COMPETITIVE BENCHMARKING - PROGRESS AND FUTURE-DEVELOPMENT

Companies and their subsystems can best judge competitive performance by reference to external perspectives. The essence of benchmarking is to develop this external perspective, and to search for performance levels and practices that will provide a competitive edge. The resulting baseline, established by a study of organizational performance and practice, is compared to a benchmark created by collecting information on exemplars. This assessment is then used as a stimulus for action, which is intended to improve the organization's relative position