How to Implement Competitive‐Cost Benchmarking

Competitive‐cost benchmarking is an action‐oriented tool that enables companies to quantify how their performance and costs compare against competitors, understand why their performance and costs are different, and apply that insight to strengthen competitive responses and implement proactive plans. Benchmarking, by definition, goes beyond competitive‐cost analysis, which is often a staff exercise without a structured follow‐up implementation program; its goal reaches beyond simple competitor emulation. In this article, emphasis is placed on how commodity product benchmarking is performed and the bottom‐line and strategy improvements that can be gained as a result.