ABSTRACT
By definition, benchmarking is any standard or reference by which others can be measured or judged. Although only popularly used in the past 10 years, the concept of benchmarking is not new. Corporations discovered that they could improve both quantitatively and qualitatively by establishing internal “best practice” benchmarks; soon, this extended to intercompany bench-marking. Today, benchmarking has become a sophisticated yet easily used guide that crosses all industrial lines of business.
