^The APQC Blog

In a previous blog post on product development, I presented some key cross-industry benchmarks. But what if you want to be more specific in your benchmarking? APQC has created a collection of product development benchmarks for those wanting to know performance within specific industries.

On January 1, 2013, final passage of the “fiscal cliff bill,” otherwise known as the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, averted scheduled income tax increases and spending reduction requirements, much to the relief of many. However, this new Act also retroactively reinstates for 2012 many fixed asset management tax provisions that expired at the end of 2011. Included below is an excerpt from Title III in the Act.

According to the feedback I get, improving how knowledge management initiatives are measured is a popular resolution for 2013. After all, effective tracking and assessment is the best way to show value, prove your business case, and hone your program over time.

If you’re reevaluating your approach, I recommend starting with these simple lessons learned from our resident KM gurus Carla O’Dell and Cindy Hubert:

Many organizations wonder how they can use social media to assist with process improvement initiatives. This article by Adi Gaskell, courtesy of the Process Excellence Network (PEX), offers five suggestions for how to implement these tools.

Let’s face it—the performance review process as most of us know it is broken. For too many companies, the performance management process is a purely administrative exercise, with HR pros forced to strong-arm managers to complete wayward reviews so annual increases have some type of justification.

In a previous blog post, I discussed steps organizations are taking to comply with the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) despite a lack of rules from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforcing the law. On January 4, the FDA initiated a 120-day comment period on the first two rules designed to enforce the law.

In APQC’s 2012 December financial management community call, Mary Driscoll, senior research fellow at APQC, and Wayne Daigle, managing director at Business Performance Collaborative, discuss what they think the top priorities are for finance functions in 2013.

APQC’s analysis of consulting procurement practices finds that pricing pressure should be less intense in 2013.

In 2012, 94 percent of organizations surveyed by APQC said they expected larger fee discounts (below book rates) than the year before; that percentage plummets to 14 percent in 2013. In fact, 72 percent expect less discounting in 2013 than in 2012 and 13 percent have no change in expectations.

As we move into 2013, many organizations are planning for change. The Harvard Business Review Blog Network ran a piece about the emerging trends in process and process improvement: Three Examples of New Process Strategy.

Today’s HR functions are performing moderately well. What will it take to reach a higher level of HR performance in the future? Read our latest human capital management white paper Making the Journey from Moderate to High-Performance HR to find out.