Article Review

Title: The perils of best practice: Should you emulate Apple?

Author: Marla M. Capozzi, Ari Kellen, and Sven Smit
Subject: Business Strategy Review: This article talks about how companies want to & do actually try to be like the Big-guns of their field. He explains that how companies went from adopting best practices of peers in the 80s & 90s to following them step for step & how that has impacted their businesses. He goes on to elaborate that all the practices of the Best Company need not necessarily be the actual best practices. He takes up Apple Inc. as an example to further sink in his point. He states that Apple has been linked with innovation so strongly by media & public that companies looking to innovate, especially in the technology sector, not just look up to Apple, but look at it, take notes & try to implement similar (if not same) methodologies in their business processes. While comparing performances of Apple to other companies, the author point out that how Apples growth has been completely organic (without any major mergers & amalgamations) as compared to other big-growth companies. He further elucidates that both inorganic & organic methods of growth & expansion have their own merits and it should be the conscious decision of the company as to which method to follow. Verdict & Comments: The author has written in detail about Apple & as a result drifted a bit away from the focus of the topic. He however, has concluded well in saying that qualities such as innovation should be emulated & adopted rather than entire company practices. References: Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Issacson Works of Bob Sutton and Jeffrey Pfeffer at Stanford, Adrian Wooldridge at the Economist, and Phil Rosenzweig at IMD