1396
n
Myths in management
it to spread. So next time you are attending a business seminar,
and the presenter tries to convince you with a ashy PowerPoint
presentation of the brilliance of this new management technique
they’ve been using, and you’re feeling that you are about to be
convinced, just imagine him as a dog with a foaming mouth, and
then think again.
ISO 9000 makes you reliable, myopic, efficient, and
dull and unable to invent Post-It notes
Sometimes, management practices, intended to improve the
functioning of an organization, are not merely ineffective but
have unanticipated consequences. Sometimes these conse-
quences are negative but only apparent in the long run, making
rms adopt techniques which are really not very healthy for
them (at least in the long run).
Take ISO 9000. ISO 9000 certication constitutes a process
management technique through which rms are expected to
follow (and document) a number of procedures, aimed at creating
consistent, efcient processes, in which best practices are stand-
ardized and deviations from the best practice are avoided. It leads
to efcient, high-quality products with minimal digression from
the standard.
This all sounds very logical, justied and desirable, right? So what
am I whining about?
Well, Professors Mary Benner from the University of Pennsylvania
and Mike Tushman from the Harvard Business School examined
what happened to the innovation output of rms adopting ISO
9000 techniques. They collected information on 98 rms in
the photography industry and 17 rms in the paint industry,
which they followed from 1980 till 1999. They measured, among
others, all their patents and documented whether these innova-
tions were really “close to home” for the rm (representing
minor variations on what they were already doing) or more
exploratory discoveries (representing truly new potential avenues
for growth). And they found a very clear pattern.
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