The benchmark trap

Eric, a ten-year-old aspiring top manager, is caught copying in his German paper at school. Does he apologize? No, because, "That wasn't copying," he trumpets, "more like cross-book benchmarking to increase the competitiveness of my German essay." And is he embarrassed? No! Because corporate managers are doing just as Eric was told by his father...

The art of transcription

knows. Except that in the world of big management, writing off is called "benchmarking". Whole armies of managers have learned the art of copying in business schools around the world. Why develop ideas yourself? There is benchmarking. What sounds good in theory has fatal consequences in practice: Entire industries are caught in the benchmarking trap today. Everyone looks at the supposed best and copies them. One company ventures out with something new, the rest looks to see if it works. And if it does, they copy it without restraint. The result: everyone talks about innovations, but the products that emerge are almost like two peas in a pod.

Benchmarking leads to uniformity

You don't have to look far for examples. Just turn on your radio. No matter which private station you listen to, the "super hits of the 80s and 90s and the best of today" are constantly being touted to you. And most of the radio hosts sound like lottery ticket sellers: "Call now and guess the mystery sound. For only 49 cents a call." Have you ever wondered why, no matter where you listen, you hear roughly the same programming? Because all stations benchmark and rely on the same recipes for success.

Or go to the supermarket. Detergent number 1 promises you the cleanest cleanliness, detergent number 2 the whitest whiteness and detergent number 3 the most colourful colours. The wet razor industry is also more concerned with blade benchmarking than with creativity: the first manufacturer launched a razor with two blades, followed by another with three, and yet another with four.

The same phenomenon in the automotive industry. Do the following self-experiment: take a Toyota Avensis, stick an Opel sign on it and drive through the city. How long before someone notices you're not driving an Opel? Probably forever.

Take the test: Benchmark trap

"Opel builds great cars." You could hear this phrase over and over again in recent months. And it's true. Just as great cars as the competition. But try to name one model that stands out from the crowd.

• The Corsa: Isn't that Opel's Polo?
• The Insignia: such a hybrid of Audi and BMW.
• The Meriva: like the Espace, only smaller.

Of course, the experts will tell you that the design lines are more curved on the Opel. And die-hard Opel fans will curse as they read this. But hand on heart: the

Uniqueness is difficult to copy

Opel models are as unique as an ice floe in the Antarctic. Consistently ranked third to fourth in every category. It used to be different: The Manta and the Kapitän were unique. But then came the benchmarkers.

Is your company stuck in the Opel trap? Have you been benchmarking so much that you've lost creativity and originality? Take the test. If you agree with two of the following three statements, your company could be deep in the trap:

• We look at the competition and react to what is happening there.
• Putting the finer points aside, we are hardly different from our competitors.
• Our products are often described as, "Same as the product from...,only smaller/bigger/cheaper/faster."

You can apply these three "questions" to different parts of your company. And: A company can be original and copy at the same time. Just like ZDF. Would you have thought that you could lure young people in front of the TV with documentaries? ZDF has done it. With History, a series that is unique. A real original! At the same time, however, the station is caught in the benchmark trap. The show "Ich kann Kanzler" was one of the big flops of 2009. Oh, you don't know "Ich kann Kanzler"? It was a rip-off of the casting show "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" with boring wannabe young politicians.

Out of the trap - with Thomas Edison

What did an inventor like Thomas Edison, who founded companies like General Electrics, do differently than the management of many companies? The light bulb, the phonograph (predecessor of the gramophone), and the motion picture camera - all of these inventions of his were pioneering achievements. They were the opposite of benchmarking. Edison knew how to structure, direct and guide his creativity. He linked idea generation and strategic thinking. What would Thomas Edison advise you as a business leader today?

1. impose a ban on copying

You often hear phrases from benchmarking fetishists like, "Even Thomas Edison stole from others." That's right! One of the light bulb inventor's most famous phrases was, "The idea need not be new. It only has to be new in terms of the problem to be solved.

Role model: Thomas Edison

Problem." Edison was known for soaking up outside solutions. He said of himself, "more of a sponge than an inventor." But he did not simply copy ideas. The concept of the light bulb came from a German emigrant, Heinrich Goebel. But Edison developed it into a complete system - from market-ready light bulbs to wires to power plants. Allowed: To absorb ideas from everywhere and develop unique new ideas from them. Forbidden is: Blindly copying ideas with marginal changes.

2. establish a strategic development of ideas

How do you invent Mickey Mouse? Walt Disney would answer: with imagination and visionary thinking, with the courage to do the unusual and a pioneering spirit. And a manager? Through a precisely defined innovation process in which the results of trend and market research are systematically summarized and decision criteria are clearly defined.

Managers have learned to think in processes. In many (large) companies today, sophisticated processes conceal a lack of ideas. And in their management, the credo often prevails: good ideas are a matter of chance. Yet Thomas Edison proved as early as the end of the nineteenth century that it is possible to develop new (problem-solving and product) ideas systematically. The Edison principle, his six steps of idea development, was the basis of the idea factory he built in the USA.

3. encourage errors and risks

Analyze long and thoroughly, try once and then give up. That, in a nutshell, sums up the innovation strategy of many companies. Avoid mistakes at all costs! Edison knew that this would not work. He elevated error to a principle: success through failure. He made almost 9000 attempts until the light bulb was ready for the market. And when, after the thousandth attempt, an employee said "We have failed", Edison replied: "I have not failed. I now know a thousand ways not to make a light bulb."

Remember Eric, the budding top executive? If he had already gone to business school, he wouldn't just write it off. The risk of writing off mistakes would be too great for him. Instead, he would adopt the much-publicized "fast follower" strategy: "First I'll see what Carlotta and Pia's grades are, and then I'll decide who to copy from. At many business schools, managers are taught the opposite of the Edison principle: zero risk, first see what works elsewhere, and then we do it.

This cannot work. Because mistakes are essential for learning. Edison once referred to the knowledge he drew from mistakes as "the absolute knowledge." So take calculated risks. Create spaces of failure. Allow yourself (and your employees) to take steps forward and backward

Scope for failure

And don't be afraid of hitting a dead end! You'll get out again, don't worry.

And what would be the alternative? "Benchmarking" or "writing off." With the consequences visible everywhere: confusable products, almost identical processes as well as strategies or, in short, mediocrity. Mediocrity has never been top