‘Business Bullshit and Business Excellence: Time for a Serious Conversation on the Exemplars of Excellence’, a seminar by Professor David Collins (Northumbria University)

Business Bullshit and Business Excellence: Time for a Serious Conversation on the Exemplars of Excellence

By Professor David Collins from Northumbria University

Abstract:

This presentation will offer, for reasons that will become apparent, ‘a serious conversation’ on In Search of Excellence and upon the larger excellence project that this text spawned. I will argue that to secure, this serious conversation on business excellence we must shift our focus from conventional forms of critique, which reflect upon the choices made by Peters and Waterman to consider instead the conduct of those organizations lauded as exemplars of excellence. 

Building upon an analytical account of that discursive formation that has come to be known as ‘bullshit’ and focusing upon the conduct of 3M I will offer a case study, designed to reveal the nature of the business model pursued by this company. Indeed, in reflecting upon the profane realities of 3M’s strategies and practices I will argue that the excellence project is ‘bullshit’ but not because it is based upon lies and empty rhetoric. No, I will argue that In Search of Excellence is ‘bullshit’ because it fails to offer a serious conversation on the factors underpinning the competitive successes of those organizations such as 3M highlighted within the narrative of In Search of Excellence.

About the speaker: