All this fuss about benchmarking!

All this fuss about benchmarking! It seems like benchmarking has become the favorite weapon of choice in almost every manager's arsenal. Every day you have people in organizations running around and looking for proper target industries, organizations, processes, or even products/services, so they could compare the studied target's performances and results to their own. If the target is found, which is difficult enough because no two organizations are the same, then the question becomes how to get unbiased and relevant data that will be put in a proper context, and thus yield useful information to be dealt with. 

The road of benchmarking is full of landmines and one has to be very careful about reaching the end of this road in one piece. Therefore, benchmarking should not be considered as an easy endeavor to undertake or something that every organization should be obliged to perform. The consequences may be severe if taken lightly. 

On the other hand, benchmarking may be very useful method if done properly end-to-end. But let's not forget one thing - benchmarking may take you only as far as the second place (if you're benchmarking the market leader) but will be of little help if you strive to become the leader.