Bench’mark’ – a standard of reference by which others can be measured or be judged; a mark of known or assumed elevation from which other elevations may be established
(Webster’s American Dictionary)

Businesses today need various kinds of information to remain viable entities: market financial, competitive, customer, et al. As a researcher who provides quality information as a product, I'm thankful for that need. To be meaningful, the data collected must be compared against something - maybe the company's own previous years' data, current competitor data, or budget projections among others. The data against which current figures are compared are often called benchmarks, or benchmark data.

A more formal definition of benchmarking says it's "an external focus on internal activities, functions, or operations to achieve continuous improvement." That's a mouthful, but it means, “Where do we stand against other companies and what are our 'best practices?'"

Benchmarking has evolved to higher levels of sophistication over time, but in talking with my clients, I've learned it’s important to "remember the basics." Many years ago, I read a story by John McPhee that stuck with me. It was entitled, "A Sense of Where You Are.” The story recounts an experience by Senator Bill Bradley years earlier, in the mid 1960s, when he was a college basketball superstar at Princeton. Bradley was phenomenal with a basketball in his hands. He possessed an uncanny ability to hit a wide variety of shots from around the court.

One summer, when Princeton’s gym floor was being resurfaced, Bradley had to put in several practice sessions at another school. As he started practicing jump shots, he missed six in a row. Each hit the back rim of the basket and bounced out. He stopped, stared a few moments at the basket, made an adjustment in his mind, and then went up for another jump shot from the same spot. He hit it cleanly, and continued to do the same several more times. His assessment of the situation? The basket was about an inch and a half low.

When the basket's height was measured a few days later, it was exactly one and one-eighth inches too low. The same sense of placement was evident in all his shots. Commenting specifically about his close set shots, Bradley told a friend that, "When you've played basketball for awhile, you don't need to look at the basket when you're in close like this. You develop a sense of where you are.”

In its simplest form, benchmarking is rather like this story. It's first, understanding where you are, understanding one's position at a certain point in time, and viewing it in comparison to something else." That something else could be an industry standard of collective survey data. In today's business environment, to benchmark usually means to look at an industry's best practices and compare your own operations to "the best."

Especially for small companies with limited budgets, looking at their own data over time offers a good starting point for strategic planning. Then, comparing a firm’s data to industry standards or, more importantly, to industry requirements, market researchers can help small companies become larger, viable firms.