Ultimately, the overall goal of operating a business is to see it grow and succeed through offering a unique product or service. According to Chartered Financial Analyst Michael Schmidt, there are three key attributes that make a company successful:
- Quality Management
- A Competitive Advantage
- Market Leadership
At Access/Information, we have longed believed and discussed the importance of knowing your competitors. Competitive intelligence helps businesses to make strategic decisions regarding their operations and functions, enabling differentiation absent of bias. Benchmarking goes beyond looking at your direct competitors, and examines successful operations to strive for market leadership.
iSixSigma notes that benchmarking encompasses the following goals:
- Identifying best practices
- Striving for continuous improvement
- Partnering to share information
- Working to maintain a competitive edge
- Adapting based on customer needs after examination of the best
Benchmarking can be especially useful when looking to expand into a new industry or geographic area. Examining other market entrants, including successes achieved and lessons learned will make your business better equipped for expansion.
When experiencing high growth, or even struggling to achieve growth, investigating the strategies of companies who have started at a similar level of your own (even across other industries) can provide insight into how to effectively manage this process, and what technologies or systems may need to be put in place, so that you can strategically propel your company into a position of leadership.
Not sure which companies to emulate? We can help!