Abstract: the Federal structure of Russia defines the structure of relations between different territorial entities, which imposes its own restrictions and peculiarities on all levels of management and budgeting. The hierarchical structure of ties has been formed and legally fixed: federal district – an entity of the Russian Federation (region) – municipalities (urban settlement, rural settlement, municipal county, municipal district, etc.). At each specified level, their development priorities are formed, and management mechanisms are determined.
Assessing the performance of objects of the corresponding level of the hierarchy according to a certain list of certain indicators or activities is a common approach in managing the entire set of complex systems and when determining the directions of incentives in modern conditions. The article proposes targeted stimulation of all key elements of the system under consideration, the concept of reference points in the corresponding direction of activity, as some typical elements for each class of performance, or typical leaders in different areas of activity (with a large number of different areas of activity) is introduced.
On the basis of the principles of systems analysis, a new conceptual approach to the management of territorial development is proposed based on algorithms for the formation of reference points (clustering), which are defined as typical elements for each performance class, or typical leaders in different areas of activity.
Keywords: territorial development strategy; reference points of territorial entities; assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of territorial and organizational entities; clustering