Benchmarking - what is it in simple words” often searched on the Internet by aspiring entrepreneurs and marketers. There are several options for explaining this term, classifying its types and examples of successful application. Within the framework of this article, we will explain in an accessible way what benchmarking is, who needs it and how to apply it.

General definition of the term

In a broad sense, benchmarking is the study of the successful experience of competing firms in order to use the data obtained in their own business. This is a process in which an entrepreneur analyzes and implements the best achievements of firms operating in the same areas with him (however, not always, sometimes they use the experience of successful leaders from completely different areas). And then, based on the data obtained, he develops his own development strategy. This definition quite fully reflects the essence of this process.

Wikipedia explains benchmarking a little more complicated - “it is the identification and adaptation of examples of the effective functioning of a company to improve own work». The goal of benchmarking is to find a role model, avoid mistakes, adapt successful methods of work for your own success.

Benchmarking is often confused with marketing intelligence, but this concept is much broader. Intelligence involves the extraction of any classified, secret information, and benchmarking is analysis open information . Among his tasks is not the destruction of a competitor or damage to his reputation, this is exclusively analytical and organizational work for the purpose of modernization.

The foreign concept of "benchmarking" should not frighten. In fact, most entrepreneurs regularly do it, learning the details of how competitors do business and thinking about what they can implement from their practice. This method entered the list of important marketing tools around the 1980s and has not left it since. The most daring experts even consider Soviet exhibitions of achievements as an example of benchmarking. National economy- as an option to demonstrate the best samples.

Benchmarking is the analysis of open information

Goals and objectives

home the purpose of benchmarking is to identify the need for modernization and changing the approach to their own business based on the analysis of the best experience of other businessmen. All data in this case must be considered solely through the prism of the possibility of using it in your business. The following questions will help you conduct a proper analysis:

1. How are certain processes organized by competitors?
2. What are the differences and where did they come from?
3. Do differences provide benefits?
4. Is it worth / is it possible to use this experience and improve your business?

Who can apply benchmarking

All entrepreneurs who plan to stay in the market and make good profits should analyze the successful experience of competitors. This is not to say that it is only useful in one particular area and useless in another. Benchmarking is equally in demand in manufacturing industries, in the service sector, and even when working on the Internet.

A comprehensive study of the work and organization of other enterprises contributes to a deeper understanding of the business as a whole.

By constantly monitoring the state of your own and related industries, you can achieve a complete understanding of the entire operation of the market as a whole, predict certain scenarios, and ultimately reduce costs, avoid mistakes and achieve leadership.

Benchmarking allows you to reduce costs, avoid mistakes and achieve leadership

What are the types of benchmarking

Researchers and marketers conditionally distinguish several types of benchmarking:

1. Internal or production - when processes and indicators are compared within the same enterprise. Relevant for firms specializing in several activities, having several divisions or structural industries, to determine the effectiveness of each of them and uniform development.
2. Functional - comparing the success of performing the same functions by different enterprises.
3. Competitive - a large-scale comparison of all indicators of specific organizations.
4. Commodity - comparison individual goods and services from different vendors.

Sequence of analysis steps

Benchmarking is a whole complex of methods and approaches. For clarity, we divide the whole process into stages:

1. Stage of selection of competitors. To begin with, it is important to understand which information about organizations should be analyzed. In some industries, this is easy: coffee shops collect information about other coffee shops, hotels and restaurants about other restaurants, and so on. But it is worth considering not only direct competitors, but firms from related industries. The fact is that they can use the same marketing techniques, ways to optimize production and reduce costs.
2. Collection of information. Since in this case we are not talking about the extraction of confidential information, the recommendations are quite simple. It is necessary to study all information about the company that is publicly available on the Internet and means mass media. It is useful to read the interviews of the owners and employees in order to get some details firsthand. If possible, you need to visit the company, buy its service or product. Please note that this is not a one-time process, it is not enough to go online once and download all available information. It is important to do this regularly, especially with regard to prices, production volumes and so on.
3. Data analysis. At this stage, you need to explore all the information collected, filter out the useless from the useful, perhaps create tables and short texts. The better you work through the material, the more useful it will bring and the easier it will be to use in the future.
4. Applying the experience of competitors. At the final stage, you need to choose what you can apply in your business from the results of benchmarking. Most likely, you will be able to find 2-3 options, at best 5-6. Don't expect discoveries and innovations, nowadays all entrepreneurs use the same tricks. The information received will not give you a ready-made answer, but rather will become the basis for a creative search.

Benchmarking is a whole range of methods and approaches

How to choose a partner for analysis

A competitor for analysis in benchmarking is often referred to as a "partner". It is not difficult to find it, as successful entrepreneurs always know their competitors well. Selection usually occurs in 3 stages:

1. Quick review and listing of all firms for analysis. It is necessary to find out whose experience, in addition to direct competitors, can be useful.
2. List filtering. Initially, it is better to make a large list so as not to miss anyone, and then weed out the excess. Keep in mind that in some industries it is useful to study the experience of other regions and even countries, in some it is absolutely useless.
3. Ranging. All firms in the list should be divided into three levels: best, average and worst. To study, of course, first of all, you need the experience of the best, and then the average. However, do not rush to discard the worst, in your opinion, organizations. Learning from their experience can help avoid mistakes and ill-conceived development strategies.

What to compare and analyze

Benchmarking compares not profits and capitals of enterprises. First of all, the quality of products and services is compared. But the comparison does not end with the identification of the best one. It is important to understand exactly how and with what help the competitor managed to achieve the highest quality.

Besides, Entrepreneurs often compare production processes and looking for ways to optimize. Ways to save money, logistical tricks, staff motivation techniques and much more are borrowed. Absolutely everything that helps the market leader to be successful immediately falls into the focus of attention when benchmarking.

It is important to understand exactly how and with what help the competitor managed to achieve the highest quality.

Joint benchmarking and business meetings

At present, benchmarking is not a closed and independent process. Many entrepreneurs have realized that it is sometimes in the common interest to unite and analyze information together. This can be done both in a personal meeting, for example, by organizing excursions to the production site, and in the virtual space, exchanging data and answering questions.

Joint meeting in the format of an excursion, " brainstorming» or other form teamwork allows entrepreneurs to get to know each other better, make useful contacts and make a large-scale list of innovations for implementation. Remember that it is not necessary to gather representatives of the same industry. There are many moments in running a business - marketing, information technology, recruitment - where businessmen can share their experience different levels and different directions.

The formats of such meetings are already quite popular and are liked by most of the participants. With proper organization, they become a significant business event in the life of the city and region. Many successful people do not hide their experience and are ready to share it with beginners.

A great idea for a meeting of entrepreneurs can be a seminar, during which specialists from different fields are working on a solution to a single problem. Depending on the chosen topic (marketing, production optimization, software) you can involve not only entrepreneurs, but also employees of their firms (programmers, marketers, coaches, and others).

If company representatives do not have the opportunity to meet in person, it is possible to transfer the analysis and discussion to an electronic format. Groups and collective chats on social networks or instant messengers are excellent time savers and, most importantly, allow you to modernize your business without being distracted by travel.

Even the undisputed market leaders regularly have to compare themselves with competitors and look for ways to improve

Examples of successful benchmarking

Even the undisputed market leaders regularly have to compare themselves with competitors and look for ways to improve. For example, at the end of the 20th century, Ford began to significantly lose ground and even faced the threat of bankruptcy. Then the experts decided to analyze all models of cars produced by this company (more than 50), in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages. This extensive work helped determine the parameters of the "ideal" car and develop a new Tauru model s. This vehicle has received the best model years" and saved the company from losses.

The largest smartphone manufacturers Apple and Samsung regularly study the experience and new features of competitors. They strive to repeat any novelty of the opponent in their next model, but it is better to come up with something that performs the same function, but better. And in the future, smaller manufacturers repeat them in their devices.

Examples of benchmarking in other large companies - Nokia, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard - can be easily found on the Internet. Even large and successful companies regularly have to resort to anti-crisis measures and look for ways to improve. The same applies to medium and small enterprises that plan to stay on the market for a long time and make significant profits.

