“What was the biggest corporate nonsense you ever ‘bought’ into—moving forward with a project based on a consultant’s advice?”
This seemingly provocative question opens a necessary reflection on management fads that consume resources without generating real value.
The list is long and familiar: process reengineering, process mapping, continuous process improvement, Six Sigma, Kaizen, process-documentation technologies, competency assessments, potential evaluations, organizational design. But perhaps the most expensive purchase for many organizations came with Y2K: before the new millennium, it was believed that the shift from 1999 to 2000 could trigger massive failures in computer systems that used two digits to represent the year.
Multinationals invested millions to update systems and prevent disasters that ultimately never happened. And the pattern repeats itself constantly with other passing fads, where implementations end up proving that the results differ significantly from the flawless projections shown in Excel.
What is the key skill a leader needs in the 21st century to distinguish false prophets from real trends? The answer lies in asking the right question before evaluating any initiative. But the key question is twofold: What is the real need I’m trying to address? And for the consumer, how will this improve their life?
If customers don’t care whether a process is automated or a new methodology is implemented, that’s a warning sign. In that case, only two justifications are valid: that it generates significant savings for the company, or that it adds so much value that it clearly allows you to outperform the competition.
This double question acts as a powerful filter to separate real value from meaningless organizational activism.
Corporate-fad peddlers have an arsenal of arguments that appear irrefutable. Recognizing them is the first step in avoiding their traps:
Competitive pressure:
“If every company in our industry is doing it, how are we not going to do it?”
This is perhaps the most used excuse—and also the weakest. If everyone does the same, you end up looking like everyone else. Differentiation doesn’t come from following the herd, but from understanding what the organization truly needs.
The perfect business case:
Excel spreadsheets can be deceiving when building business cases for these initiatives. It’s wise to be suspicious of numbers that look too perfect. The sky-high ROIs promised in PowerPoint presentations rarely materialize in reality.
Artificial urgency:
“If we don’t do it now, we’ll miss the train.”
This manufactured pressure prevents thoughtful analysis and pushes organizations into rushed decisions that later come at a high cost.
What’s interesting is that the same tools that fail in one organization can be successful in another. It’s not so much about the project itself, but the context where the change takes place. “It’s the people,” as the saying goes. Success depends on the company’s social ecosystem—whether the team has the relational conditions, attention, and sense of urgency needed.
Instead of chasing fads, smart organizations focus on three things that truly matter—those that make them different or unique: the customer, product quality, and innovation power.
These criteria should be timeless: if the company is 100 years old, one might ask what mattered a century ago and still matters today. That long-term perspective helps reduce the noise of short-term uncertainty and encourages thinking in decades.
Take the example of Black Sabbath’s farewell: 5.8 million people streaming, 40,000 at Villa Park in Birmingham, playing songs more than 50 years old that remain relevant. Why did it work? Because there was a clear before and after. They invented the concept of heavy metal, evolved constantly, yet returned to their roots. People seek that essence. The band used a new vehicle (streaming), but the essence stayed the same.
Genuine transformations combine two elements: the essence (what truly matters to the organization) and the right context for that change to happen. That’s when we can speak of a truly transformational shift.
Real value becomes visible when there is a clear before and after—not only in processes, but in the organization’s ability to find deep meaning in what it does.
The essential 21st-century skill is distinguishing false prophets from real, profound trends. This requires:
Starting with the real need: What need am I truly trying to address?
Evaluating the impact on the customer: If it doesn't improve their experience, what’s the point?
Considering the organizational context: Do we have the conditions for this to work?
Maintaining timeless criteria: Does this contribute to what has made us unique for decades?
The next time someone appears selling the latest organizational “revolution,” remember to ask these questions. In a world full of false prophets, the organizations that thrive are the ones capable of telling the difference between a passing fad and a genuinely transformative change.
By Ezequiel Keczkier, founding partner and CEO of the consulting firm Olivia.