As we have seen, the knowledge based economy we live in has created a demand for executives who maintain their skills at the highest level of proficiency. Technological advances have handed us an information universe of staggering proportions, and one in which anyone who can operate a personal computer has access to that knowledge. Consequently, portable executives need to understand not only that their skills are their most valuable asset, but, more important, they must figure out how to continually maintain and enhance their skill bases within the ever expanding knowledge universe. Each individual executive must also discern which skills to develop, and which skills, when subjected to a straight cost benefit analysis, are best subcontracted out to others. (By "cost benefit analysis," we mean simply that needs to allot money and time for the development of their core skills and skills that will create new income streams, but must not waste time or financial resources developing skills that do not enhance their core competencies or which take time away from productively employing their core skills.) Cost systems advisor Jack Cahill, for example, finds that the simplest and most cost effective method of deciding which of his skills to develop at any given time is to ask someone in his network of potential clients what their critical needs are.
Attitude toward Skills
Since their core skills are both their greatest asset and their entire inventory, portable executives must learn that developing and maintaining them is not an optional investment. All too often-and particularly when financial resources are limited-executives make the mistake of viewing skill development and maintenance as secondary to servicing clients. But it is critical for you as a portable executive to view skill maintenance and development as an investment in the quality of your business, and to allot sufficient resources for it. Otherwise, you're apt to find an other portable executive with up to date skills snatching your market share.
You will occasionally have to invest both time and money in skill development, which will take you away from client service. But it's a short term trade off, as you may be giving up income right now in favor of the benefits to be derived from improving your skill base and your ability to generate fees in the long run.
Jim Schwarz, a former senior vice president of training and development for a consulting firm, commented on the proportion of time he spent there on skill development compared to the time he now allots to it as a portable executive:
While at the consulting firm, I went to one class. Since I've been on my own, I have probably spent ten times more time on my own training than the firm ever did, particularly in strategy implementation and managing organizational change. I have refined myself and become an expert in areas I once didn't even know about.
Committing to an ongoing plan for increasing and broadening one's knowledge and skill base, as Jim Schwarz has, is what sets apart from the pack.
Each individual must also seriously consider which skills are worth developing and which are more cost effective to acquire. Some skills are more valuable than others, and while value is relative to the individual, it is important to make solid, cost effective decisions about which skills to invest in. In a knowledge based society, the greatest threat to is personal obsolescence. It is therefore imperative that executives choose the most appropriate skills to maintain and develop.
Generalists Are Specialists:
There is a simple answer to the age old discussion about whether we need more generalists or more specialists in management: The answer is that we need both. In today's economy, how ever, the person who is a generalist must specialize in performing as a generalist. Pitney Bowes's Vice President Northeast Division, Ernest M. (Chuck) Jackson, Jr., describes how an executive, possessing generalist skills as a manager can remain flexible:
No one can specialize in everything, and frankly I think you don't have to. If you say to yourself, "These are the items I need to help me make a decision," and then you gather the essential data, you are becoming "portable." If you are flexible enough to listen for information and understand it, you're not only a good manager, you can go almost anywhere.
Holmes Bailey, a portable executive who works on financial turnarounds, describes his core skills:
My attitude is that it doesn't make any difference what the business is-good management skills are needed universally. When I went to MIT's Sloan School of Management, nobody said "We're training you for the aviation industry," or "We're training you for the vacuum industry." Nobody said that. Gore skills are [just] the skills you need to be successful in America in business.
Indeed, Bailey's track record supports his supposition that he can apply his skills in any business. As he describes a typical assignment, however, it becomes clear that he is more than just a specialist in financial re-engineering:
You take a company that's unprofitable and shrinking. You put in the time, energy, and talent it takes to make it profitable, and then staff it with people who can help it grow and run it into the future. The key is to find people you can hire . . . people you can train who will keep the business going and growing for the next twenty years.
Bailey focuses on completely renewing the companies that engage him, and what he accomplishes ranges far beyond simply turning them around financially. He redevelops these companies to make them viable over the long term. To that extent, his skill base supports not only his role as a specialist in financial turn around but as a generalist as well. Just as who focuses on a highly defined market niche succeeds by building a reputation within a particular segment of the market, so too.
I'd really made a promise to myself when I left Dun &Bradstreet that I was not going to go back into a situation where I'd be working eighty to ninety hours a week. So I said no.
Even though he rejected the offer, Swank did agree to go home and think about it. When he told his wife Jean about it, he said, "If ever there were a job that was cut out just for me, this job is it, because I know exactly what to do." Soon, he was waking up in the middle of the night thinking about it. Despite the fact that he'd decided not to return to a full time position-let alone one that would require working ninety hour weeks and commuting to Cleveland from his home in Connecticut Edgell Communications had found their new CEO.
Dick Swank knew his skill set, offered years of expertise, and had developed a driving passion for applying his skills over the course of his career. His was truly a situation where the core skills he'd developed over a lifetime proved to be so perfectly matched to the assignment that he could not turn his back on the challenge.
