Final answer:
The characteristics to look for in external organizations to use as potential benchmarks are those that have similar goals and values. By benchmarking against organizations with similar objectives, you can gain insights and learn from their strategies and best practices.
Step-by-step explanation:
The characteristics to look for in external organizations to use as potential benchmarks are those that have similar goals and values to your own organization. This is because you want to compare your performance, processes, and practices to organizations that are similar in nature and are pursuing similar objectives. By doing so, you can gain insights and learn from their strategies and best practices.
For example, if you are an e-commerce company looking to improve your customer service, you might want to benchmark against other successful e-commerce companies that prioritize excellent customer service. By studying their customer service policies, training programs, and approaches to resolving customer issues, you can identify areas for improvement in your own organization.
On the other hand, it is important to avoid choosing organizations randomly or without consideration of their characteristics, as this may not yield meaningful and relevant benchmarks for your organization.