sábado, fevereiro 04, 2012

Especialistas versus generalistas

"People are impressed with those who concentrate on a specific activity or product. They perceive them as experts. And as experts, they tend to give them more knowledge and experience then they sometimes deserve. This isn’t surprising when you consider the definition of expert: One having much training and knowledge in some special field.
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Conversely, the generalist is rarely given expertise in many fields of endeavor no matter how good he or she may be. Common sense tells the prospect that a single person or company cannot be expert in everything. (Moi ici: Quantas vezes já ouvi gestores advogarem uma capacidade produtiva com um leque enorme de produtos, só porque podem jogar a cartada da one-stop shop)
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Many years ago at General Electric we learned the power of the specialist over the generalist. At the time, General Electric was launching a concept called the ‘‘turnkey power plant.’’ The concept was simple. General Electric would go to an electric utility with their ability to put all the pieces together. At the end of the process, they would give the utility the keys to the completed plant. (A one-stop shopping concept.)
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Nice idea, right? Wrong. The utility said, ‘‘Thank you very much. We’ll give you the turbine generators; other specialists will get the controls, switch gear, et cetera.’’
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Even though it was General Electric, the inventor of electricity, the utilities wanted the best of the breed: the specialists.
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Well, General Electric figured, those utility guys think they know everything. Let’s go to the lady of the house and offer her a ‘‘GE kitchen.’’
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It was no different. The lady of the house said, ‘‘Thank you very much. We’ll give you the refrigerator; KitchenAid gets the dishwasher, Maytag the washing machine, et cetera.’’
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Even though it was General Electric, the big kahuna in appliances, the lady of the house wanted the best of the breed: the specialists."
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Como é que os generalistas são conhecidos? Em que campeonato estão? Qual a sua dimensão?
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Em que campeonato estão os especialistas? Qual a sua dimensão?
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Quem é mais flexível? Quem tem mais custos estruturais? Quem tem mais a perder?
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Qual é a lição da biologia?
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Trecho retirado de "Differentiate or die : survival in our era of killer competition" de Jack Trout e Steve Rivkin

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