Conclusion

Benchmarking is effective method modernization own business, by analyzing the most successful practices of competitors. This is a reliable and inexpensive way to constantly stay in the trend of all the achievements of production and marketing, have a good understanding of business processes and get high profits.

Russia's transition to new system management, of course, affected all aspects of the social, socio-economic and cultural life of the population, especially business. The bulk of the leaders of Soviet enterprises knew about competition only in general terms from textbooks, the issues of increasing production efficiency were never raised at all (except for increasing labor productivity to fulfill plans), they could think about increasing profits, as it was supposed, only in bourgeois countries. The low interest in the case was also due to the fact that the enterprises were not the property of the head.

Today, the principles of management, goals and ways to achieve goals for private enterprises have changed dramatically, therefore, in market conditions, management is increasingly forced to form a marketing service in order to make competent and timely management decisions to improve business efficiency. Marketing services are often engaged in quite a variety of activities, which is determined by the goals and nature of the work. As a rule, this is the development of organizational tactics, the search and formation of an optimal, but mobile commodity, price, marketing policy, as well as strategic planning of the movement of goods on the market. Marketing activity is one of the most important functions in the field of entrepreneurship. With its help, stable, competitive work and development of a particular subject of the marketing system in market conditions are ensured, taking into account the state of the internal and external environments. Marketing activities are based on the conducted marketing research, as on their basis the development of a strategy and a program of marketing activities is carried out, the use of which will help increase the productivity of the company, maximize the satisfaction of the needs of the consumer or client. The results of marketing research are most important for management, as well as for making entrepreneurial and marketing decisions, to eliminate or reduce the uncertainty of external and internal conditions for the behavior of subjects of the marketing system. It is almost impossible to avoid risk, but adverse consequences can be predicted, prevented or mitigated in advance. A minimum of uncertainty is what you need to strive for, because it’s not in vain that they say: “Forewarned is forearmed.” To reduce risks and uncertainty, it is necessary to find a range of negative possible phenomena, dangers and problem situations that an organization may encounter in the process marketing activities. Thus, in order to effectively build the work of an organization, it is not enough for a management or a company to have information only about the internal features of the state of the company and production and economic activities; this approach is irrelevant and will not stand the test of time. Modern successful businessmen give preference to continuous strategic planning of all production, marketing and commercial activities organizations, while operational planning does not lose its significance. The effectiveness of planning at each stage depends to a large extent on a reliable, representative marketing information. In practice, it turned out that in general it is quite difficult to analyze and draw conclusions, it became necessary to separate the functions of various departments and services and form a specialized service for organizing marketing activities, whose competence primarily includes conducting marketing research and developing marketing programs.

The development of entrepreneurship in Russia went in parallel with significant economic transformations, which created fertile ground for the development of new types of business and production, use latest theories, technologies and directions of development of marketing and management. Practice has proven that the classic definition of marketing, which implies well-known components: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, is far from exhaustive and not at all sufficient, since it does not reflect the interconnection of the interaction processes of all subjects of the market system. IN Lately other directions appeared and began to be put into practice modern marketing(interaction marketing, strategic marketing orientation, etc.), one of the most effective and popular was and remains benchmarking.

Term "benchmarking"- English, like many modern words related to business and economics, is unusual for the "Russian ear" and relatively recently began to be used in Russia, it does not have a literal translation into Russian. The term "benchmarking" comes from the word "benchmark", meaning a mark according to some established criterion (for example, a mark on a sign that prohibits children shorter than it from entering the attraction). We can say that a benchmark is something that has a certain amount of and a quality that can be used as a standard or reference when compared with other objects. Benchmarking is most often a systematic activity aimed at finding, evaluating ways to solve problems, learning from the most suitable examples, and this is never tied to size, business area or geographical location. Benchmarking is the art of finding or identifying what others do best, and then learning, improving and applying other people's methods of work. It may seem to the layman that there is nothing unusual or new here, that we are talking about the good old, but condemned methods (such as espionage, copying, imitating business or technology). Indeed, like it or not, but you will think about it, because entrepreneurs and organizations have always been subjected to espionage, their “recipes for success” have been carefully analyzed and studied, and then used by others. In the West in the late 1960s - early 1970s. some enterprises began to put forward similar theories, which were based on a comparison of the work and productivity not so much of competing enterprises (of course, theirs too), but of advanced organizations (the best, most successful, most productive) from their own and other industries. Entrepreneurs began to learn to find, identify and neutralize differences in the management of enterprises that reduced their own efficiency. The developed concepts and methods made it possible to reduce costs, increase profits and optimize the dynamics of the structure and determine the strategy of the organization.

Benchmarking V developed countries has long won a "place in the sun" among entrepreneurs and managers, enjoys their sympathy and is successfully used in the practice of Japanese, American, Western European and Scandinavian businessmen. For a long time it was believed that the birthplace of this term is the United States. Of course not in modern form, but benchmarking has been used before. In Japan, benchmarking is close in meaning to the Japanese word dantotsu, meaning "the effort, concern, concern of the best (leader) to become even better (leader)". In China, when talking about benchmarking, they often recall the rule of the Chinese general Sun Tzu: "When you know your enemy and know yourself, you are not afraid of the result of a hundred wars." On present stage the use of benchmarking due to the main principle "from best to best" leads to life, to the success of many firms in the US, Japan, Western Europe. Benchmarking was first applied in 1972 at the initiative of the Institute strategic planning Cambridge (USA). The research and consulting organization PIMS, which has studied the impact of marketing strategies on profits, has found that in order to develop effective behavior in a competitive environment, you need to know the experience the best enterprises who have been successful under similar conditions.

In 1979, a well-known large American company began the "Competitiveness Benchmarking" project to conduct a complete cost and quality analysis of its own products in comparison with a similar Japanese company. The project was very successful and attracted a lot of attention. Benchmarking after that began to be intensively distributed among specialists in the USA and applied in other organizations: HP, Dupont, Motorola, Chase. It should be noted that benchmarking does not stand still, but is developing dynamically. The body of his knowledge is constantly expanding and growing rapidly, so it is difficult to find an exact description of him.

The Center for Productivity and Quality (Bestinghouse) sees benchmarking as an ongoing process of detailed exploration of best practices that can rapidly improve competitive performance.

For most organizations, benchmarking as such is not new, as it is most often done as part of a competitive analysis, however, the use of benchmarking is more effective because it represents a more detailed, formalized and streamlined methodology compared to the competitive analysis method or approach. Benchmarking for today is an essential ingredient for the success of any organization.

Benchmarking can be used in the most various directions. In logistics, for example, benchmarking contributes to the rapid, low-cost identification and prevention of problem situations in logistics systems related to areas close to the buyer, to the fulfillment of orders and transportation.

Benchmarking visually reflects where a firm or market can face cost or quality problems, and also shows the organization's place among competitors. He finds and identifies problems in the course of work, concretizing them.

Many experts in economics and marketing are convinced that benchmarking should become a permanent process in the company. Within the framework of benchmarking, entrepreneurial functions are considered from the standpoint of improving processes aimed at creating a product or service and promoting them to the market. The use of benchmarking as a component implies the development of a strategy, boundaries and scope of management functions, but the consumer remains the main source of information about products, the market and competitors.

Many firms that use benchmarking are convinced that it contributes to a reliable competitiveness, as well as creating the prerequisites for constantly monitoring the level of company performance in the context of the internationalization of the processes of procurement of raw materials and materials.

Benchmarking experience is also used to define the company's success strategy. Close attention is directed to the following questions: who? How? Why? (Which firm has climbed to the top of the competition? Why hasn't their own organization become the best in their field? What can be changed and what needs to be changed in the enterprise to become the best? How to implement the appropriate strategy to get ahead?).

