Why "Best Practices" Aren't Best

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  rgcomega06/16/08 Report as spam
  1

  Why ?Best Practices? Aren?t Best

  While many of the points you make about the use of "best practices" are legitimate, your article sets up a presumptive negative that is incorrect. Because techniques and methodology are often, even characteristically, transported across types and sizes of business does not categorically rule out their value. For example, Six Sigma was developed by Toyota for an auto manufacturing environment, but it can be and is modified for use in service-related businesses. Bottom line, best practices are exactly that - best practices...and improvements are relative to a particular and specific business regardless size or industry. Whatever practices are sculped for improving a business, any models, technology, concepts, etc., should receive equal scrutiny with any other methodolgy employed to solve issues specific to that business. Otherwise, it isn't a best practice. But one cannot eschew "best practices" in general just because some want to employ a methodology. If you do , how do you create beneficial change? You conclusion is tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bath water. We need consultants to push ideas, not programs....otherwise, they are just salespersons (not that there's anyting wrong with sales!!!).

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  .Mark06/16/08 Report as spam
  2

  Toyota did not Develop 6 Sigma for automotive

  You may want to read "The Toyota Way" by Jeffrey K. Liker. While Toyota respects such methodology, they prefer a simple approach. The person on the shop floor should understand the method.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine06/16/08 Report as spam
  3

  Six Sigma...

  ...Let's see, is Six Sigma the one that came after TQM and before ISO9000? Or is Six Sigma the one that came before Reeengineering and after Core Competence? I get so confused sometimes. Can you help me out?

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  LWeller206/16/08 Report as spam
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  Beware of terms

  The real danger of "best practices" is that people can throw around such terms to pull the wool over wolfish intent.
  
  Re.: "...a friend of mine was once hired to do sales and marketing by an eight-person start-up. When he reported for work, the VP of marketing informed him that she didn???t want him to speak directly to the company???s president. For her, maintaining the hierarchical order was a ???best practice??? in the large enterprise where she had previously worked. That such formality was idiotic in an eight-person firm did not occur to her."
  
  I strongly doubt that the VP of marketing was attempting to maintain a "best practice" from her previous firm. My guess is that her real intent was to portray him and others below her as simple workers doing her bidding, therefore giving herself undue credit for their successes.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine06/16/08 Report as spam
  5

  Best practice

  Actually, you are in error. I happen to know that the woman in question was a former employee of Digital Equipment Corp., which once had an "open door" policy where anyone was allowed to speak with anyone else, regardless of level. Around 1990 (when DEC was still arguably a success story, as evidenced by the recent popular book lionizing its founder), that policy was revised to specify that "open door" meant that you could speak to anybody you wanted, provided you first spoke to everyone else down the management chain, in reverse order. So her behavior was a "best practice" as defined by Digital's management.

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  bighit06/16/08 Report as spam
  6

  Best Practices today

  One man's best practice is another man's ditched methodology.

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  jdalesandro06/16/08 Report as spam
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  On the money

  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people invest in best practices. Business performance is a complex mixture of strategy, brand, process, culture, people, organization, information, et al. Remove or change 1 piece and the so call best practice becomes a stupid idea.

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  barry.list@...06/17/08 Report as spam
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  Best Practices in Operations Research

  The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) www.informs.org holds an annual competition for best practices like those cited at P&G. While well-suited to large firms, operations research best practices also work for small- and mid-sized organizations - witness organizations like Jan De Wit, a Brazilian flower exporter, and Animal Health Institute, an advocacy group, that both rose to the finalist level in our annual best cases competition for the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award.
  Barry LIst
  INFORMS

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine06/17/08 Report as spam
  9

  Best practice talk = $

  Why is it that the only people who defend "best practices" are the ones who make money touting them?

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  Orobri06/18/08 Report as spam
  10

  What best practices are and aren't...

  Best practices are not 'transferable practices' as the article suggests ("Why would anyone expect ???best practices??? to be transferable?"), rather, they are process, methodologies, etc. that organisations can take as a model to better their own practices, in a manner that is suitable to their own size, industry and own particularities... This said, best practices is by no means a form of imitation. It is a transalation of proven practices to own environment and circumstances. The problem could be in how oganisations wanting to adopt best practices embark in this process, and before trying to adopt external methodologies (or develop own) it is best practice to benchmark internally first, as your last paragraph suggessts.

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  rickmaltin06/23/08 Report as spam
  11

  RE: Why

  OK - does anyone have experience with Strategic Account Management as a growth strategy for SMB or statr ups?
  
  Or does anyone have some suggestion about best practices for SMB that see the light on SAM and need some help?
  
  THX Rick