When a Duplicate Falls Short of the Original
I brought my family to Paris during my sabbatical this summer. There was no shortage of interesting experiences: watching the Olympics, touring the Eiffel Tower, seeing my children grapple with restaurant menus that lacked chicken-finger options. But the most striking thing I witnessed during our trip occurred at Disneyland Paris. (Yes, I am a glutton for punishment.)
My children were excited for the Cars-themed ride, having enjoyed the movies so much, and so was I, right up until the point we were greeted by an animatronic version of the character Mater (“like ‘tuh-mater’ but without the ‘tuh’”). On the surface, it seemed a reasonable facsimile of the film character—looks and mannerisms were as expected. But then he started speaking French. And not how I would imagine Mater speaking a foreign language. It was like the character had been recast with Jean Reno.
I kept thinking about the parallels to investment strategy implementation. It’s not easy to duplicate an investment process. Even if the package looks similar on the surface, the success of replication depends on a host of important details beneath the surface. Miss on any of these, and the copy may be far from authentic.
This article originally appeared in Above the Fray, a weekly newsletter for Dimensional clients.
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