The master thesis is focused on Evaluation of the Company´s Financial Performance Using Benchmarking Approach. The master thesis consists of three following parts. The first part deals with theoretical methods, especially benchmarking realization and its different types and models. The second part contains evaluation of the current situation in OBB stavební materiály s.r.o. and compares its business to others using benchmarking method. I used public data from financial annual accounts and database Amadeus. The last part includes complete evaluation of the company´s financial performance and recommendation on improvemet of the financial performance in company OBB stavební materiály s.r.o.

Grandes transformações sociais, concomitantemente ao crescimento da atividade industrial e seu consequente impacto no meio ambiente, fizeram com que a preservação ecológica se tornasse parte importante das estratégias organizacionais. Conceitualmente, o desenvolvimento sustentável das organizações busca o equilíbrio entre as variáveis econômica, social e ecológica. Deste modo, com o intuito de verificar se as práticas de proteção ambiental das empresas são recompensadas pelo mercado, este estudo teve o objetivo de analisar, por meio da utilização de técnicas de análise fatorial e de ferramentas computacionais, a existência de correlação entre o desempenho financeiro e o desempenho ambiental de uma amostra de empresas posicionadas entre as maiores organizações, em valor de mercado, listadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo - Bovespa. Por meio da filtragem de informações, a amostra e o número de variáveis foram reduzidos, a fim de se obter um banco de dados sem informações faltantes, permitindo a aplicação das técnicas estatísticas com maior grau de confiabilidade. Considerando os indicadores analisados nos cruzamentos de fatores rotacionados realizados na presente pesquisa, os resultados obtidos revelam a independência entre os dois grupos de variáveis, concluindo que o desempenho ambiental das empresas não impacta sobre o desempenho financeiro das mesmas. / Great social changes, along with the growth of industrial activity and its consequent impact on the environment, caused the ecological preservation became an important part of organizational strategies. Conceptually, sustainable development of organizations seeks a balance between economic, social and ecological variables related to business operations. Thus, in order to verify if the environmental protection practices of companies are rewarded by the market, this study aims to analyze, through the use of means of factorial analysis and computational tools, the existence of a correlation between the financial performance and environmental performance of a sample of companies placed among the largest organizations in market value, listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange - Bovespa. Through filtering of information, the sample and the number of variables were reduced in order to obtain a database without missing information, allowing the application of statistical techniques with higher degree of reliability. Whereas the indicators analyzed in the crosses of rotated factors performed in this study, the results show the independence between the two groups of variables, concluding that the environmental performance of companies has no impact on the financial performance of the same.

Grandes transformações sociais, concomitantemente ao crescimento da atividade industrial e seu consequente impacto no meio ambiente, fizeram com que a preservação ecológica se tornasse parte importante das estratégias organizacionais. Conceitualmente, o desenvolvimento sustentável das organizações busca o equilíbrio entre as variáveis econômica, social e ecológica. Deste modo, com o intuito de verificar se as práticas de proteção ambiental das empresas são recompensadas pelo mercado, este estudo teve o objetivo de analisar, por meio da utilização de técnicas de análise fatorial e de ferramentas computacionais, a existência de correlação entre o desempenho financeiro e o desempenho ambiental de uma amostra de empresas posicionadas entre as maiores organizações, em valor de mercado, listadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo - Bovespa. Por meio da filtragem de informações, a amostra e o número de variáveis foram reduzidos, a fim de se obter um banco de dados sem informações faltantes, permitindo a aplicação das técnicas estatísticas com maior grau de confiabilidade. Considerando os indicadores analisados nos cruzamentos de fatores rotacionados realizados na presente pesquisa, os resultados obtidos revelam a independência entre os dois grupos de variáveis, concluindo que o desempenho ambiental das empresas não impacta sobre o desempenho financeiro das mesmas. / Great social changes, along with the growth of industrial activity and its consequent impact on the environment, caused the ecological preservation became an important part of organizational strategies. Conceptually, sustainable development of organizations seeks a balance between economic, social and ecological variables related to business operations. Thus, in order to verify if the environmental protection practices of companies are rewarded by the market, this study aims to analyze, through the use of means of factorial analysis and computational tools, the existence of a correlation between the financial performance and environmental performance of a sample of companies placed among the largest organizations in market value, listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange - Bovespa. Through filtering of information, the sample and the number of variables were reduced in order to obtain a database without missing information, allowing the application of statistical techniques with higher degree of reliability. Whereas the indicators analyzed in the crosses of rotated factors performed in this study, the results show the independence between the two groups of variables, concluding that the environmental performance of companies has no impact on the financial performance of the same.

