Breaking Bad Habits: Why Best Practices Are Killing Your Business [Paperback]

Have you ever wondered why most newspapers are so large? Or why management consultants work such long hours? Or why hotels still insist on having check-in desks? Ask anyone in these industries, and their answer will be the same: That's the way we've always done it.

Best practices may be widespread, but that doesnt mean they're effective. In many instances the opposite is true: best practices can be outdated, harmful, and a hindrance to innovation. Thesebadpractices are all too common in organizations, and managers and executives can be blind to their pernicious effects. Since they've worked in the past, or have been adopted with success by other firms, their purpose or effectiveness is rarely questioned. As a consequence, these practices spread and persist.

InBreaking Bad Habits, Freek Vermeulen, a strategist with a keen eye for the absurd, offers the tools to identify these practices and rid them from your organization. And, most of all, he presents a compelling case for how eliminating popular but outworn ideas, processes, and strategies can create new opportunities for innovation and growth.

Brimming with examples of norm-defying organizations in an eclectic range of industries--including IVF clinics, hotels, newspapers, and a famous London theater--Breaking Bad Habitswill make you rethink your long-held beliefs about industry norms while encouraging you to reinvigorate your business by breaking out of the status quo.

Founders, executives, and managers alike would all benefit to take a deep dive into this book. --The Huffington Post

Advance Praise forBreaking Bad Habits:

Morten Hansen, professor, University of California, Berkeley; author,Great by ChoiceandCollaboration--
In this expertly researched and engaging book, Freek Vermeulen uncovers one of the greatest sins of managers: best practices. Vermeulen offers an antidote to outmoded practiceslc2