Point of view: Specialising into irrelevance

Gareth Kay

This article argues that the marketing industry needs a return of the 'informed generalist' to reconnect creative solutions with commerical imperatives.

Point of view: Specialising into irrelevance

Gareth KayChapter SF

In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith first describes the economic value of specialisation: "The division of labour, so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportional increase of the productive powers of labour." This simple idea – that dividing work into precise jobs for people means the same number of people can do more – has been one that has driven the manufacturing age. It's visible in everything from the manufacture of pins to the modernday assembly lines of Henry Ford and has...

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