Industry Research

Simplistically, the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) poses benchmarking (BM) as:  "the practice of being humble enough to admit that others may have better processes and wise enought to learn how to match or even surpass them."

Formally, BM in business is both a commitment to a cultural mind set of continuing self-improvement and a formal structure of analytical tools & procedures for identifying "best practices", gathering data, and making internal measurable comparisons and/or adjustments in areas of performance, processes, solvency, or operations when compared to "peers" or other business/industry sectors.  BM  defines a point(s) of reference and identifies attributes of measureable metrics & ideals informing that value, and takes measures against them for comparative purposes.  Gathered data might be quantitative or qualitative such as surveys of attitudes or opinions.

Operationally,the process of BM, in short, is viewed as:

• identify within a business unit an area, activity or product to assess.
  
• orchestrate a culture of staff commitment & buy-in.
  
• determine metrics of performance or quality standards defining the selected target and against which to measure.
  
• identify and collect normative from various sources internal or external.
  
• analyze data findings for short-comings or acceptability and react to findings.
  
• draw conclusions, make appropriate adjustments, and implement "best practices" and/or changes necessary to enhance a business unit's overall operational performance, effectiveness, or competitive edge.
  
• to be effective, BM should be a cycle of continuing commitment by an organization.
  
• it is not a one-time quick fix.
  

For more insight about benchmarking, see these brief overviews:

Benchmarking    by Sara  Weiner in the Encyclopedia of Industrial & Organizational Psychology, 2007

Benchmarking   by Su Dahlgaard-Park in Sage Encyclopedia of Quality and the Service Economy, 2015.