I have found over the years and working at more than one company that the xyz comment is not very accurate. Most things are the same everywhere and even if the situations are not exactly the same they are close enough to take methodologies from one company to another they will work. Closed minded people just do not get that. That goes for the same group of people with MBA degrees that after taking a basic course in management you learn more as you study more. I have found that after management 101 all the other management classes I took were really a waste of time because I was not learning anything new.
The comment you made is interesting but is only accurate if you do not have the capacity to systems think which is also something else most people struggle with. Every managerial problem is not unique to the company all companies have the same issues and if someone who has seen the problem somewhere else can give you a solution if they know what will work. Most managers just do not have the ego capacity to realize that.