The Seduction of Best Practice

Abstract

Recent spectacular failures of many companies that had previously been held up as icons to emulate have called into question the use of best practice exemplars in strategic management. In this commentary on Whittington et al.'s “Taking Strategy Seriously,” I suggest that we can reject naïve concepts of excellence without jettisoning case studies. Company cases are essentially stories, and stories are ways of conveying understanding, creating meaning, and justifying action. We can still use these company narratives as part of a process of reflection and dialogue. Stories should be used for their power to provoke learning and change without being turned into rote templates to be followed blindly. An appreciation of the power, productive and seductive, of stories of best practice, may provide some “heedfulness” to work in the strategy field.