When benchmarking is used in a company, employees are divided into teams consisting of representatives of different services and departments. The most important areas of activity for employees and the company as a whole are value-oriented planning, as well as literacy, sociability, competence in the field of work with clients, technology and culture. entrepreneurial activity. Some believe that benchmarking is an activity that is directly related to customers, technology and business culture, as well as being interconnected with planning. In general, benchmarking can be attributed to a set of management tools (from global quality management to assessing customer satisfaction with goods or services produced by a given organization).

However, the vast majority of experts agree that benchmarking is the adoption of management methods from others, successfully existing companies and entrepreneurs in order to, by comparison with other areas of business activity or competitors, determine, identify weak sides of your organization.

The application of benchmarking consists in a simplified version of four consecutive steps:

1) awareness and analysis of the details of their own business processes.

Ideally, they should be known thoroughly at every stage of production, but it is better to regularly check the “health” of your organization in order to know the weaknesses and try to smooth out all negative internal and external influences;

2) analysis of business processes of other companies. Here, as they say, all means are good, because no one will agree to bring you the secret of your success, always achieved by hard work, both physical and intellectual. Most often, if you do not take into account proprietary technologies, this is a big trade secret that is diligently protected from competitors. But it is always possible to analyze the dynamics of specific economic indicators, track the sales scheme, formal organization and other things;

3) comparison of the results of their processes with the results of the analyzed firms. Here it is necessary to involve specialists, most often organizations cope on their own;

4) the introduction of qualitative and (or) quantitative changes to overcome the gap. This action is the most difficult, since it almost always requires financial injections, the involvement of specialists or retraining of its employees, the development of new technologies, the introduction of modern management and decision-making methods. Thus, it is possible to distinguish types of benchmarking. Here are just a few:

1) internal - the activities of divisions within the company are subject to comparison;

2) competitive - comparing your organization with competitors in the maximum number of parameters;

3) general - comparison of the company with indirect competitors according to certain indicators of interest;

4) functional - comparison by functions (sales, purchases, etc.).

Benchmarking is never a one-time analysis. In order to have a return, increase the efficiency of the enterprise, it is necessary to make benchmarking an integral part of the work, regular process innovation and improvement in your business.

In Japan, benchmarking is popular and has been used there for a long time. Japanese firms have chosen the most suitable form for themselves - product benchmarking, which is now widespread. Product benchmarking is based on a psychology called "me too", which in some way can be considered an evolution of the Sun Tzu rule. Less popular is benchmarking of functions and processes.

If we consider benchmarking as learning based on comparison, then it is based on two levels: the strategic and the level of individual processes.

The essence of benchmarking proves that it can be treated as a direction of marketing research. Predicting the effect that the use of benchmarking can give, it should be remembered that the fact that the exchange of experience and its analysis has never been disputed by anyone has been disputed. However, “one should not scratch everyone with the same brush”, because, although many enterprises and types of activity or production are similar, each of them has its own specifics, internal reserves and potential, which can vary significantly.

Therefore, the need for benchmarking must first be justified and proven.

Summing up, we can say that the benefit of benchmarking is that production processes, sales operations and marketing functions become more manageable if the best practices, methods and technologies of the most successful enterprises or industries are analyzed and implemented in their organization. This can be the beginning, a new stage in the development of a profitable business with high resource savings, the creation of healthy competition and the greatest satisfaction of customer needs.

To date, accumulated great amount interpretations of the concept of benchmarking. Some believe that it is the product of a consistent development of the concept of competitiveness, others say that benchmarking is a mobile quality improvement algorithm, while still others consider it to be an exotic novelty as a result of Japanese business practice. However, everyone agrees, or more or less agrees, on the definition that benchmarking is the process of finding, identifying, and studying the very best known management and business practices.

Benchmarking- this is a new word in the highest business circles in Russia. In our country, many entrepreneurs are still wary of this concept, and conservative-minded representatives of the older generation of upbringing of the last century and the corresponding hardening confuse it with industrial intelligence or espionage hidden under newfangled buzzwords. However, as already noted, benchmarking was not invented yesterday or even today.

Benchmarking has been going hand in hand with us ever since "that man over there in the hut across the street has done much better than the rest of us." The new and interesting term has come from business consultants, who are brought in by many firms of all shapes and sizes to teach them how to keep an organization's revenues up to par with those of their peers. Benchmarking in the way it is now has not always been, the modern version was developed in the USA in the 1970s, but its basic concepts were in demand much earlier. IN late XIX century American engineer Frederick Taylor (Frederick Taylor) explored the scientific methods of labor organization, which formed the basis of the concept of benchmarking.

There is also a theory by Bernardo de Sousa, a specialist in quality control, in which he reveals the periodization of the stages of management. Yes, he considers four stages of management change, through which the world has passed in the last half of the 20th century:

1) 1950-1970s - are characterized by strict control by the management of "Management by Objectives" (Management by Objectives);

2) 1970-1980s - the period of evaluation and comparison of values, the compilation of “value charts” is typical - (“dogs”, “money cows”, “niches” and “rising stars”) (The Value Chart);

3) 1980-1990s - the influence of competitors is increasing, it is competition that serves as a catalyst for the desire for improvements, transformations, innovations, Beat The Competition;

4) 1990s - the beginning of the XXI century. – “Focus on Processes”.

Most last changes in management philosophy reflect an increase in interest in competition and its analysis. This is due to objective reasons, primarily the variation competitive environment, as well as changing needs and interests of consumers, the emergence of new technologies, materials, etc. In the 1950s. demand was greater than supply, so the main tasks of management were only the definition and establishment of parameters, final criteria and control over the processes for achieving them. However, later many countries faced crises of overproduction, and in the 1990s. supply significantly exceeded demand, so management, meeting the requirements of modernity and the prevailing conditions, switched to how to correctly and quickly get ahead of the competitor's indicators in the production and marketing processes.

As follows from the definition of benchmarking, its goal is to find the most effective business activity. After determining the best way to manage and conduct business, the question must be answered: “How to do it better?” At this stage, you can use all available means, experience, imagination, use the services of specialists, as well as mobilize the work of your own departments and services (planning, marketing, etc.).

The pioneer in the targeted use of benchmarking was Rank Xerox, which at that time was in a severe crisis. This company conducted a study of the costs and quality of its own products in comparison with competitors. A detailed study of the experience of other companies, its adaptation and use led Xerox to success and prosperity.

Benchmarking is currently considered one of the most effective areas of consulting. It is becoming more and more popular and earning more and more popularity. Even government agencies, hospitals and universities are beginning to understand and adopt the benefits of benchmarking in order to apply its foundations to improve their processes and systems, although in Russia this is more common for private organizations.

In Europe, this process is slow, but stable, the popularity of benchmarking remains very moderate. Significant differences in understanding of business processes in different countries hinder its implementation in business processes in various sectors of the economy.

Based on benchmarking the idea of ​​comparative activity is put forward not only in relation to competing enterprises, but also to advanced companies in other industries. In fact, benchmarking is an alternative method of strategic planning, where tasks are determined not from what has been achieved, but from the analyzed indicators of competitors. Benchmarking technology allows you to combine all the components of the strategy development system, industry analysis processes and competitor experience analysis. To better understand the methods of benchmarking, you need to determine its relationship with strategic planning.

In order to rationally choose areas of activity, the size of the required resource base, to create relationships between the areas of its activity, the organization must clearly understand the strategic features of its industry. Therefore, industry analysis is the initial step in developing a strategy. It involves a study of the degree and characteristics of competition, customer behavior patterns, the nature of the behavior of suppliers of certain resources, barriers to entry into a market or sector of the economy, mobility and adaptability of production, as well as other specifics. Industry analysis prepares the material for fairly accurate forecasting of potential profits on average for the industry, and also reveals the reasons for the difference of some firms in comparison with others.

You need to start an industry analysis with answers to questions such as: how profitable is this industry now, are there any prospects and what are they for the near future, what determines success in this area? The market is divided into areas (niches) according to the most profitable sectors, then success factors are determined (sales system, exclusive packaging, new technical specifications, low price and etc.). Further, their impact on profitability as a whole and separately is determined.

