Today’s business culture encourages people to multi-task constantly, learning something about as many different disciplines as possible and sometimes doing the jobs of several people at once. There’s nothing inherently wrong with multi-tasking, but we might be taking it to an extreme. When I look at what’s expected of a lot of workers these days, I think of the old saying: “Jack of all trades, master of none.”
In this environment where employers are trying to get more production out of every employee it’s not surprising that employees are struggling to find their niche. When multi-tasking is encouraged it can seem wasteful to spend time mastering one particular skill. If you want to become “indispensable” to your company, isn’t it better to be able to do a little bit of everything, to step in wherever needed and do several different jobs?
Some of the most successful companies have historically taken a different approach. They find their niche and fine-tune and improve it everyday. Their primary product or industry is their focus, and within that area of expertise they become the leaders. These companies have to innovate or they will eventually fail, but for the most part they stick to innovating in areas with which they are already familiar.
Even the most successful company may occasionally feel the need to get outside of their niche, driven by investors pushing for diversification, changing market trends, or just ego. The results of these experiments can be catastrophic. Take the multi-national spice company that tried to get into commercial real estate back in the late 80s – and nearly bankrupted the entire company. Or the large hotel chain that decided to start purchasing and developing the land for their hotels in the early 90s and ultimately lost a large percentage of the company’s value.
What do these companies have in common? They got into areas that they didn’t understand. Whether it be an entirely different product like the spice company or merely a different aspect of the same industry like the hotelier, these companies decided they could fire the “middle men” of brokers and developers and keep all the profits for themselves. Not a bad idea in theory, but there’s one big problem: you have to know what you’re doing, or you’ll end up in a whole lot of trouble.
The most successful companies, managers, and employees have this in common: they know what they know, and what they don’t, and they are willing to reach out to someone else to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. They look at it like this: I bring my expertise and skills to the table; you bring your complementing expertise and skills to the table; and together we can create a product neither of us could pull off alone. We both make money, and everybody’s happy. I might not make quite as much money as if I tried to do it all myself – but if I try to do it all myself and fail, I won’t make anything at all.
Is there an area in your business that you’ve been trying to handle yourself without much success? Recognize what you don’t know, and call in someone with the knowledge and skills to help you out. Your business will fare much better in the long run.
Have a great weekend,
Ro