AT&T Teleholdings offers local telecommunications services to people in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The company has a rich history of innovation and customer service. For example, they were the first U.S. company to offer commercial cellular service. Today, the company offers a broad array of services to its customers and is an industry leader in productivity and financial performance. AT&T Teleholdings is firmly committed to benchmarking. To maximize the potential of its benchmarking efforts, the company employs internal benchmarking experts and conducts benchmarking forums for its employees. Stories about successful benchmarking efforts in the company are always included in the forums. According to Orval Brown, the company's manager of business process architecture and benchmarking, "Other people's success stories (about benchmarking) get people interested and excited about the possibility of improvement." The company has found three approaches helpful in the attainment of quality improvements: Internal (best-of-breed) benchmarking involves a comparison of processes between different business units within the firm. External (best-in-class) benchmarking involves finding companies to benchmark against, even if the company is in an unrelated industry. Competitive (industry best) benchmarking against a leader in the same industry. Each of these types of benchmarking has unique challenges and rewards. Internal benchmarking is the simplest because there is typically no problem getting access to information. External benchmarking is more challenging because of access and confidentiality issues, but the rewards can be quite good. Competitive benchmarking is the toughest because a direct competitor typically will go only so far in terms of sharing information. The rewards, however, can be substantial. Because the company is multifaceted in its benchmarking efforts and because a lot of employees are involved, the firm uses a benchmarking code of conduct to maintain strict control of its benchmarking efforts. The benchmarking code of conduct (reflecting the guidelines from the Strategic Planning Institute Council of Benchmarking) is as follows: Keep it legal. Be willing to provide the same information you request. Respect confidentiality. Keep information internal for your use only. Initiate contact through benchmarking contacts. Don't refer possible benchmarking candidates without their permission. Be prepared at initial contact. Have a basic knowledge of benchmarking, and follow the process. This code of conduct provides a measure of continuity across the company's benchmarking efforts that is very helpful in developing a consistent set of benchmarking behaviors. It also helps ensure that benchmarking will in no way impinge on the ethical standards of the firm. One component of the benchmarking process that the company has become very good at over the years is finding suitable firms to benchmark against. They typically look for the following types of companies to include in benchmarking studies: companies that have received quality or business awards, companies with excellent financial results, companies with success stories published in major periodicals, and companies that are top-rated in their industries. These criteria help to select firms that have the highest potential to provide successful benchmarking results. Management is also keenly aware of the fact that the litmus test of any management initiative is effective implementation. The company typically takes the following steps in implementing what it learns from a benchmarking initiative: Select implementation alternatives. Assign resources and create a schedule. Establish goals. Develop a monitoring plan. Gain appropriate approval to alter current practices. Implement the plan. Communicate the benchmarking findings. This formalized process of implementation helps ensure that a benchmarking effort translates into actual change. As the telecommunications industry continues to become more competitive, the company's reliance on benchmarking as part of its process improvement tool kit will probably become even more pronounced. Is AT&T Teleholdings' benchmarking code of conduct a good idea? What types of ethical abuses potentially could occur in benchmarking if a firm did not follow a strict code of conduct?