The next stage is a detailed study of competition. First of all, it is analyzed how important your line of business is for a competitor, that is, how much resources and financial injections it will need to develop these areas. Here it is necessary to assess the financial strength of a competitor, at least approximately, this is necessary to determine the balance of priorities in the sector of your competition with him.

It is important to find out how the competitor allocates available resources, in other words, what he has at the time of entering the market (product, price, distribution and delivery system, marketing, service and customer service system), as well as the costs of his activities. Do not forget about another important factor - this is a similar work of a competitor in the direction of research and development, which positively affects the cost of its products, as well as the necessary marketing costs for a certain period of time.

After identifying the most profitable market segments and evaluating your own competitive advantage you need to choose a "model of imitation". To achieve the most effective results in a short time, benchmarking experts advise not only to find such organizations and accumulate data on their activities, "advanced" management decisions but also to establish contacts with them. After the data is collected, analyzed and classified, the possibility of achieving the goal and the factors influencing the result are assessed. The next step is to develop a plan, the purpose of which is to achieve the highest efficiency of the changed processes.

After conducting industry and competitor analysis, it is recommended to start developing a strategy that should contain thoughtful real ways to bypass competitors based on key success factors in various functional areas, such as expanding production, introducing new technologies, updating the product range, reviewing the pricing system, marketing and delivery, marketing, personnel, technology, etc.

According to the published data of the well-known consulting company Bain & Co, over the past two years, benchmarking has become one of the three most common business management methods, but this is typical for large international corporations. Its popularity is based on the fact that it helps to quickly and cost-effectively modernize business processes. It reflects and details the work of leading companies and contributes to the achievement of the same, and perhaps even better results.

Reasons for the growing popularity of benchmarking in the modern world are:

1) global competition. In the context of growing international integration and globalization of business, firms are faced with the need for a comprehensive and detailed study and subsequent application of the best achievements of competitors for their own well-being and development;

2) remuneration for quality. Recently, actions, competitions, reviews and tenders held at the national and international levels to identify and reward quality-leading organizations have become more widespread and public response. Terms of participation in this kind events oblige, in addition to the demonstration by participating firms of the competitive advantages of their products, the mandatory use of the concept of benchmarking in the course of the usual, systematic management of the company;

3) the need to meet modern rapidly changing conditions, adapt to them, as well as the introduction of world achievements in the field of production and business technologies. In order not to be outsmarted by their competitors, all companies (regardless of size and scope) should regularly study the situation in other companies in order to apply best practices in the field of production and business technologies.

In Russia, there are enterprises and organizations that use benchmarking, but so far there are very few of them. But management is always encouraged when middle and top managers enter into informal relationships with colleagues or competitors in everyday life outside of work hours, and then take note and embody each other's best achievements in their companies. The experience of many organizations, as well as studies, prove that direct communication with colleagues leads to the most valuable innovations for a particular business: ideas and knowledge, which very often leads to successful, quick and easy implementation of new methods and forms of management, more efficient distribution and use resources, etc. But such a model "passes" only in those organizations where the leadership is ready for it. Engaged managers are a huge potential for the development of the company, but the ability to correctly create motivation is the prerogative of management, this also needs to be learned and learned from colleagues.

By level of openness business can be divided into two categories:

1) organizations that profess the principle of secrecy of their activities, carefully concealing absolutely all information about their company;

2) maximum open companies, confident that while all competitors are far behind and by the time they catch up, they will be able to come up with something new. The world-famous company General Motors has created and made available to everyone access to its database. This is mainly done for suppliers to better plan their production.

The exchange of experience is a thing known to Russian enterprises since the times of the USSR, it is not new, only now it is customary to call it benchmarking in the Western manner. The implementation of benchmarking for any Russian enterprise is usually difficult, which is due to objective reasons (such as old technologies and equipment, lack of young specialists, low economic indicators) - people have to be re-trained, sometimes they simply explain in detail and in an accessible way why all this is needed. However, the process, if desired, is established quite quickly and clearly. Collecting, processing and implementing new experience are in some way all the services of the organization.

At the initial stage in the organization concerned, each unit collects information of its profile. Very often sources are open reports of Western and Russian companies, special industry press, an integral part of modernity is the Internet. Information is accumulated (collected) during trips and business trips to Russian and Western companies. Entrepreneurs quite actively attend specialized exhibitions: almost every month, trained employees of the enterprise travel to collect information. All collected information is accumulated and analyzed in a single report, which is intended for the board of directors. Further, the organization's indicators are considered in relation to the industry average, after which it becomes clear which of them the organization is ahead of or behind its competitors. After that, tactics for improving performance are developed. Now, for example, many large Russian factories are engaged in increasing labor productivity, the impetus for this was the experience of Volvo, where a specialist from one domestic plant studied management, but later competitors also took advantage of his experience, so it can be useful to “look around”.

In the West, where benchmarking has long been popular, the following practice has been established: a company, actively adopting someone else's experience, certainly shares its own. Most successful businesses publish detailed performance reports and host competitors. Western principle successful work“if you are open, then you are developing” in Russia simply does not work and will not work for a number of objective reasons (for example: an increase in the number of inspections by competent authorities, attracting the attention of tax and other services, and many others).

Naturally, everything related to trade secret or strategies, as well as important know-how, firms do not disclose, but actively advertise, showing the consumer that they are different from competitors. But in every organization there is a large layer of information that can and should be revealed to a competitor in order to get something useful for themselves in the form of valuable information in return. On this occasion, many experts agree that it is better for both firms to move forward than both to remain in place.

Today Russian pharmaceutical companies came to the conclusion that, having united to effectively combat Western competitors, they created an unofficial data bank, constantly replenished by each other for the free exchange of information among themselves, but carefully protected from foreigners.

However, the majority of leaders remain "on their own", believing that openness is unjustified. This is where the problem mentioned above makes itself felt: most Russian companies are not ready for competition, still work on old technologies and do not trust modern “tricks”, just in case, they close all the information altogether. Most often, such managers do not know or do not believe that benchmarking involves the use of only open information, and industrial espionage has nothing to do with the case.

Speaking of Western enterprises, one cannot fail to note the experience of the Czech auto giant Skoda, which, before anyone else, solved such important problems as staff reduction, concentration of resources on core products, optimization of the personnel management system, and revealed its secrets to others. All these solutions can be found independently, but it is definitely faster and more profitable to see how other enterprises coped with similar problems.

In Russia international companies also use methods, management and production strategies tested in other countries. But it also happens vice versa - technologies developed on Russian enterprise or for him, are distributed in other foreign firms faster than in domestic However, in adopting experience, anyone has their own "pitfalls". For example, the world-famous company Xerox has always applied the principle of direct sales, and in Europe it worked perfectly, the system never failed and justified itself in all conditions, but in countries with a large territory it is almost impossible to cover the entire market in this way. The Russian office of Xerox in 1999 became a pioneer - a branch of the company that launched a two-level distribution system. After that, Xerox's marketing director claimed that the office's turnover had doubled. Xerox continued to develop successfully, develop markets, and already employees of Xerox branches from India, Latin America, Egypt and other countries with a large territory or a specific state of transport, natural and climatic conditions came to Moscow to adopt new experience in sales management.

Ideal for benchmarking- obtaining first-hand information, since the possibility of its poor quality, falsification, etc. is practically excluded. Russia, however, is experiencing problems in this area. Companies refuse to share experience, information and technology, even with businesses operating in another industry. In fact, in Russia, although this is not very noticeable against the general background, there is a significant number of firms, organizations that are successfully operating, making a profit and constantly developing, from which there is much to learn. The experience of well-known Yukos and Wimm-Bill-Dann companies in decision-making, personnel management, conquering sales markets and many other areas is great, but the likelihood that they will agree to share it is negligible.

The course of development of the evolution of benchmarking is similar to the classical model of "transition from art to science". There are a lot of types of benchmarking, one of the classifications is by generations.

The so-called first generation of benchmarking refer to reengineering, or a retrospective analysis of the product.