Anecdotal data affirms that companies applying Lean Six Sigma in their operations not only deliver higher quality products and services, but also obtain superior financial results. The goal of this research was to empirically verify anecdotal data. The study proposed to analyze a group of publicly traded manufacturing companies with the intent of verifying if a correlation exists between companies being lean and the attainment of superior returns on investments. The researcher performed a series of statistical tests comparing key Financial Performance Indicators (FPI) extracted from annual reports (10-K) from a large pool of companies. The outcome of this study showed that superior financial rewards result from a systematic application of lean and quality tools. At the conclusion of this thesis we verified that companies having a business model that stimulates a high level of communication between them and their markets - because they are lean - obtained substantially higher financial advantages when compared to companies that still followed a more traditional mode of production. The results also revealed that lean companies obtained on average Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) 10% higher than mass producers. Therefore, companies wanting to strategically invest their capital should consider Lean Six Sigma as a source of competitive advantage. Another strategic insight derived from this study was the recognition of signs of a smart business. Potential investors should look for the presence of lean and quality improvement programs as one sign that capital is being wisely invested to generate value. Another sign is how well historically ROIC have performed against Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). The research revealed that, on average, lean companies had ROIC of 16%. Assuming that the hurdle rate (WACC) for most companies is near 10%, having ROIC of 16% is an incentive to become lean, thus allowing such companies to create value for their shareholders. Finally, we learned that many factors affect ROIC, namely, brand equity, market positioning, patents, core competency, innovation, leadership, etc. However, the presence of a Lean Six Sigma program in a manufacturing business was a strong positive factor impacting ROIC.

The productivity advances generated from lean manufacturing are self-evident. Plants that adopt lean are more capable of achieving high levels of quality, shorter lead times, and less waste in the system. While it seems logical that higher levels of productivity and quality, as is common in lean companies, should result in positive financial performance, the research community has failed to establish the financial profitability of lean. Those researchers who have studied the financial returns issue report varying results. The goal of this research was to determine if a connection exists between lean and financial success and to discover why so many researchers are finding mixed results. Information Velocity (IV) was theorized to provide the solidifying link between lean and financial performance. Measured by combining the environmental volatility with a company's leanness, IV measures how fast a company can transmit information from the market into a customer-satisfying product in the hands of the consumer. This study analyzed over 530 publicly-traded manufacturing companies to validate the following hypotheses: 1) there is a positive relationship between leanness and financial returns, 2) there is a negative relationship between environmental volatility and financial returns, and 3) there is a positive relationship between IV and financial returns. Regression models were run in various combinations to determine the effect of lean, environmental instability, environmental unpredictability, and IV on financial performance indicators such as return on sales (ROS), return on assets (ROA), and quarter-closing stock price. The outcome of this study showed that financial rewards do result from lean, which positively affected financial performance in almost all scenarios. Environmental instability always negatively correlated with financial returns, and IV mostly shows a positive effect, but with mixed results. Lastly, IV does not explain why researchers find mixed results on the profitability measures of lean. The results of this thesis highlight the significance of implementing lean manufacturing, especially in a dynamic environment. As the instability in the environment increases, profitability decreases. Therefore, an increase in leanness by boosting inventory turns can compensate for the volatility and create enhanced productivity measures and financial results.