Bad practice

A Darwinian view of management leads many to believe that the most successful organisations must be following the best management practices. Add to this the fact that firms often adopt practices because they enhance their legitimacy – being the 'industry norm' – and then continue with them as they are 'the way it's always been done' and you have a recipe for disaster. For, as Freek Vermeulen, professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at London Business School, says:

"Once adopted, a bad practice is hard to identify and often refuses to quit. And, like a virus, it begins to spread to other organisations."