Second generation- competitiveness benchmarking - rose to the level of a kind of science of organizations in 1976-1986. thanks to the active development and activities of Xerox.

heyday third generation benchmarking occurs in the period 1982-1986, when firms that are leaders in product quality recognize and begin to use the opportunity to learn (easier, faster and cheaper) from enterprises belonging to other sectors or industries, against the background of the fact that competitor research is less effective .

Fourth generation of benchmarking- strategic benchmarking, which took shape in a separate systematic process, designed to evaluate alternatives, adjust and implement strategies, as well as improve performance characteristics and labor quality, reduce losses and costs. Such processes are based on the study of successful strategies of other enterprises or partners.

Fifth generation- global benchmarking. It started developing relatively recently. It has gained many allies against the backdrop of the integration of developing countries into world economy, the aspirations of most states for an open economy, joint struggle against crises and problems that threaten all of humanity (such as global warming, food shortages, poor ecology, overpopulation of the Earth, etc.). Global benchmarking may become a tool for organizing in the future international exchanges, taking into account the peculiarities of cultural and national processes of organization of production.

To the most common Benchmarking types include the following:

1) internal benchmarking - benchmarking carried out within the organization, which is based on a comparison of the characteristics of production units similar to similar processes;

2) benchmarking of competitiveness - the study of the characteristics of the competitiveness of the company and its comparison with the current situation with competitors; also includes the study of specific products, possibilities and alternatives for adjusting or changing the production process or administrative methods of management of competing enterprises;

3) functional benchmarking - benchmarking that compares certain functions of two or more companies in the same sector;

4) process benchmarking - involves work on changing certain indicators to be able to compare them with firms whose characteristics are ahead of this enterprise in similar processes;

5) global benchmarking - increasing the share of strategic benchmarking along with the use of associative benchmarking as well;

6) general benchmarking - process benchmarking that compares a specific function of two or more organizations, regardless of the sector; There is less talk about the allocation of such narrower types as cost benchmarking, performance benchmarking, customer benchmarking, strategic benchmarking, operational benchmarking;

7) associative benchmarking - benchmarking carried out by organizations that have formed a narrow benchmarking alliance. The protocol of this cooperation is in the Benchmarking Code of Conduct and, as a rule, is not advertised.

The development of benchmarking directly depends on how enterprises understand quality. Usually isolated several stages in changing the understanding and attitude of enterprises towards quality.

The first stage is inspection. It has only quality control finished products. To establish quality control, the organization invests in technology improvement, its debugging and the formation of quality systems, rather than benchmarking. This practice was widespread in the USSR, it was at that time that integrated quality management systems were most widely used.

In such a situation, without fundamental changes, it is possible to partially apply product benchmarking, while comparing your own products with competitors' products. However, a significant problem that an organization will face will be a lack of information that prevents it from taking full advantage of the experience and knowledge of competitors.

The second stage is based on strengthening control. The organization is implementing the ISO 9000 quality standard. Benchmarking is used in all key business issues. Consultants are actively involved and involved in the development and implementation of benchmarking practices.

The attitude to the quality of products at all stages is changing dramatically. The quality control of the process itself comes to the fore, in which product quality is only one of the constituent elements. overall quality. Firms base their activities on customer satisfaction as a guarantee of their success in business. Gradually, the understanding of consumer satisfaction itself and the solution of related problems is changing.

A characteristic feature of the next stage is the emergence of partnerships, alliances and cooperations between organizations and within them. This is due to the mobility of the concept of competition, fashion and new developments - both between firms and within the organization. As you know, there are also peculiar competitive relations between different departments in a large company. Each department has its own goals, tasks, functions, problems. Often there are contradictions and difficulties in intercompany relationships. All this leads to a number of negative consequences: a decrease in controllability and, as a result, overall efficiency. Cooperation and partnerships within an organization give impetus to a more effective exchange of information between its constituent parts.

Similar processes take place at the intercompany level. At the same time, the concept of "competition" will be replenished with another component - interaction. It is the interaction and rivalry of organizations in the conditions modern business become the basis for meeting the needs of customers and achieving competitive advantages.

At this stage, competitiveness benchmarking and strategic benchmarking are used.

The fourth stage is based on the fact that all companies are a single mechanism. The decision-making process is carried out only in the presence of comprehensive and accurate information to ensure the overall efficiency of the enterprise. Within the organization there is a synergistic effect.

Only after that strategic benchmarking becomes global.

It is impossible not to pay attention to such components of benchmarking as its principles, objects of study, basic rules of analysis and stages of the benchmarking process, do not forget about the main sources of information, the control system in benchmarking.

The success factors influencing the benchmarking processes are classified as follows.

"Hard" (objective) factors– suggest finding a clear framework for the project; detailed and detailed time planning; monitoring compliance with the requirements of the quality system; taking into account existing and potential budgetary constraints.

"Soft" (subjective) factors– a climate conducive to cooperation; cheerful, optimistic mood of the team, orientation of employees to achieve results; awareness of the importance of quality at all levels of production organization; interest; creative approach to ways of managing and solving problems; adherence to business ethics (superiority analysis should not turn into industrial espionage).

This concept is a kind of template, a little "cheat sheet", in some way even an algorithm for collecting the information that an enterprise needs in order to constantly change productivity and quality upwards and stay ahead of competitors. The analysis of superiority clearly shows the problem areas, shortcomings of the old business structure and determines the direction, orients where to grow, develop further and what peaks can be reached (the best results of other enterprises).

Excellence analysis looks at the internal functions, operating principles and experiences of enterprises to:

1) determining the best results;

2) analysis of the work of their organization;

3) identifying deficiencies in functioning;

4) elimination weaknesses;

5) creating motivation among employees for continuous improvement (quality and productivity, level of education, qualifications, etc.).

In order for any enterprise to become successful and retain its place for a long time surrounded by many worthy opponents and with increased competition, the divisions of the company must themselves constantly be in a competitive environment so that there is an incentive to increase labor productivity. This will ensure the continued survival of the organization against the background of the creation of consumer utility, which will be higher than the cost of its production.

Thus, it becomes possible to identify, analyze and strengthen weaknesses in your company. This method of determining the level of one's enterprise in comparison with competitors is quite simple and mobile, since it can be applied to almost everything: from basic customers (such as turnover per employee) to customer satisfaction.

The analysis of superiority, widely used in benchmarking, is primarily aimed at improving the operational and strategic performance of the organization as a whole, and ultimately leads to the orientation of the entrepreneurial culture towards such useful attitudes as the ability and desire to learn from staff, continuous improvement of potential and achievements. bosses and leading cadres, which, in principle, serves as an impetus for the development process.

Analysis is always focused on customer satisfaction. In addition, it helps to find the line between stability and updating, since "too good is also bad." When using the analysis of superiority, many enterprises improve their position in relation to competitors, reduce costs to some extent, increase the degree of customer satisfaction with their products, and in general there is an increase in efficiency, identification and subsequent elimination of weaknesses in the processes of organizing activities, development of new plans, directions, ideas, improving the organizational structure.

The enterprise and its employees independently select the objects of research. Production analysis is most often applied to goods, services, functions, strategies, processes, etc.

If we talk about strategic issues, then it is first of all necessary to pay attention to factors that have a particularly strong influence on the realization of competitive advantages. In practice, it is common to define measurement criteria that most fully describe these factors, then identify companies that have the best results in this area. After that, those methods are found that lead to the best results.

From an analytical point of view There are three main types of analysis:

1) internal analysis of superiority involves comparing indicators within the organization itself (between departments, branches or product groups);

2) external analysis of superiority draws attention to similar activities in various fields(activities of competitors in different markets);

3) functional analysis superiority compares similar functions or processes in different industries. The bottom line is to look for the best results wherever they can be. The decision of a particular organization to choose one of these three types depends ultimately on the actual situation.

