Written by Jay Helbert

An oft repeated complaint among some professionals is ‘Why must we constantly reinvent the wheel?’ Some people advocate that one best practice model should be developed and then the rest of us need not waste our valuable time repeating the process of design, we can simply adopt the model already developed.

If this universal adoption was truly an efficient use of time and resource, then companies the world over would not be spending billions of research dollars on reinventing actual wheels.

If one wheel had been invented and then automotive companies (to choose just one wheel user group) all agreed to adopt the design, the precious resources of time, effort and money would indeed be saved, but innovation would stop as the potential next generation of wheel makers become reliant on an archaic plan and don’t develop their wheel designing skills.  Moreover, would the wheel adopted by all be suitable for smooth roads and mountainous tracks equally?  Would it be able to perform both at high speeds and in wet conditions?  Would it be truly universal?

Of course we should learn from each other, share experiences and seek synergies but we should do this to help us reinvent our own wheels so that they are uniquely suited to drive in our own conditions and so that, having designed the wheel ourselves, we have a deeper understanding of how to drive the car.

Image by Matthew Ragan on Flickr under Creative Commons: Thank you