South Africa's lack of international competitiveness has seen it slip down the global rankings and is touted as a major factor hindering strong and sustainable economic growth.
Building competitiveness and entrepreneurship in a global economy is becoming an integral part of programme planning at progressive business schools and universities at home and abroad.
Professor Nick Binedell, director of the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs), said: "I know of no other country of South Africa's size that has produced so many globally competitive companies, but the national economy as a whole has not grown at the rate commensurate with winning emerging countries.
"The entrepreneurial spirit is strong but we need to broaden it to make it more inclusive - and we need a new generation of businesses and inspirational business leaders."
South Africa's lack of international competitiveness is in large measure a legacy of its historical past, Binedell argues, on issues such as the lack of skills development, social relations, undue dependence on mining and the general isolation of the economy.
"In a period where winning emerging companies started engaging with globalisation, we came into the game late - and handicapped by history," he said.
Aggravating the situation, he added, was that the global economic downturn had had a direct and measurable impact on the economy in the short term.
Binedell points out that South Africa's economic growth rate for the past 15 years or more has been significantly below the benchmark figure of around 6% to 8%.
"Growth is the oxygen of democracy and it is an imperative for the democratic process. To manage a low-growth economy, given our history, is extremely difficult and there seems to be not enough attention or urgency being given to this."
Gibs is serious about addressing the issue of competitiveness, Binedell insists, with one practical example being its link with the Harvard Business School in teaching a programme on building competitive industries.
"All our strategy and economics courses are rooted in the notion of competitiveness, including our MBA and executive programmes across the board," he said.
Gibs also offers a course called "Building National Competitiveness: The African Leadership Programme", sponsored by MTN. This is under way at Gibs, with delegates attending from South Africa and the rest of Africa, as well as from government and business. The programme is led by a visiting professor from Columbia University in the US, supported by local South African faculties.
The Entrepreneurship MBA course, introduced last September, is also in full swing. This is a six-month study course in which the first intake of 30 students is developing viable business plans to launch a business.
And according to Professor Wim Gevers, MBA director at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB): "Increasingly, business leaders are finding they need to have a truly global perspective in order to stay at the forefront of business at an international level.
"It is imperative that a business school not only prepares managers for a specific country or region, but also develops leaders who can operate in any part of the world. It is crucial that schools focus on equipping leaders with the necessary skills to cope with the challenges of operating in a global context."
Gevers added: "Globalisation has made the business world smaller. With these realities comes a need for a new generation of leaders with a global focus and integrated skills. It's impossible for MBAs to simply have a local focus in this day and age."
USB director Professor Eon Smit said a consequence of the global financial crisis has been a shift in the mind-set of businesses, with many expressing a need for companies to return to a more ethical stance.
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