Having delved a little into the essence of benchmarking, you need to pay attention to basic principles of benchmarking:

1) reciprocity. Benchmarking is an activity that is impossible without relying on mutual relations, agreement and data exchange, which provides a “winning” base for the parties involved. It should be borne in mind that reciprocity by no means obliges to complete, blind trust (after all, competitors). At the very beginning, they always agree on the limits of the range of information, the form of data exchange, the nature of the study. In benchmarking cooperation, each partner must be confident in the behavior of others, only then can a good result be achieved by everyone. Everything must be predetermined and agreed upon, not to give rise to other interpretations;

2) analogy. The operational processes of partners should be similar. Any process can be researched for the benefit of the business, and the results can be easily translated or interpreted in relation to your company. The similarity of processes and a clear definition of the parameters for the selection of benchmarking partners significantly affect the success of the activity;

3) measurement. Benchmarking is in some way a comparison of characteristics researched, measured, analyzed in several other organizations; the purpose of such processes is to identify the causes of existing differences in performance indicators, as well as ways to improve them. Here it is important to identify the key characteristics of the process, which will help to improve them based on the study of the process;

4) reliability. Benchmarking must be conducted on the basis of actual data, accurate analysis and study of the process. Intuition is also a good feeling, but validity is more important.

Benchmarking process accepted divided into six phases.

1. Identification of the object of superiority analysis. In this phase, those moments of the work of the organization are established, which can and should be investigated using the analysis of production. This gives you the opportunity to take a critical look at your enterprise (both as a whole and to its individual constituent parts) and soberly assess the situation that has developed. Moreover, one must decide whether to conduct the analysis of superiority from an internal or external perspective (for example, from the buyer's perspective).

As a rule, this tool is most often used in the analysis of goods, control of sales figures, customer orientation factors, etc. There are practically no restrictions on application, except for those objectively derived from the needs of the buyer and the requirements of the organization itself.

2. Identify partners for excellence analysis. Once you've established your goals, you should actively seek out the best businesses. Potential partners should not only be first-class in their own right, but also be suitable for the simplest possible comparability with their own firm. This process includes the following steps:

1) a cursory review (from the English to skim - “read quickly, run through the eyes”). A superficial review of available sources of information is assumed, as well as the compilation and structure of already received data;

2) putting in order (from the English to trim - “finish, polish, put in order”). It is supposed to search and take into account further information, describe in detail and analyze the information available up to this point;

3) selection of the best (from English to cream - “skim cream”). At this stage of the process, suitable partners are identified.

As The most commonly used sources of information are:

1) reports on the activities and financial performance of organizations;

2) specialized magazines, books, databases;

3) state list of enterprises;

4) personal business connections and contacts (official and unofficial);

5) specialized consulting companies;

6) conferences, seminars, fairs directly related to the work and activities of the company;

7) joining unions, research institutions, etc.;

8) attraction of new specialists;

9) marketing clubs;

10) participation in supervisory boards.

3. Collection of information. This phase involves both the collection of additionally necessary data of particular value, and the consideration of the content of work, processes or factors that are associated with productivity.

The collection of information is usually solves such subtasks as:

1) definition and explanation (the concept of questionnaires);

2) data analysis of own enterprise (strengths and weaknesses);

3) tracking similar performance indicators with a partner for excellence analysis;

4) use of additional sources;

5) structuring and documenting information;

6) multi-stage, but not time-consuming verification of available information.

4. Information analysis. This stage requires highly developed creative and analytical abilities of the participants in the study of processes of excellence analysis. To analyze in this case means not only to find similarities and differences, but also to determine causal relationships.

In addition, efforts should be made to reduce exposure to factors that can reduce quality, complicate comparisons, and skew results. Here in force comes the following scheme:

1) ordering and comparison of the received information;

2) quality control information resources at all stages (collection, analysis, etc.);

3) observation of factors that negatively affect the quality of the comparison and the results;

4) identification of shortcomings in the course of work and technological processes in comparison with other, more successful methods; finding underlying causes that explain the presence of deficiencies.

5. Purposeful and rational use received information. The fifth stage implies not only the implementation of the developed possibilities for optimizing all processes, but also further development organizations in all directions to face competitors and negative influence external environment.

Thus, benchmarking does not encourage copying or stealing innovations and achievements. the best companies, but is the stimulation of all processes. The positive, successful experience of other companies should become an incentive for further progressive innovative development of their own company and its organizational structure. Identified potential, the use of which can lead to significant improvement, must necessarily be implemented through reasonable planned specific activities. In this case, there may be some discrepancy between the received data and the usual, accepted and established planning. As a result, there is a need for a radical reorientation, which in practice is not easy to implement.

However, purposeful innovation that occurs after much thought about the implications of superiority analysis leads to:

1) identifying ways and directions for improvement, identifying potential and opportunities;

2) interconnection with the standard work plan of the enterprise;

3) developing a plan for implementing the necessary changes;

4) implementation of the new plan in life.

The practical use of the results is of great importance for further innovative development.

6. Process control and analysis repetition. Control over the process of implementing the results of the analysis should be carried out at each stage gradually and purposefully. It can be carried out in two planes:

1) monitoring the development of the developed performance indicators of the organization;

2) constant verification of the achievement of intermediate goals, compliance with the norms and deadlines established by the plan for resources and work.

Methods and processes are highly subject to the action of time, constant changes are provoked by objective and subjective reasons. What was a novelty or the best achievement just a few years ago, today loses its importance, at best becomes the standard or even falls below it. Therefore, it is necessary to regularly check whether the best indicators found so far are up-to-date. Thus, superiority analysis is not a one-time method. With its constant use, the cost of superiority analysis after its implementation drops significantly, and their payback is constantly growing. This effect is achieved due to the fact that you no longer need to spend time and money on staff training, employees have already become familiar with such a tool as superiority analysis; connections and contacts with compared firms are established, they are easy to maintain through regular exchange; open access to important sources information, a database is already functioning, which only needs to be updated.

Excellence analysis is gaining more and more fans, including among managers, it draws the attention of people working in one firm to what is laid down as the basis for individual and collective success, and, therefore, leads to an increase in the efficiency of the entire enterprise. At the same time, “success” can and should be learned.

Excellence Analysis - is a method that realistically simulates successful samples behavior. Often it leads to a "learning firm". Such enterprises willingly and regularly look for, find and implement successful methods of action. Ultimately, this is what excellence analysis and learning by excellence analysis are all about.

Advanced training is especially necessary for executives, since it is on them that the success of the organization in the market largely depends. The learning effects of superiority analysis can actually be used to improve the skills of all staff. Employees are better motivated, more attentive and interested when they, if they are not “professionals in their field”, then at least competently apply their knowledge, skills and abilities in their daily work. Thus, advanced training of managers can be carried out directly at the workplace.

Excellence analysis puts the interests and objectives of the enterprise in the center, which is very beneficial from the point of view of employers. This leads to a significant positive effect, which occurs by reducing the desire of individual workers to improve their skills as much as possible solely for their own purposes. This to some extent helps to cope with the classic problem of personnel planning. The task of the manager is to encourage employees to self-improvement, while introducing such methods of staff development that are more beneficial to the organization than to the individuals working in it.

The purpose of the learning process used in marketing is not to simply study lectures. It encourages the creation of an atmosphere that rewards continuous learning, which leads to increased productivity and better results.

There is a correlation between the analysis of superiority and the professional development of managers, as well as their retraining. In this case, you can identify six phases of learning:

1) find the will and courage to see and understand the existing problems.

In most cases, employees and senior staff are afraid of change, are wary of it or reject it in principle. This greatly slows down the work of those departments of the organization, the results of which do not depend on profits and losses, but affect the long-term period. Sometimes these units, due to their inactivity, try to prove their importance by making adjustments (tightening the schedule) of the structure staffing or by increasing the number of employees applying for the payment of salaries, while the contribution to the common cause is not taken into account. The productivity of such units can be assessed by comparing their results with the results of similar departments of organizations engaged in similar activities in other enterprises. It is necessary to periodically re-evaluate the activities of these departments of the enterprise. Positive changes in organizational culture contribute to the fact that department heads at the end of the reporting period have good results, finding similar processes in the external environment, making comparisons and conclusions.

