Benchmarking refers directly to business strategy development and market research. This concept implies the process of identifying, understanding and adapting the existing models of effective company management. All this is done to make the work of your own company more effective. The basic techniques of benchmarking are evaluation and comparison, or juxtaposition.
Examples in benchmarking are usually the best options for products or services and the process of their marketing promotion, which is used by competing firms or companies from related fields. This is done in order to identify possible ways to improve their own products or services, as well as work methods. Many economists consider benchmarking to be one of the directions of oriented strategic marketing research. This method has obvious disadvantages. Among them is the difficulty of obtaining sufficiently objective data due to the closed nature of many companies, as well as our own. In addition, the current tax and financial accounting schemes do not always provide an opportunity to obtain truthful information on various areas of companies' activities. Curious is the origin of the English word "benchmarking", which is difficult to translate into Russian unambiguously. The word benchmark means "benchmark on a fixed object". For example, a mark on a post about being at a certain kilometer of the route. In layman's terms, a benchmark is a certain subject with a specific quantity, quality, and which can be used as a benchmark or standard in comparison with other similar subjects. In business, benchmarking is understood as a systematic activity focused on adopting the best examples of doing business. In this concept, this word was first introduced into the everyday life of economists and entrepreneurs in 1972 by one of the research consulting organizations in the city of Cambridge, USA. The results of the company's research came to the conclusion that in order to find an effective solution in a highly competitive environment, one should carefully study the experience of the best enterprises in the industry, in order to then adopt it on a scale acceptable to one's own company. Very soon, many firms in Europe and the United States began to actively practice the philosophy of benchmarking. Today, without studying someone else's entrepreneurial experience and working methods, it is difficult to imagine starting a new business in almost any country. Benchmarking is one of the key areas of business strategy formation for an enterprise of any size. Today, there are several types of benchmarking: internal, functional, competitiveness and process benchmarking. The main stages of this process include the definition of the object, selection of a partner, collection of information, its analysis and implementation.