Generalists v/s Specialists

Read an interesting piece this morning about how Generalists are better than specialists in whatever they do in their lives. 

Not taking away an iota of credit from Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule, but it's fascinating to think how someone can know about everything a little bit well and combine the knowledge to use it and create a difference.

Sometimes focusing too much on something just to gain excellence can let us overlook the obvious and as a human resource you would like to be effective at problem solving rather than just being only about knowledge. The right implementation is the key.

I come from a Petrochemical Engineering background and one would argue my inclination towards marketing given one of the most disconnected backgrounds anyone can think of. However, as I was reading through the article earlier this day I couldn't help but share the same thought. 

We had studied about the 'Telescopic' nature of drilling/casing and tubing an oil well which is nothing but a definition given to drilling the surface of earth with concentric circular measurements with decreasing radius as we progress. When I joined my MBA college last year, I was attempting a case competition which was based on understanding the various touch points of the Customer journey. There was a strange similarity in the way the customer journey's funnel and an average oil well planning stages looked like. I don't know why but I just used the analogy to attempt the case and it was one of the most brilliant associations of two completely unrelated subjects that a human could come across. It really fascinated the jury about the way this was thought and appreciated(read rewarded as well) for the same. I don't know how many of the 'specialists' could have thought the way it was done. #marketing #problemsolving #GeneralistsOrSpecialists