Why Copying Best Practices Can Quietly Destroy Your Business

There’s a difference between being inspired and being misled.

Many leaders look at a high-performing company or team and assume that replicating their tactics will deliver the same results. But strategy isn’t a plug-and-play operation. Context matters. Execution matters. Culture matters.

You can copy someone’s system, but not their soul.

The HBR example we’ve been unpacking all week tells a familiar story: great surface-level results, followed by invisible deterioration. The company in question looked successful to outsiders. But internally, innovation was slowing and burnout was rising. A competitor watching from afar would have no clue that what seemed like a winning formula was actually unsustainable.

That’s the risk of spreadsheet strategy. It values what’s visible and replicable. It neglects the nuances that make execution work.

Strategic fit offers a more resilient alternative. It helps you build systems that reflect your team’s unique dynamics, your cultural DNA, and your actual market position. And it helps you test, adapt, and refine based on what works for you, not what works for someone else.

In my latest video, I dive into some of the traps of spreadsheet strategy that hinder long-term growth and what to do instead.

Startups, corporates, it doesn’t matter. I've seen great ideas crash from not thinking a few moves ahead. That’s why I built the Straightforward Strategy Blueprint, a FREE template so your idea doesn’t become another could-have-been. Get it here.

Keep building, keep going 🚀