What is a potential drawback of benchmarking?

The chosen answer highlights that one potential drawback of benchmarking is the difficulty in obtaining the necessary data. Benchmarking relies on accurate and relevant data to compare performance metrics with other organizations. If this data is hard to come by, it can significantly hinder the benchmarking process. Organizations may struggle to gather internal performance data or find it challenging to access industry standards or data from competitors due to confidentiality issues or lack of transparency.

This obstacle can compromise the effectiveness of benchmarking, as organizations may rely on outdated or incomplete data, leading to skewed comparisons and misguided conclusions. Effective benchmarking ideally requires consistent and comprehensive data, and without access to such data, the value of benchmarking diminishes greatly.