‘Breaking Bad Habits: Defy Industry Norms and Reinvigorate Your Business’, by Freek Vermeulen (Harvard Business Review Press)

A restless search for “best practice” lies behind some of the worst habits of business, which can spread like viruses, hampering innovation and stifling growth. Mr Vermeulen, a professor at London Business School, offers some excellent examples of bad practice, and also of good practice — the new ideas that throw off the straitjacket of established processes, industry standards, and misleading success stories propagated by journalists, consultants and academics.

At the same time, Mr Vermeulen provides a series of counterintuitive ways companies can inoculate themselves against the virus of best practice, for instance by “embracing change for change’s sake”.

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