success in the process (i.e. using physical cards
rather than mobile phones as the loyalty program mechanism, with mobile
phones slowly but surely replacing physical cards in many countries / sectors).
2. Relevancy: What works in one market or sector may not work in another.
The practice has to be applicable in one’s own environment – taking into
consideration one’s competitors and their offerings, the customer base, the
country culture and dynamics, regulations, etc. (i.e. trying to apply the drive-
through lane concept in a fast-food chain that has restaurants primarily located in
urban areas where there is little room for expansion).
3. Measurability: The relied on best practice must have actually contributed to
the bottom line of the company being mimicked – just because it’s the practice of
a given successful company doesn’t mean it’s the best practice out there (i.e.
copying any given aspect of Wal-Mart simply because of their overall success,
when some of their practices may not be). The measurable benefits it has brought
the company should be understood before making a decision to launch a similar
practice.
4. Feasibility: The concept here being that not all companies have the capability
or skill-set for applying a given practice, the abilities and / or limitations of one’s

4. own company need to be considered before trying to mimic another. What
benefits Tesco achieves from its best-in-class loyalty program cannot be achieved
by a small grocery store chain in a third-world country that does not have the
capabilities or skill-set for doing so – in this case, it requires extensive data-mining
and scientific marketing capabilities (skills which can be difficult to find in
employees even in advanced countries).
5. Compatibility: Whatever practice is to be copied needs to be compatible and
aligned with one’s own high-level strategy, vision, and employees, as a mismatch
around this can cause the enhancement effort to fail. An organization and its
culture cannot be transformed overnight, thus requiring a careful assessment of
the intended change and the overall impact it may have on the company (i.e.
bringing in a Six Sigma quality management program to a company that has never
had a performance management system in place and has employees that radically
resist being measured, simply because a company in another country in the same
sector began using the program and achieved significant results from it).
We recommend that companies make researching and understanding the
practices of best-in-class peers around the world a part of everyday business. The
rapidness in which companies now need to evolve and adapt to better serve their
customers requires adeptness and readiness, which can only come through having
a deep sense of the best practices out there at any given time.
Of course, there is no substitute for innovation (especially at companies like BMW
or Google, or those in advanced markets like Japan or the UK) – copying from the
best only works if there is someone out there doing it better. But for others,
relying on best practices to better themselves is a proven and sound method for
gaining an advantage against competitors. As highlighted above, however, simply
because one company succeeded from the practice doesn’t mean it’s going to
work everywhere.

5. About Forte Consultancy Group
Forte Consultancy Group delivers fact-based solutions, balancing short and long term
impact as well as benefits for stakeholders. Forte Consultancy Group provides a variety
of service offerings for numerous sectors, approached in three general phases –
intelligence, design and implementation.
For more information, please contact
info@forteconsultancy.com
Forte Consultancy Group | Istanbul Office
www.forteconsultancy.com