Wanted – Generalists
Posted on April 21st, 2010 by Paul McArdle – No CommentsAs noted previously, we have recently appointed our General Manager for Discerning, Developing and Delivering what the Customer Wants.
As part of the process of getting our new GM up to speed in understanding who our customers are (and what keeps them awake at night), we are investing significantly in touring around Australia to meet with a diverse sample of our clients. Others will be talked to via phone, Skype or WebEx – whilst we hope to visit clients in other countries later in the year.
On the plane out of Brisbane yesterday afternoon, I had the chance to read this article “Specialise yourself right out of a job” from the AFR.
A. Growing our Team
The article was very topical, given that we will be continuing to look to upgrade our team over the remaining months in 2010, and then into the future.
In particular, we will be looking for:
1) Another senior .NET developer:
(a) One of the developers who was with us in the early days and was instrumental in putting some of our key products together, but whom has been overseas for a number of years will be starting back with us in a couple weeks. More about this later …
(b) In addition, we will be on the look-out for another senior .NET developer to add to our development team.
2) Also a little later this year we will be looking to recruit our General Manager for Sales & Marketing:
(a) This person might be called something like a General Manager for Solving Customer’s Problems, reflecting their focus (whether it involves our current product mix or not).
(b) The recruitment of this person will be the first step in our implementation of a Sales & Marketing team.
As a company, we have arrived at an intriguing point in our development:
1) We have passed our 10th anniversary, and have established a proven business model in the software we develop and deliver, but at the same time
2) We have the mindset of a start-up, given the opportunities & challenges we see ahead of us, and our vision for our future.
Given our position, all the key people we will be adding to our team in the next 18 months or so will need to have a generalist mindset.
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B. What the Article has to say about Generalists
In the article, the author highlights the risk of people specialising too much – in that it is possible that their area of speciality might be automated or reduced in importance by technology advances.
The author quotes Kevin Wheeler (who is speaking at the “Australasian Talent Conference” on May 25) as noting that:
“He is beginning to detect an interest in generalist workers – the type who may come to a job with a specific skill, such as accountancy, but can turn their hands to other tasks as well, such as human resources, strategy or IT”
The article continues:
“But to get to this point, there has to be a change in mindset:
1) Workers have to be willing and enthusiastic about pitching in to areas outside of their training – and
2) It also requires they let go of some of the ownership of their area of expertise.”
For us in particular (as a company that needs to foster an innovative environment) the following note from the article is the key point:
“… when it comes to fostering creativity and innovation, getting input from people outside that area of expertise can produce the kind of surprising and unexpected connections that produce breakthrough ideas”
In my view, having generalist workers filling key roles within the company will be one of the most effective ways of facilitating some of the 5 discovery skills of innovation (e.g. association & networking)
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C. Why we need the Generalists
Our development team is only small – which is why we need all of our developers (at least at this stage) to have experience in, and the keenness to deliver over, all end-to-end aspects of the software development & delivery process (including design, coding, testing and customer support).
In the sales and marketing team we will be recruiting, we will also be needing people able and willing to contribute at both ends of the continuum:
1) Database-driven sales to our “long tail” clients
2) One-on-one clients to our “short head” clients.How will we find these generalists?
The article concludes with this passage:
“Identifying good generalist types will require a different recruitment approach.
We will need to find people who demonstrate in their lives generalist characteristics…. It is a lot about attitude.”
In my view, all of our key hires will have a demonstrated history of two things – a generalist attitude, and an ability to deliver real results!
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D. Final Word
For those readers who have seen a copy of my business card, or my email signature, this is why I am known as “General Dogsbody”.
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