The idea behind benchmarking and best practices is to:

Identify companies that the the best performers of an activity and then "adapt" their practices to your company's needs and circumstances

Identify which companies are the best performers and then copy those strategies exactly

Determine whether a company has a "world$-$class" value chain

Search the world for a company who can do the desired best practice as the lowest cost possible and then try to copy that method into your organization

Perform each activity within your company to a standard industry practice and then check from time$-$to$-$time to make sure that you are meeting that industry standard