If a company decides that it wants benchmarking to be a part of its long-term management program, then it will need to find a way to institucionalize the processes. Benchmarking should receive the sponsorship of senior management. While senior managers don´t have to be involved in all benchmarking processes, they need to provide leadership to the benchmarking program by:

• Emphasizing the need for benchmarking
• Ensuring that adequate education and training is provided to the benchmarking team
• Selecting the team leader and providing members of the team with the time to conduct their benchmarking project
• Setting the resource and information-sharing boundaries within which benchmarking efforts take place
• Making contacts with other companies to initiate conversations about benchmarking
• Providing the resources, time and support required to do quality job
• Receiving the results and recommendations of the project with an open mind, making every effort to implement the most important results
• Recognizing the efforts of benchmarking teams for their contribution

Very important part of an introductory effort for benchmarking is employee orientation. The purpose is to inform employees about the benchmarking program and to enable them to participate on a facilitated benchmarking team or on a team that is implementing the results of a benchmarking project. The employee orientation can take the form of a presentation or a booklet that describes benchmarking. However, there is one danger - don´t advertise what you don´t have!