Leaders are expected to always be a step ahead of their competition. However, without the utilization of applicable and needed tools it is difficult for organizations to become and to remain competitive. A tool that can be utilized to strengthen organizational performance and consequently enhance competitiveness is benchmarking. Benchmarking is an effective tool that allows organizations to improve upon existing ideas and techniques. It can also increase an organization's level of effectiveness, efficiency and overall performance.



Benchmarking helps evaluate factors that influence an organization's productivity in relation to the best practices regarding the same factors. More specifically, it systematically compares elements in an organization against those of other organizations within the same industry. Once this information is attained, leaders can use the experiences and knowledge of others in their industry to improve their own organization's processes. However, not only is analysis required to attain outside knowledge and experience, leaders need to also analyze the improvements that need to be made within their own organization. This factor is an important point to take into consideration, because benchmarking is not simply about make changes, it is about adding value to processes.

Benchmarking is an efficient way to make improvements. It decreases trial and error processes in the improvement process. It also decreases the time it takes for organizations to make improvements. Overall, benchmarking can be a simple or a complicated endeavor. The complexity associated with benchmarking is directly related to the strategies of organizational leaders.

There are numerous methods that can be employed in the development and implementation of benchmarking. Leaders need to identify problem areas or potential problem areas within their organization. This can be done in a number of ways, including: questionnaires, informal conversations with stakeholders, surveys, focus groups and quantitative research, etc. It is also important for leaders to focus on all factors that will have an impact on their organization's processes and performance. In addition, leaders need to identify organizations that are leaders in the same industry. Research may be required to determine who the industry leaders are and their best practice techniques. Once the applicable best practice techniques are ascertained, they can be tailored to fit existing processes within an organization. Thereby, improving critical business processes within an organization and helping it become a high performance organization.

Benchmarking is a valuable tool for organizations that want to improve goal setting, goal attaining and want to facilitate breakthrough improvements. This tool can be used by leaders to recognize and utilize new techniques, ideas and methods to improve their organization's effectiveness and efficiency. As a result of utilizing this tool, leaders will be better equipped to become a competitive organization in their industry.