The most punted line of reasoning within South Africa is, "Do not Reinvent the Wheel". As a result of this reasoning, South Africans take study tours or they invite smarts from every where else than from South Africa to learn or be told of what the world has been able to do. This essentially means we copy, we imitate irrespective of context (education, culture, economic standing, political environment etc.) Essentially what this means is that there is less original thinking happening except for thinking on where from to import. This thinking has been sold mostly by the so called big Consulting houses as they assert their already built/developed knowledge vaults and intellectual capital.
I want to argue that this is setting companies and nations back. Some may argue otherwise BUT the fact is that where a nation or a company cannot build and nurture its own Intellectual Property - there is every chance that such a nature or company can never be a world beater/leader in the long term.
The question is, have studies been undertaken to quantify the impact both to companies and nations whose strategies revolve mainly around imitating practices (so called "best practices") from elsewhere. It is however accepted that imitating is a strategy but how sustainable is this strategy. It would be interesting to hear more views on this subject.
