Most “business” people define
their profession vertically – as specialists.
They’re marketers or
lawyers. They work in finance, information
technology, human resources, customer service, or product development.
I met someone last week
that’s like me. He described himself as a
“utility” player.
While I don’t think I
can put that on my marketing material, I love it! It’s just perfect.
My expertise can not be
classified by a vertical slice of a company. My skills are better defined as a horizontal cross section.
Working
with (and sometimes in) all of these groups, I need to be conversant in all of the verticals.
Strategy, implementation, and
change management all rely on cross business unit cooperation – they cut across
the specialties.
Organizations need both types of people. Specialists run the verticals and utility players facilitate cross unit cooperation and
communication.
Now here’s my dilemma.
If you’re a utility
player, what does it say on your CV?
How do you present
yourself to someone that doesn’t already understand the value of a utility player?
Sounds a bit like the contrast between functional silos (manufacturing, engineering, sales) and horizontal, customer-focused value streams. Can a utility player be usefully described in terms of the customers served, or the value stream managed? I’m not sure – just posing an idea.
I do know that when someone tells me, “I’m a utility player,” I don’t know enough yet to understand if that person can help me or not.
On the other hand, if I were to hear something like, “I help producers of commodity packaging products better understand value as their customers define it, and then turn that understanding into profitable new value propositions,” I would understand the value that person might bring to me.