In consulting the Fox and Hedgehog are pals

You may be familiar with the idea of the fox and the hedgehog adapted from the ancient Greek poet Archilochus.  Just in case you are unaware, the notion is the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.  This concept has been applied, famously by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, outlining the virtues of hedgehog.


Don't worry, I won't argue the logic of a best selling author but I will point out a recent blog post from Harvard Business Review that I noticed while on LinkedIn:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/06/all_hail_the_generalist.html

What I took from the post was that while the hedgehog, or specialist, has been the dominant resource type in the knowledge economy, the author makes the case that the time of the fox, or generalist, may be coming.  I'll let you read the rest on the link provided above.  I'll be honest, I'm sure the main reason I was drawn in by this opinion is that I consider myself a generalist and at times I've struggled with this moniker.  I've struggled because I see real, meaningful value in the role of the generalist and not necessarily second chair value.  Generalist, utility player, jack of all trades are descriptions that minimize or water down the value of this type of person or resource.  That debate of specialist vs. generalist is probably best reserved for a night at a pub along with the debate on all time greatest hitter in baseball and best action movie.  The beauty of a balanced consulting firm is that there should be resource strength in both camps and that allows for successful teams to be formed to deliver based on client needs.  In some cases, clients' need strong utility players and some strong analysts to get stuff done quickly and accurately.  In other cases, clients' need deep expertise and pinpoint skills to provide an answer to a complex problem.  Finally, in many more cases, a client needs a solid mix of both.

A firm that can present those solutions and, more importantly, the resources to deliver the solutions may be well on it's way to being GREAT in Jim Collins view.