Managers of organizations should initiate and encourage such comparisons in order to create and renew the entrepreneurial culture described;

2) determine what is known on the issue and from what sources.

When an enterprise in its activities comes to the point that it is impossible to be a “world-class master” in absolutely all areas, there is a need to search for new knowledge, since active search innovation and new knowledge is not the norm in today's organizations.

The main thing in the analysis of superiority is that it helps to increase receptivity and openness to new knowledge, theories, methods and technologies from information sources of the external environment. This helps to increase the motivation of employees and overcome their fears of exposing weaknesses. Thus, a situation is created in which new knowledge and ideas arise. The collection of information and subsequent data processing require a large number time, which is often outside the normal work schedule. Reading special literature and articles should become natural, not burdensome for workers, as they earn money with their knowledge;

3) find information and use knowledge.

If we assume that the processing of information gives new knowledge, then it is logical to assume that the transformation of information itself gives the right of interpretation to all members of this process. The main goal of processing data into knowledge is to create a kind of array of sorted information that is easy to extract if necessary. A specialist engaged in the analysis and processing of arrays of information, at the same time, draws conclusions under what conditions it is possible to use the received elements of information in order to stimulate the processes of change and increase productivity;

4) consolidate new knowledge.

The bottom line is that, having once learned an easier way to produce, earn, increase economic indicators, a person will no longer refuse this, but, on the contrary, will want to improve these processes in some way. Therefore, the incentive function also begins to work. The knowledge gained must be further accumulated and transformed in accordance with the requirements of the time into specific methods, technologies and skills for their subsequent use;

5) identify and remember successful ways actions and constantly modify the work of the enterprise.

Good practices need to be recorded. Systematization and implementation good ways management in a long-established structure, as a rule, are very difficult, therefore, they require special determination and additional costs from the management. The situation is complicated by the fact that such investments in their own enterprise are a long-term form of capital investment, so many turn off or stop halfway;

6) train abilities: apply newly acquired knowledge.

Newly created organizational culture, although at a huge cost (both financial and intellectual), is likely to last for a long time and be maintained by the same employees who initially protested. By creating a work environment that encourages learning, the investment is safe and has begun to pay off.

In market conditions, fierce competition has become the norm, therefore, enterprises and organizations engaged in homogeneous activities, producing the same type of goods and services, are trying to get around the competitor, seeking more and more new means. Very often, competition goes beyond business ethics. The “legal” means was and remains the buildup of competitive advantages. Benchmarking is an indispensable assistant, which is largely able to increase the growth rate of labor productivity and other economic indicators. Actually, it all depends on the direction in which the company decided to work. It is necessary to set a clear task: to determine the area of ​​research and only after that look for ways to solve it. You should not try to cover everything at once, an ordinary enterprise does not have a huge supply of free financial resources, and therefore, will not be able to bypass even the closest competitor in all respects at once. The positive point is that the work that has begun to stimulate or improve any competitive qualities will still cause positive changes in any area, which in turn will give impetus to action and strengthen faith in the implementation of progress and other successes.

One of the tools to improve performance and modification existing system quality is benchmarking, that is, comparing the activities of one company with the most successful analogues.

At the beginning of the 20th century, many terms began to appear, including those in the field of economics, marketing, and management, borrowed from other languages, for which there is no one-word translation into Russian. Such terms are often found in the press and business circles. And sometimes they need more clarification. One of those words "benchmarking"- this is a marketing strategy used by various market participants, which consists in comparing their company with more successful business representatives, and on the basis of this, the creation of a training, development, motivation strategy, based on the best examples.

Comparison is carried out by analyzing the effectiveness of more successful organizations, regardless of where they are geographically, their size and scope of business. Here you need to understand that this is not a one-time comparison, but a systematic activity of searching, evaluating, learning and improving based on best examples is the essence of benchmarking, in its own words, which can be briefly described as reconnaissance and learning from experience successful companies.

Origin and development

The term "benchmarking" comes from English word benchmark - standard, benchmark, criterion. And it was first introduced at the Cambridge Institute for Strategic Planning in 1972. Although it theoretical basis were laid down in the 19th century in the works of A. Feigenbaum, W. Shewhart, a little later than other quality management specialists.

In 1979, Xerox Corporation launched the Competitiveness Benchmarking project. The company compared its products with similar products made in Japan. The analysis carried out and the steps taken on its basis brought excellent results to the corporation.

The picture of benchmarking in Russia is vividly illustrated by the examples of Ural companies: for example, the company Stroyechinvest, which has been engaged in wholesale and retail trade in the city of Pervouralsk since 1991, was forced to revise the concept of management due to the fact that large enterprises entered the market. retail chains from Moscow, Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg, as a result of which the income of the Ural company was significantly reduced. So, the management of Stroytechinvest decided to combine trading activities with rental property. This step was taken in 2004.

This experience was immediately adopted by Maxi LLC from the city of Revda, which traded in eight stores, partially replaced by Kirovsky LLC for renting its premises. And since 2006, the Chelyabinsk Nezabudka LLC, which has 26 stores at its disposal, began to lease the premises of Pyaterochka LLC and also reoriented to real estate management.

Benchmarking analysis and its stages

How is benchmarking done:

• the object for comparison is determined (office, division, company as a whole, individual business processes or otherwise);
• a branding partner is selected (which companies or companies will be compared with);
• information is collected (through marketing analysis, collecting data on key indicators, reviews, competitor analysis);
• the analysis of the information received is carried out (comparison of the obtained indicators and the identification of problems that need to be addressed in order to achieve the goal of benchmarking analysis);
• based on the analysis, a mechanism for achieving better results is implemented in practice, that is, business strategies are applied that allow the analyzed organizations to achieve higher performance.

At the same time, the following can be carried out: internal benchmarking, that is, a comparison of departments, areas, divisions within the same organization; functional, when the analysis is carried out in the context of specific functions in relation to other companies in the industry; competitiveness - comparison with direct competitors; general - comparison with companies in other industries.

radar diagram

One of the effective types of benchmarking is a radar chart. It allows you to analyze and identify areas of activity that need improvement. Economists Bjorn Anderson and Tom Fagerhoude in their book Root Cause Analysis. Basic tools and methods” describe practical use method on the example of a social security office located in a large city.

The situation is as follows: when dealing with different, including the lower strata of the population, employees of the organization were often insulted, attacked, witnessed quarrels and fights of clients waiting in line. Naturally, in this situation, the main problem was: ensuring the safety of employees.

The management decided to compile a radar diagram based on publicly available data for other offices and for the whole country. The indicators of the diagram were the number of incidents according to the following indicators:

1. Oral abuse of clients;
2. Verbal threats from clients;
3. Minor physical abuse from clients;
4. More severe physical abuse from clients;
5. Serious injury to employees by customers;
6. Murders committed by clients;
7. Minor damage to property by customers;
8. Significant property damage.

To create a radar chart, do the following:

• collect information;
• set one indicator for each of the axes;
• divide the axes into segments, independent indicators are set for them (the farther from the center, the better level indicator);
• further it is necessary to note the levels of indicators for each of the analyzed companies;
• connect the dots characterizing the performance of each company with lines;
• identify the most different indicators of your company with the analyzed enterprises.

Thus, the compilation of the radar diagram allowed the employees of the office being assessed to clearly understand what indicators were in a particularly difficult situation, in this case these are (the points closest to the center of the diagram): verbal insults, threats and significant damage to property. And take further steps to correct the situation, focusing on the experience of more successful associates.

Benchmarking - an ongoing process that measures data on products, services, processes and production technologies in leading enterprises. According to Wikipedia, benchmarking is the process of identifying, understanding and adapting existing examples of the effective functioning of a company in order to improve its own work.

Often, benchmarking is identified with a simple comparison of indicators or with an analysis of competition. Normal benchmarking compares data at the same point in time, while benchmarking is done over a specific period. As part of the competition analysis, comparison is made only with competitors. Through benchmarking, it is possible to find out which company occupies a leading position in a certain industry, and how this position is won. The activities and processes that lead to this position are then implemented in their own enterprise.

