Benchmarking was initiated by American Xerox Company in 1979. It is considered as one of the most important management methods to support enterprises to continuously improve and gain competitive advantage in modern western developed countries. Western management scholars refer to benchmarking, enterprise reengineering and strategic alliance as the three major management methods in the 1990s.
The key to "benchmarking"
The key to benchmarking is to select and determine the objects and standards for learning and reference. In the practice of enterprise management, it is necessary to "choose the best among the best" and to achieve the best model and standard, that is, to keep a close eye on the world advanced level. Only by keeping a close eye on the world's advanced level can we transfer the pressure and motivation of enterprise development to employees and managers at all levels in the enterprise, thus improving the overall cohesion and competitiveness of the enterprise.
In the content of benchmarking, many companies pay too much attention to price and ignore the benchmarking of customers and employees. Some companies do not link the benchmarking target with the company's main mission, which may lead to the opposition of senior leaders and affect the implementation of other plans of the company.
Some companies are eager to implement benchmarking before fully understanding their own procedures and will eventually fail. Some companies try to solve many problems at once and improve all aspects of their business through benchmarking. As a result, haste makes waste and staff morale is low. In addition, the mistakes that are easy to make include that no one is responsible for the bidding process and there is no systematic record of the bidding procedure.
Benchmarking management is not a complete imitation, and needs to be adjusted under the constraints of corporate culture, budget and cost-benefit. Because of financial constraints, some companies first realize the most critical or least constrained elements under the best conditions, which is also a kind of flexibility. At the same time, the best cases are not static with the passage of time, but are constantly improved in the process of implementation.