Explaining The Concept Benchmarking Marketing Assignment (Essay Sample)

Benchmarking
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Benchmarking
Competition is proving vexing to every business. Therefore, every business needs to understand the industry it is operating in. The ‘how’ and ‘what’ to improve in a business is becoming a global concern hence necessitating benchmarking.
Benchmarking is the practice of comparing key business metrics of their operations to other similar companies (Study.com, 2017). Benchmarking act as a point of reference and allow businesses to compare their performance and identify ways to become more competitive in the industry. Benchmarking can also be described as a measure of the quality of the organization’s policies, products or even strategies and their comparison with standard measurements or similar measurements of its peer. Benchmarking is a continuous process mostly done with top performing businesses in the same industry. This is because processes are essentially the same across sectors.
Benchmarking is a universal business activity. It occurs across all types of industries such as education, technology, and health as well as companies (private, not for profit, public, etc.). This help businesses meet various objectives such as identifying areas of improvement (what and where), analyze how other organizations achieve their high-performance levels, and use such information to improve (BusinessDictionary.com, 2017). Organizations should therefore entail gathering relevant information and beneficially apply it for their benefit. Meeting such objectives enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of business operations hence improved competitive advantage. This is due to focus on improvement of business processes by inculcating best practices rather than measuring best performance (Anon, 2017).
Methodology of benchmarking.
The benchmarking methodology consists of four phases.
* Planning
This phase involves establishing project scope, develop data collection methods and requirements and set criteria for peer groups.
During this phase the organization highlights which, how, what and where of benchmarking.
* Data collection
It involves collected data from benchmarking using the established methods and metrics.
* Analysis
Following data acquisition, raw data is analyzed and validated to facilitate identification of performance level, best practices, tools etc. Performance gap and any improvement measure are identified.
* Adapt
It involves preparation of reports and implementation action (s). The report is generated and action plan developed for change.
This phase also involves continuous monitoring of the process and enables continuous learning and provides input for continuous improvement.
Types of Benchmarking
Benchmarking should be used as an improvement tool which is customer focused and should be driven by organizational and customer needs. Therefore, various types of benchmarking exist namely;
1 Competitive benchmarking
This involves benchmarking against competitors within the same sector to determine causes of their superior performance. It is concerned with performance characteristics of key products and services in relation to position of competitors
2 Process benchmarking
This involves benchmarking similar processes in different organizations producing different products. It focuses on improving specific critical processes and operations by identifying and choosing leader (best practice) in the industry.
3 Internal benchmarking
This applies to companies with multiple units such as multinational enterprises i.e. Benchmarking operations or businesses from within the same organization.
4 Generic benchmarking
Generic benchmarking entails comparing the performance and processes of organizations in unrelated industries to improve them as well as create new standards.
It is used when organizations seek to enhance overall performance and strategies by considering high-level aspects such as core competences, improving capabilities and innovation.
Benefits of Benchmarking
Benchmarking comes with certain advantages to an organization. They include;
1 Benchmarking ...