s to benchmark. This form of benchmarking is fairly common and easy to perform. However, this type of benchmarking is unlikely to produce world-best practices. The ability to critique oneself is the first step in being able to realize organizational shortcomings.External benchmarking is complimentary to internal benchmarking. Despite the difficulty in admitting deficiencies, it is critical that companies look to fellow organizations for necessary assistance. Competition has reached a global level and the only sensible goals are world-best practices. The ability to use the practices of others to a firm's own competitive advantage is key in realizing a firm's full potential. Information obtained from competitors is likely to be very relevant, but it will be impossible to get a picture of how a direct competitor operates due to corporate confidentiality. To effectively use this data, management must interpret the information and formulate their own conclusions. The remainder of this paper will look at two companies who can use benchmarking to gain competitive advantage. We will look at Southwest Airlines and their practices. We will also consider potential areas of improvement, and how each company can benchmark the other to gain their own advantage in the industry. Southwest Airlines:Overview:Southwest Airlines is a Dallas, Texas based, low-fare carrier serving destinations in more than fifty cities in twenty-eight states. Southwest currently offers more than twenty-four hundred daily flights, and is expanding eastward. The company has devised a strategy that has produced profits for twenty-six consecutive years. Short-haul flights compose eighty percent of the company's entire flight load. However, Southwest is offering more long-haul flights and expanding its fleet to compete with larger domestic carriers.History:Southwest Airlines was founded in 1967 by two Texas businessman, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. It was ...
