BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Emulating excellence
By Livingstone Chilwane
Attempting to mirror distinction on best projects without careful planning and adaptation makes no sense and usually ends in disaster .
Public service leaders in emerging markets often look for bestpractice initiatives and guidance on their own projects , but frequently fail to achieve desired outcomes . Replication works best for easily quantifiable , lowcomplexity , discrete tasks in controllable environments . In fast-food franchises all around the world , ingredients , uniforms , processes , standards , and even interior design and architecture are replicated at low cost and with minimal adjustment . Public services , in contrast , are highly complex by nature and depend on a variety of interacting stakeholders ( subject to the whims of politicians and citizens ), and are intimately bound up with local cultural and environmental conditions that vary within national borders , let alone across them . City planners for Brazil ’ s business capital , Sao Paulo , for example , sought to emulate the successes of Chicago , Paris , Moscow and Vienna in creating an automobile-centred , radial road system . But in the process , they overlooked several local realities , like the fact that Sao Paulo ’ s steep , hilly terrain made the proposed geometric road patterns extremely challenging to build . The design also required the city to straighten several naturally meandering rivers , increasing the risk of flooding and other environmental damage . Consequently , the city today suffers from frequently flooded roads and some of the world ’ s highest levels of traffic congestion and pollution . South African public service leaders also look for guidance abroad and should be careful when replicating successful projects . The following should be considered .
Beware of outliers that others cannot replicate
Outliers are extraordinarily difficult to replicate . These projects are typically high-profile , pet projects that aim to prove a concept . They therefore tend to have significant sponsorship and are often led by an inspirational leader and staffed by an enthusiastic workforce that is happy to commit extraordinary time and energy to the project . These conditions can propel an initial concept-proving pilot to great success . In contrast , attempts to recreate the same project elsewhere — often with overworked , low-paid , and disinterested workers — will typically fail . Replications rarely receive the same enthusiastic support and resources as the initial innovative trailblazer .
Never assume behaviour of stakeholders
Launching a new public service project involves interaction across a range of stakeholders , including citizens , public sector workers , politicians , and the media . Predicting the actions and reactions of these actors is hard enough , let alone expecting their behaviours and dynamics to be similar across different contexts . Initiatives that succeed in multiple locations can still fail in the next one because the citizens react differently to the concept or to the implementation approach . Other issues can arise because the local workforce rejects the solution in the form that worked elsewhere , or because the political establishment in the new location does not support the initiative . Usually , these failures involve a lack of communication and the consequent lack of buy-in from stakeholders who have no sense of ownership in the project or feel it has no relevance to their circumstances .
Beware of accumulated contextual differences
The contextual environment in two separate locations will vary according to multiple differences in the political , social , cultural , infrastructural , geographical , and environmental conditions . These differences accumulate to influence project delivery on the ground . Implementing identical processes in two locations is therefore likely to result in very different outcomes in each location . Projects aimed at replicating successful information and communications technology ( ICT ) solutions offer classic examples of this dynamic . ICT projects should scale up easily , cheaply , and rapidly due to the nature of the technology . www . simflight . com
Sao Paulo ’ s steep , hilly terrain made the proposed geometric road patterns that emulated Chicago , Paris , Moscow , and Vienna extremely challenging to build .
38 - CEC April 2018