recession survival skills or business best practices?

A popular magazine came out with an article such as "5 recession survival skills". I condemn this approach of journalists to fill up pages for selling their magazines. 

The points mentioned in this article are good business practices to use even in good times - not just bad times. I fail to understand why would anyone spend more than necessary amount even in good times. In business, thrift has to be a way of  life and a mindset. However, such organizations cease to exist due to their excesses in costs. 

Of course, there are organizations where inefficiencies are in-built and a part of the culture. The case in point is Citi. I had blogged about them way back here. 

best practices....(and Dilbert)

Dilbert series presents another amazing strip about best practices. 

Check here. 

This makes me think if all those companies who want to copy best practices from other companies have competitive advantage? I say this because some so-called ITIL pundits indicate that the ITIL publications creates level-playing grounds for companies not knowing best practices. 

However, I question this statement. Best practices will keep evolving and are tailored to a specific environment. ITIL is  a best practices compendium as of May 2007. More best practices have evolved since then. Hence, the companies can gain competitive advantage in their IT Management only if they have people with right skillsets.  Human capital is as important as practices in place.