This demand for the specialist can be seen in our universities and in our businesses. In most fields of academic study, the generalist programs that were so popular in the past are no longer offered. Students must specialize. The medical profession led the movement to increasingly narrow areas of specialization. Retail businesses have discovered that it is very difficult for large stores that try to offer everything to clients simply cannot compete. People want to shop in stores that offer limited breadth and greater depth.

The same thing has happened in service industries, in manufacturing, and in other areas. Over the last few decades specialization has become the order of the day. While it is possible to locate a broadly based accounting firm in most cities today, the individual accountants almost always specialize in a specific type of accounting work. The same is increasingly true of financial services professionals.

Professional and financial services providers have learned to specialize. We have left behind the generalist perspective on our fields. But those we would like to have as our clients have continued to follow the trend to ever-increasing areas of specialization. The result is that to keep up with the demand for greater depth and experience, we must now stop doing business between the generalist perspective and the niche perspective. Our prospective clients want micro-specialization. Now they want a specialty within a specialty! What we need to think about is the niche within the niche.

I can’t say that I know where this trend will finally end, but it is clear that even greater specialization is expected of us. Is it time to stop doing business as generalists? Should we embrace micro-specialization? Should we be thinking about micro-niches?

Where do you think it will end? What are you doing in response?

If you are intrigued by this idea and believe it is a direction you want to go, then we need to talk. Call me now at 732-397-8489.