Benchmarking is defined as the process of identifying, studying, and implementing best practices in executing strategy. Suppose you are managing a local landscaping company. How would you justify the use of benchmarking for your business?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Benchmarking enables managers to look outward to find best practices and then to develop the data for measuring how well a company's own performance of an activity stacks up against the best-practice standard. Benchmarking best practices may well prove to be more complicated than simply identifying which companies are the best performers of a particular garden maintenance or, more generally, any organizational activity and then trying to imitate their approaches-especially if these companies are in other industries besides landscaping. Normally, the best practices of other organizations must be adapted to fit the specific circumstances of your own business, strategy, and operating requirements. Since each organization is unique, the telling part of any best-practice initiative is how well your staff puts its own version of the best practice into place and makes it work and ingrains the activity in the culture of your organization.