As Australians, we are all too familiar with the commentary that Australian managers and business leaders just don't rate against their international counterparts.

Australia regularly finds itself in the bottom half of global league tables of competitiveness, with poor levels of business investment in research and development, lower numbers of engineering and science graduates than our competitors and generally underperforming on various similar benchmarks of innovation.

In recent weeks, the media has featured political and business figures concerned about Australia being a branch plant economy. They worry about Australia's lack of critical mass, capital and skills and our unfavourable taxation and regulatory infrastructure. They say all this serves to ensure that our business enterprises are the reserve grade team in the global game.

So it's refreshing when an alternative view is put – complete with the mandatory sporting analogy!

Michael Burns is an Australian business consultant who has been advising top Silicon Valley firms from his base in California for more than a decade. He is the latest author to contribute to the Australian Business Foundation's Tales from Silicon Valley on-line business forum.

Michael Burns' first article for Tales from Silicon Valley reflects on Australia's world class performance in team sports, at odds with a culture of laconic individualism. He goes on to suggest that the concept of Australian mateship can translate into successful teamwork in business.

Australia's spirit of mateship manifests itself in business teams as an active choice by individuals to support each other around a common challenge or purpose.

Michael Burns cites examples from his business clients of the superior performance of Australians in team situations and their significant influence on the business success of the team.

Among the reasons, says Burns, is that Australians can strike a cultural balance between the directness and task focus of the American and Northern European cultures and the more indirect, relationship-based cultures of Southern Europe, Asia and Latin American.

Australians can express a point of view and argue a case, frequently made more palatable with self-deprecating humour. Often, it is the Australian in Asian-Pacific business environments who becomes the voice of the team, after hearing dissenting or alternative views not otherwise able to be expressed in the "group think" that can accompany a team's focus on the task at hand.

If Michael Burns is right, it may well be that Australian character traits are culturally appropriate business behaviour – the laid back approach, sense of mateship, egalitarianism and a fair go. Moreover, they may even represent a competitive advantage in a world where being inventive, thinking divergently, and being adept at collaboration makes for successful business performance.

Or are we just kidding ourselves?

The Australian Business Foundation invites your comment and experiences.