Tools that can be helpful in diagnosing the need for or triggering change include benchmarking
and gap analysis (Frost, 2003; Hussey, 1997). Benchmarking consists of comparing your firm’s
processes to other similar firms in the same or other industries, or comparing your firm’s
practices to known “best practices.” Similarly, gap analysis is used to measure the gap between
where the firm currently stands and where you want the firm to be. The gap is analyzed and a
strategy is devised to get the firm from its current reality to its desired state.
Another tool that is important in a pre-change period is a balanced scorecard (Kaplan and Norton,
1992). It considers a company’s mission and strategy from four key perspectives:
1. How do customers see us?
2. What are the internal processes where must we excel?
3. How can we continue to improve or create value?
4. How do we look to shareholders?
The goal of a balanced scorecard is to identify a handful of measures that are most critical to the
company in each of these four areas and track them over time.