Computer assisted benchmarking system and method using induction based artificial intelligence

A computerized method of business performance benchmarking to inductively identify key factors that drive towards a specific outcome value, comprising:

• obtaining business performance information for a plurality of business entities from one or more representatives of, or consultants to, each business entity, the business performance information including (i) a first set of performance criteria covering various different business performance areas, each performance criterion of the first set of performance criteria having an associated value for scoring the performance of the plurality of the business entities, and (ii) an outcome value representing a rank or state of the business entity;
• and
• using a data processor, applying a classification and regression tree algorithm to jointly evaluate the first set of performance criteria and associated values for each of the plurality of business entities, and using said outcome value, automatically identify an optimal subset of performance criteria that most contribute to the outcome value for said plurality of business entities,
• wherein said associated value to each performance criterion is a number chosen from a range of at least four possible numbers corresponding to how well a company implements or accomplishes the given business performance criterion.