Rank 7 is top !

The benchmark as a target
In Hannes' company, demanding and demanding objectives are the management's creed. "More is always possible", "There's always room for improvement", "You're never satisfied" are slogans that are unobtrusively drilled into the entire workforce.

Pursuing ambitious goals also means setting goals that are demanding. "We want to become one of the providers in our submarket with one of the three highest customer satisfaction scores. That is a clearly measurable statement.

These statistics are published annually, so that we know where we stand and can either sit back, try harder or pretend things are better.

The problem is that the company in which Hannes is a member of the management board is currently ranked 7th out of 10. But that doesn't stop the CEO from demanding that next year, rank 3 is the minimum.

The goal remains - our place is at the top
The goal of finishing third has been renewed again and again for the past five years. After all, the constant drumbeat that third place is the minimum place that "we" deserve did not work in the first year. And you can't expect that to happen. So they doubled the volume and enlarged the posters. Nevertheless: Rank 7 remained as permanently assigned until recently. They didn't want to say "step in place". So they changed the context: "Basically, holding the rank is already a success, if you take into account the marketing resources of the competition. And just like that, everyone was satisfied.

Last year, however, the hammer came down: 8th place. The motto was: now more than ever! With an unprecedented training offensive and also thanks to the fact that the competitor in 5th place has ceased business for strategic reasons and is no longer represented in the benchmark, the latest result was eagerly awaited.

Almost there
Rank 7! The management can no longer be held back. Euphorically, a staff party is organized without further ado to thank them for the fantastic result. Never before has the company improved its ranking since the benchmark was measured.

Rank 3 now really seems to be within reach and only a result-cosmic nuance away. This is also clear: the gap between third and seventh place today is smaller than the gap between third and seventh place in the past. This is not only encouraging, but also clearly shows that our efforts have paid off.

All in all, Hannes is happy. He sees once again how any result can be achieved with targeted measurements, as long as you define it clearly after the measurement.