The industry-low, industry-average, and industry-high cost benchmarks that appear on p

The industry-low, industry-average, and industry-high cost benchmarks that appear on p. 6 of of the Footwear Industry Report are of value only to the managers of companies having negative operating profit per p one of more geographic regions. are worth careful scrutiny by the managers of all companies because when the benchm data signals that a company's costs for one or more of the benchmarks are out-of-line, are well advised to take corrective action in the next decision round. are most valuable to the managers of companies whose cost benchmarks are above the average and/or who are looking for evidence to confirm the need to substantially increas efforts to secure celebrity endorsements in the upcoming decision round in order to help branded market share away from rivals. are of considerable value to the managers of companies pursuing a low-cost strategy but very limited value to company managers employing other types of strategies. are of little value because the benchmarking data do not identify which companies have t lowest/highest costs for any of these cost benchmarks.