Do you think benchmarking is just another fad or is it really useful for all firms? Why, or why not? How could benchmarking be used in your place of employment? Does it rate as a viable tool for future development?
In my opinion benchmarking it is really useful for all firms because of its continual process of measuring products, services and practices against the toughest competitors or those companies recognized as industry leaders (Wheelen & Hunger, 2010). Benchmarking it is becoming a very popular program that allows companies to understand their areas of improvement and become successful. It can be a very useful tool to identify how others do something better than your company, that way you can improve in your techniques. For example, Ulta can use it to determine the areas of improvement and to measure their own products and services to compare and recognize their best competitors. As a result of this Ulta can increase sales, improve goal setting, and boost employee motivation (Chalk, BioPhorum , 2013).
Benchmarking is a viable tool for future development, as industries keeps growing, benchmarking exercises should be repeated and data should be refresh as often as opportunities allow. Therefore, by developing tactical programs for closing performance gap and implementing programs and then compare the resulting new measurements with those of the best-in-class companies (Wheelen & Hunger, 2010).
References
Chalk, S. (2013, April 1). BioPhorum . Retrieved from Benchmarking: Don't Just Run the Numbers, Understand the Process : http://www.biophorum.com/news_more.asp?news_id=29
Hunger, T. L. (2010). Concepts In Strategic Management and Business Policy . Saddle, River : Prentice Hall .