History of benchmarking

The birthplace of benchmarking is the USA, and XEROX Corporation (manufacturer copy equipment). By the 1980s, XEROX's global market share had dropped from 80% to 40%. This was caused by strong competition from Japanese firms Canon and Minolta. To counteract a further loss of turnover, a "benchmarking" project was carried out. To do this, the products of competitors were first considered in great detail. However, this analysis was not sufficient to explain the large differences in costs. Therefore, all processes of the value chain were studied, and thus problems in the logistics and marketing processes were identified. Enterprise management decided to compare these processes with those of non-competitors. Thus, several methods have been selected and successfully implemented in these functional areas. At the same time, production costs were reduced by 50% and the development and design time for new products was reduced by 66%. During the next time benchmarking developed throughout the world as effective tool measuring performance, improvement and learning.

The purpose of benchmarking

Target - implement the necessary processes and technologies at your own enterprise, focusing on the standards of the best enterprises - Best of Class. Benchmarking can be represented by the following structural characteristics presented in Scheme 1.

Scheme 1. Possible structural characteristics

Benchmarking study involves identifying the standard of doing business with the help of generally accepted, standard assessments of the activities of enterprises. The methods of work of the best companies, which are recognized as deserving of distribution and implementation in other enterprises, become such a standard. The concretization of objects, goals, partners allows us to talk about its different forms.

Forms of benchmarking

• Internal benchmarking is a comparison of similar activities (processes) related to different organizational units of the same company. In this form, individual production lines, workshops, enterprises and departments of a given company or group of companies can participate.
• External benchmarking is in the form of industry (competitor-oriented). For comparison, partner enterprises within the industry are involved. With this form, a high degree of comparison is achieved, it is possible to quickly learn from the best experience and obtain high performance. However, data and indicators are obtained here with the help of significant costs, since partner enterprises are not interested in transferring experience to potential competitors.
• At external form for comparison, partner enterprises outside the own company are involved. If a comparison is made with a group of enterprises with similar products or similar areas of activity, then a general trend can be identified, a reference example can be identified and possible improvement potential can be uncovered.
• Functional benchmarking covers the comparison of similar functions, processes, areas of activity at enterprises in other industries. Due to industry differences, matching requirements are lower, so data can be obtained at a lower cost. At the same time, the implementation of the results of a functional type can greatly affect the effectiveness key competencies and compared functions, processes, areas of activity of the enterprise.
• General benchmarking is a comparison of data on the work of companies belonging to different industries. The goal is to conduct broad analogies and comparisons when evaluating products, processes, technologies of the best companies whose experience deserves to be implemented.
• Strategic Benchmarking - a study aimed at change general principles organization of its business. The objects of study are the strategic direction of the business; organizational structure and enterprise management; investment decisions in fixed assets or R&D; management decisions regarding the positioning of the enterprise as a whole or its individual productions; applied approaches to the choice of change management strategy and their implementation (for example, the introduction of ERP technologies, reengineering processes, transformational production systems, "lean" production, etc.).

Benchmarking steps:

• Systematic comparison of the effectiveness of products, services, processes, technologies based on objective criteria.
• An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise in relation to the reference standard, which is determined during the analysis of performance values.
• Identification best experience and the reasons for the differences in performance.
• Formulating, planning and implementing activities that lead to continuous improvement in performance.

A copy company was benchmarking a camping store. An ammunition supplier studied the products of a cosmetics company, comparing case covers and lipstick holders. The airline followed the racing team to understand how to implement fast service equipment and repairs.

In the federal government, agencies compared the performance of customer service lines for speed, accuracy, and courtesy with other federal agencies as well as the private sector.

The type of research undertaken is not as important as recognizing the fact that benchmarking, both inside and outside the organization, can be extremely beneficial in many areas and for various reasons.

Depending on the significant differences in investment in resources and the possible outcomes associated with various types, management must make a decision and determine which type of benchmarking the team should use.

None of the species is ideal and universal. One type may be more appropriate for one or another organization, depending on the environment, product, service, resources, culture, and current state of implementation of technological advances. There are four main types of benchmarking: internal, competitive, functional, and general.

1. Internal benchmarking is a comparison of a business process with a similar process within an organization.
2. Competitive benchmarking is a direct comparison of a product, service, process or method within a competitor-to-competitor relationship.
3. Functional benchmarking is a comparison with similar or identical practices of similar or similar functions outside the immediate industry.
4. General benchmarking broadly covers unrelated business processes or functions that can be implemented in the same or similar ways, regardless of industry.

A more detailed description of these four types of benchmarking will follow below and will include: short description each type; possible results; examples from the Department of Defense, the federal government and the private sector; and some pros and cons of each type.

Internal benchmarking

Internal benchmarking is the comparison of a business process with a similar process within an organization to determine the best internal business practices. At the state level, the two departments of the Department of Transportation may prepare their budget submissions for Congressional approval. In the private sector, in retail, a grocery store chain chooses its most profitable store as a benchmark for others.

Advantages

• most cost effective
• relatively easy
• budgetary
• fast
• good practice/familiarization with the benchmarking process
• information exchange
• easy to share learned lessons
• simple language
• the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of your own process
• will be good Starting point for future benchmarking research

Flaws

• cultivates mediocrity
• limits options for growth
• little performance boost
• can create an atmosphere of competition
• internal bias

Competitive benchmarking

Competitive benchmarking is the direct comparison of a product, service, process or method within a competitor-to-competitor relationship. This form of benchmarking provides an opportunity to get to know yourself and your competitor better; join forces against another common rival. Example of competitive benchmarking within the Department of Defense: may include contrasting Army and Air Force supply systems for joint initiatives. Within the private sector, two or more American Automobiles may benchmark against a common international competitor for mutual benefit; or rival chemical companies are benchmarking to better meet environmental standards.

Advantages

• comparison of similar processes
• get to know your competitor better
• possible partnership
• useful for setting and planning goals
• similar regulatory issues

Flaws

• complex legal issues
• relatively low performance improvement
• danger
• restriction of trade secrets
• false information may be provided
• you can not get the best in your area of ​​​​comparison
• competitors can capitalize on your weaknesses

Functional benchmarking

Functional benchmarking is the comparison with similar or identical practices (e.g., picking process for customer orders, maintaining control of inventory of computer spare parts, logistical support for the movement of operational forces, etc.) of similar or similar functions outside the immediate industry. Functional benchmarking can identify the activities that are most important to your area of ​​work, regardless of the industry. Functional benchmarking is done at the federal level by comparing collections of IRS processes against American Express. Comparing copper mining methods with coal mining methods is an example from the private sector.

Advantages

• provides information on industry trends
• quantitative comparisons
• the highest rate of improvement; about 35

Difficulties

• different corporate cultures
• great need for specificity
• not invented here syndrome
• common features can be hard to find
• takes longer than internal
• need to be able to figure out how to adapt the best views activities

General benchmarking

General benchmarking broadly covers unrelated business processes or functions that can be implemented in the same or similar ways, regardless of industry (for example, translation Money, bar coding, order fulfillment, approvals, restocking, warehousing, etc.). General - means without a brand. This is a pure form of benchmarking. The focus is on being innovative and learning about leading workflows rather than the business practices of a particular organization or industry. The result is usually not only a broad conceptualization, but also a subtle understanding of the overall workflow that functions best. General benchmarking is done when the registration process at a Veterans Hospital is contrasted with the registration process at a car rental agency. Adapting a grocery store's barcode for baggage control and sorting at an airport would be another example.

Advantages

• high return; about 35 percent
• no competition/no danger
• broad new perspectives
• innovation
• high potential for discovery
• study of several industries
• can be compared with the whole world

Flaws

• complex concept
• it can be difficult to determine the best in the field
• planning takes a long time
• well-known world-class companies are inundated with inquiries
• Quantitative changes can increase risk, create some fear