One of the biggest mistakes people make when beginning their benchmarking endeavor is that they only look to benchmark someone within their own industry. Although this doesn't hurt, you probably already know enough about your industry to know what works and what doesn't. Worse yet, some people think they must benchmark their competitor. What if the competition is worse than your company? Seems like a pretty big waste of time end energy. Instead how about benchmarking a company that is well known for being a good model. Sometimes referred to as Best Practices, Exemplary Practices, Business Excellence.

By Benchmarking you will find out;

• Who performs the business process very well and has process practices that are adaptable to your own organization
• Who is the most compatible for you to benchmark with
• If you need to conduct a comprehensive benchmark study or if you can obtain 80-90% of what you need from just using the telephone, email, or an electronic survey to communicate your needs with other members on The Benchmarking Exchange