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How Management-Driven Companies Use Benchmarks to Beat Mediocrity

September 2, 2025

In my last post, I wrote about the dif­fer­ence between mar­ket-dri­ven and man­age­ment-dri­ven com­pa­nies. Mar­ket-dri­ven com­pa­nies ride the waves. Man­age­ment-dri­ven com­pa­nies set their own course.

One of the biggest dif­fer­ences? How they use benchmarks.

Two Ways to Use Bench­mark Data

Almost every com­pa­ny has access to bench­mark­ing these days — pub­lic fil­ings, indus­try reports, even AI-dri­ven tools. The ques­tion isn’t whether you have the data. The ques­tion is: what do you do with it?

We see two com­mon approaches:

  1. Bench for Aver­age – Some lead­ers breathe a sigh of relief when they see they’re ​“in the healthy range.” If they’re near the mid­dle of the pack, they feel com­fort­able. For them, aver­age is the aspiration.
  2. Bench for Best – Oth­ers zero in on the top per­form­ers. They ask: ​“Who’s set­ting the pace? What’s pos­si­ble? And how do we aim for that lev­el ourselves?”
Turn­ing Bench­marks Into Breakthroughs

One of our clients has been bench­mark­ing for more than a decade. Instead of set­tling for aver­age, they con­sis­tent­ly com­pared them­selves to the best-in-class — on rev­enue growth, mar­gins, EBIT­DA con­ver­sion, over­head ratios, and more.

At one point, their gross mar­gin sat in the low 20s. A com­peti­tor was achiev­ing over 40%. Instead of ratio­nal­iz­ing why they couldn’t match it, they asked: ​“If they can do it, why can’t we?”

That mind­set shift sparked inno­va­tion. They reimag­ined their busi­ness mod­el, launched new prod­ucts, and brought in exper­tise to make it real. With­in a few years, they too hit 40%+ mar­gins in some new lines of busi­nees — trans­form­ing profitability.

More recent­ly, a small bench­mark insight from a finan­cial part­ner inspired them to push a key met­ric up by four points. Every one of those points dropped straight to the bot­tom line.

Bench­mark­ing as a Mindset

The les­son is sim­ple: bench­marks can either jus­ti­fy medi­oc­rity or inspire greatness.

  • Mar­ket-dri­ven com­pa­nies use bench­marks to con­firm they’re ​“okay.”
  • Man­age­ment-dri­ven com­pa­nies use them as fuel — to stretch, inno­vate, and chase excellence.

It reminds me of a T‑shirt I saw: ​“Defeat the fear of being mediocre.”

Chal­lenge 

If you look at how your lead­er­ship team uses bench­mark data today, would you say you’re:

  • Using it to val­i­date com­fort with the mid­dle or using it to set chal­lenges that push you toward greatness?

Because in a com­pet­i­tive world, ​“aver­age” is rarely safe. The best lead­ers set the bar high — and then inspire their teams to clear it.

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About Lawrence & Co.
Lawrence & Co. is a growth strategy and leadership advisory firm that helps mid-market companies achieve lasting, reliable growth. Our Growth Management System turns 30 years of experience into practical steps that drive clarity, alignment, and performance—so leaders can grow faster, with less friction, and greater confidence.

About Kevin Lawrence
Kevin Lawrence has spent three decades helping companies scale from tens of millions to hundreds of millions in revenue. He works side-by-side with CEOs and leadership teams across North America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Europe, bringing real-world insights from hands-on experience. Kevin is the author of Your Oxygen Mask First, a book of 17 habits to help high-performing leaders grow sustainably while protecting their mental health and resilience. He also contributed to Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0). Based in Vancouver, he leads Lawrence & Co, a boutique firm of growth advisors.