World

Benchmarking

One of the most common practices found among companies is benchmarking. Companies use benchmarking as a way to gain information on the best practices of other companies. There are three types of benchmarking that are common practice among national, regional and local companies: internal, process and generic.

Internal benchmarking is the process an individual company uses to find the best practices within their own employees, software, or processes. The marketing department of a corporation may look to the accounting department for the best way to track the increase or decrease in sales versus the expenditures. Generic benchmarking is probably the most common form of benchmarking found today. There are four principles that are important to remember when using generic benchmarking:

1. There are many processes of organizations that have little to do with the industry in which they operate.

2. It is easier to gain cooperation to learn best practices with a non-competitor

3. You need to hone your powers of discovery and observation to detect best practices

4. You should look beyond a single company for best practice studies that are done on a much broader scale

Starbucks Coffee and 7-11 are both companies that are recognized as "chain" stores. While both companies may be owned in large part by a parent company, it seems as though the stores operate under different corporate cultures.

Starbucks Coffee is a company that is often regarded as a great place to work, whether it is part-time or full-time. Starbucks offers good wages and benefits to their employees, even if they are only part-time. They have been able to maintain their "small" company atmosphere despite their rapid growth and expansion. Starbucks has even ventured into the market of adding franchise stores. These franchise stores can be found in major grocery and big box stores throughout the country and are a depart from the corporately owned stores.

7-11 is a store that is making a large push to expand their