“Best practices” sound reassuring.

They promise:

  • proven solutions,

  • reduced risk,

  • and faster decisions.

Yet in many growing companies, blindly applying best practices does more harm than good. Not because best practices are wrong, but because they’re often detached from context.

Best practices are snapshots, not laws

A best practice is usually the result of:

  • a specific industry,

  • a specific company size,

  • a specific moment in time.

When taken out of that context, it becomes a snapshot, not a rule.

What worked for a large organization with stable processes may fail entirely in a smaller, faster-moving company - or introduce unnecessary complexity.

Growth changes the rules faster than practices evolve

Growing companies change rapidly:

  • roles overlap,

  • responsibilities shift,

  • priorities evolve.

Best practices assume a level of stability that often doesn’t exist yet.

Applying them too early can:

  • freeze processes prematurely,

  • reduce flexibility,

  • and slow down learning.

What’s “best” today may be a constraint tomorrow.

Copying structure without understanding purpose

One of the most common mistakes is copying structure without understanding why it exists.

For example:

  • adding approval layers to “improve control”,

  • introducing formal reporting to “increase visibility”,

  • enforcing rigid workflows to “standardize work”.

In the original context, these practices solved real problems.
In a growing company, they often create new ones.

Best practices hide trade-offs

Every practice involves trade-offs:

  • speed vs control,

  • flexibility vs predictability,

  • autonomy vs consistency.

Best practices rarely make those trade-offs explicit.

When companies adopt them uncritically, they inherit constraints they didn’t choose, and often don’t need.

Experience beats templates

Experienced advisors don’t apply best practices mechanically.

They:

  • recognize patterns,

  • adapt principles to context,

  • and design solutions that fit the organization’s stage and goals.

The value lies not in knowing what worked elsewhere, but in understanding why it worked and whether those conditions exist here.

When best practices do make sense

Best practices are useful when:

  • the context is comparable,

  • the problem is well understood,

  • and constraints are similar.

They work best as reference points, not prescriptions.

Used thoughtfully, they can accelerate learning, but only when adapted.

Design for fit, not conformity

Growing companies don’t need to conform to external standards.
They need systems that support their way of working.

That often means:

  • fewer rules,

  • clearer ownership,

  • and processes that evolve with the business.

Fit matters more than compliance.

Ask better questions than “what’s best?”

Instead of asking:

“What are the best practices?”

A more useful question is:

“What works for us, right now, given our constraints?”

That shift changes everything.