The South African nation brand has had mixed fortunes in 2015. Brand South Africa announced earlier this week that South Africa stands at number 38 of 50 countries in the annual Nation Brand index. Although South Africa has dropped one place – from 37 last year to 38 this year – the country’s overall reputation score has improved 0.17 points from 2014.
In addition, South Africa has improved on the pillars of people and tourism and held steady on the pillars of exports and governance. This follows the 2015 Global Competitiveness Index produced by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which indicated that South Africa’s overall competitiveness increased significantly with a seven-place improvement from 2014.
South Africa is now among the world’s 50 most competitive countries standing at 49 of the 140 countries assessed by WEF. South Africa is also the second-most competitive country on the continent.
At the same time, South Africa retained its position in the 2015 Mo Ibrahim Index on African Governance.
The Brand Finance Index has placed South Africa at number 37 of 100 most valuable nation brands with a net nation brand value of $225 million (R3.3 billion).
All of this matters because of South Africa’s endeavours to position itself as a competitive nation among the global community of nations.
Michael Porter, one of the world’s foremost authorities on competitive advantage of corporate entities as well as nations said: “National prosperity is created, not inherited. It does not grow out of a country’s natural endowments, its labour pool, its interest rates or its currency’s value, as classical economics suggests.”
He went on to question what influences a country’s competitiveness and going even deeper, asked if there is a consistent and agreed-upon formula to develop national competitiveness considering the complexity and the various stakeholders involved in building the nation brand.
Based on his research in an attempt to find conclusive answers to these questions, Porter therefore concluded that “the only meaningful concept of competitiveness at a national level is productivity, because the principal goal of a nation is to produce a high and rising standard of living for its citizens”.
The ability to do this “depends on the productivity with which a nation’s labour and capital are employed”, which speaks to the efficient use of resources.
Productivity is also according to Porter, “the prime determinant of a nation’s long-run standard of living, it is the root cause of national per capita income”.
Looking at competitiveness, he found that innovation is one of the most sustainable drivers and further concludes that “the only way to sustain a competitive advantage is to upgrade it”. This is the essence of the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen – continuous improvement of working practices and personal efficiency.
National competitiveness and sustained productivity are interconnected in that growth requires that an economy continually upgrade itself. And this, as we see above, speaks to an economy’s ability to innovate at all levels – from corporates to human capital.
Corporate ethos
Increasing productivity with a view to strengthening national competitiveness is a joint responsibility with which we must all be seized. It means that as employees, we begin to do our jobs with focus, commitment and striving for excellence.
It means that as managers, it is our job to ensure we encourage and stimulate productivity in our workplaces – this cannot be achieved with policies and regulations alone but will also be encouraged by creating an enabling environment for employees to innovate in their spaces and push boundaries. This corporate ethos will eventually become synonymous with our national ethos and this will contribute to positive perceptions about our country which will impact on our reputation.
Porter has found that constant striving for excellence and urge to keep ahead of competitors is an excellent driver of innovation which contributes to competitiveness.
I am hopeful that we will begin to see various indices which highlight the country’s competitiveness and brand strength in this light… let us use areas where we do well as an inspiration to keep going and areas where we do not do so well to encourage us to keep pushing the boundaries to enable innovation and ultimately national competitiveness. It is this spirit that will ensure South Africa implements its National Development Plan and therefore achieve the national objective to reduce economic and social inequality.
* Sello Mosai is Productivity SA: executive manager for value chain competitiveness programme. Follow the conversation on @Brand_SA #SABrandIndex
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
BUSINESS REPORT