Perspective

What is the Real meaning of benchmarking???????????

Can anyone tell me?????????

 

So I was reading about some vendor offering "benchmarking" services and I wondered,

"Where had all the hype gone around benchmarking?"

Once it was a panacea to help you find out where you were behind the competition; and where you were ahead. But is it?

Was it ever?

I don't think so - quite completely. To benchmark, you have to be measurable; to be measured, you have to understand what you are looking at; to understand what you are looking at, you have to have knowledge. If you have knowledge of the thing you are looking at, you have met it before. Hardly a tenet if competitive differentiation forms a unique value proposition.

How can you develop a business plan for an opportunity that is brand new and has no data?

Are most decisions on new products and new markets "soft" because management wants detailed and precise information to make a decision and yet by default these are the hardest places to get detailed and precise information?

The more you know about something (in this sense) the less valuable it becomes in terms of future or potential value. Sound strange maybe.
To be honest benchmarking does have a place.

But if your business is so caught up in this area it is likely your management or leadership is bereft of ideas. It is a great way for a third tier player (or follower) to find out where "basic" gaps are in order to maintain a third tier position (in most cases).

But it won’t really help you improve your position that much. It won’t help you get to tier 1! And who wants to be in tiering 3 all their lives?