THE RELEVANCE OF BENCHMARKING IN THE INNOVATION PROCESS OF TOURISM INDUSTRY ENTERPRISES IN UZBEKISTAN

THE RELEVANCE OF BENCHMARKING IN THE INNOVATION PROCESS OF TOURISM INDUSTRY ENTERPRISES IN UZBEKISTAN

Shuhrat Maksumov

Assistant, Samarkand State Institute of Economics and Service,

Uzbekistan, Samarkand

ABSTRACT

Services and methods of their provision are quite diverse. Therefore, it would be relevant on the basis of benchmarking system to develop tourism and its services in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The concepts of the model and analytical analysis are given. According to the results of the analytical analysis, we can say that in Uzbekistan there is a strong need to create a center of benchmarking services.

Keywords: benchmarking, "Six Sigma" methodology, pure imitation, creative imitation, strategic benchmarking, operational benchmarking.

Touristic companies, restaurants, hotels and other service business are always striving for high performance, from creating more efficient processes to selling more of their products and services. But how does a company determine whether it is successful? Through the benchmarking process, any business can compare itself against a standard and develop a consistent way of measuring performance.

In business, benchmarking is a process used to measure the quality and performance of your company’s products, services, and processes. For example, suppose to produce your product takes 30 minute. The only way to know whether it is good or bad is to compare against other data, such as the time it takes another organization to produce a similar product. If another organization can produce the same type of product in less than 30 minutes, you can use their time as a benchmark for measuring your own processes and procedures [1].

Since the first years of independence, Uzbekistan has been committed to creating a solid foundation for the further development of science, technology and innovation. The decrees and resolutions adopted by government of Uzbekistan have stimulated the implementation of a consistent state policy in science, technology and innovation that meets the new historical realities.

The first fundamental policy documents in the development of national science and innovation were the Presidential Decree "On State Support to Science and Development of Innovation Activity" dated July 8, 1992, and the Ordinance of the Cabinet of Ministers "On Measures on State Support to Science and Innovation Activity" dated July 21, 1992. Pursuant to the presidential decree of 7 August 2006 on measures to improve coordination and management of the development of science and technology, reforms continued in the State regulation of the management and funding of national science and in the concentration of its efforts on areas of national priority [2].

Benchmarking research involves identifying a benchmark for doing business with the help of generally accepted, standard assessments of the activities of enterprises. Such a benchmark is the methods of work of the best companies, which are recognized as worthy of dissemination and implementation in other enterprises. There are four types of benchmarking according to the source of input data [3, 47p].

- Competitive benchmarking - comparing data on the performance of enterprises competing with each other in the same industry or market.

- Functional benchmarking - comparing similar processes and functions of enterprises operating in the same or different industries.

- Internal benchmarking - comparing similar activities of different divisions of the same organization. In this type of benchmarking individual production lines, shops, enterprises and departments of a given company or group of companies may participate.

- General benchmarking - comparing data on the work of companies belonging to different industries. The goal is to make broad analogies and comparisons when evaluating similar processes.

Depending on the goals of benchmarking, benchmarking can be based on strategic and operational benchmarking.

- Strategic benchmarking is a study aimed at changing the general principles of how an organization conducts its business. Objects of studying - a strategic orientation of business; the organizational structure and management of the enterprise; decisions concerning investments into a fixed capital or in research and development; decisions of management concerning a positioning of the enterprise as a whole or its separate manufactures; applied approaches to a choice of strategy of management of changes and their introduction (for example, application in scales of the organization of certain programs or a certain methodology of perfection of the enterprise like Total Quality Management or the "Six Sigma" methodology).

- Operational benchmarking - study of a certain production process in order to find ways to improve it. Objects of studying can be, for example, processes of sale or distribution of production, processes of manufacturing of printed circuit models, and so on.

The concept of the model of innovation activities in the enterprises of the tourism industry is based on the following provisions.

1. All components of innovative activity are interconnected.

2. Verification of innovation for market needs at each stage of innovation activity. The activity of tourism industry enterprises is based on constant interaction with the consumer of services. The success of these enterprises depends on the quality of this interaction. Thus, the tourist industry enterprises should constantly monitor the service offer (including innovations) to identify the degree of compliance with the changing needs and preferences of customers. If deviations in the service offer are detected, adjustments should be made.

3. Verification of the innovation for compliance with the capabilities of the enterprise at each stage of innovation activity. When carrying out innovation activities, in addition to the implementation of adjustment of innovations in accordance with changing preferences of consumers, it is also necessary to take into account some limitations. These constraints include the resource capabilities of the enterprise: financial resources required to invest in innovation; territorial opportunities to change the internal space of the premises, etc. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the enterprise of the tourism industry, expressed in the general concept of the institution, the changes, which may lead to the loss of its uniqueness. For example, the introduction of such innovation in a service offer, as a business - lunch at a high class restaurant with author's cuisine can lead to the loss of value of visiting this institution by the consumers of the target segment.

4. Marketing as an integral part of innovative activity. In the model of innovative activity in the tourism industry enterprises, the "marketing" stage is given an important role. Various marketing tools (as a rule, marketing research) are used at the initial stages of innovative activity with the purpose of searching for innovative idea, assessment of expediency of innovations. Marketing also plays an essential role in the process of forming new market needs (including innovations). Conducting research on consumer preferences and their dynamics is one of the tasks of marketing. The "marketing" stage is present at the end of the model of innovative activity in order to organize the promotion of innovative services.

5. Interrelation of components of the model "New Needs" - "New Services". On the one hand, with the emergence of new needs, the development and implementation of new services, corresponding to the stated needs, becomes necessary. On the other hand, the introduction of new services, which are innovations in service offerings, forms new consumer needs.

6. Ways of realization of innovative activity: development of innovations (by the enterprise or by outsourcing) and/or realization of imitation of innovations (pure or creative) on the basis of benchmarking. Obviously, the content of actions in pure and creative imitation will be different. Table 1 shows the sequence of actions of tourism enterprises in the process of pure and creative imitation.

Table 1.

Stages of pure and creative imitation based on benchmarking

Thus, benchmarking is the main tool for the implementation of innovative activities of enterprises of the tourism industry. Note that in some countries the philosophy of benchmarking has not found a large number of followers. There can be two reasons for that. Firstly, benchmarking methods are not accepted by enterprise management due to the belief in their ineffectiveness and inexpediency of application in other countries conditions. Second, due to the fact that the concept of benchmarking is poorly studied. To solve these problems, in our opinion, it is necessary to present a methodology for the implementation of benchmarking processes. This problem can be solved by organizing a benchmarking center.

References:

1. https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/8-steps-of-the-benchmarking-process
2. https://uza.uz/ru/posts/innovatsii-i-proizvodstvo-29-06-2015
3. Robert R. Dunne, Michael J. Mard, Edi Osborne, James S. Rigby, Jr. — John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2004. — 207 р. — ISBN: 0-471-64855-8.