Best practices: Looking beyond benchmarking to develop your business strategy

Real breakthroughs in strategy and business development come from looking beyond your in-kind competitors for a process view of customer-focused solutions. A company's basic operations are first level processes and cross over industry type. Best practices is the study of identifying the companies which have developed superior processes in product development, manufacturing, customer service and market segmentation regardless of the industry they are in. This paper discusses the benefits of the study of Best Practices in addition to competitive intelligence and benchmarking in business planning. Examples of companies in the plastic industry who have distinguished themselves by their best practices will be presented.