By Jack Bobo
Some years ago on a flight from Cody, Wyoming, to Denver, I was seated next to Harold Hook, soon to become CEO of the American General Companies. In the course of our conversation, Hal shared with me his management philosophy and some of the principles upon which it was based. Later in my career I found some of his points to be very helpful. But I remember one aspect of that conversation in particular. He said, "Show me a well-rounded person and I will show you someone with a short radius." His point was that superstars or superproducers have a very long radius in one area and do not worry about being short in other areas.
The person who immediately came to my mind as we discussed this was Ben Feldman, a successful producer. Ben had said to me on more than one occasion that he did not get involved in industry affairs or even civic endeavors because he did not feel he was very good at it. However, he felt he did one thing quite well and that was to sell life insurance. He believed he could be more helpful to various causes if he did what he could do best and then give support with money. I do not believe he worried much about having a short radius in areas other than life insurance or dissipating his energy in a variety of pursuits.
I also have observed that many, if not most, really big superstars tend to focus in one area–extending their radius to the fullest. Many resist suggestions to diversify because they are more comfortable and successful doing what they do best. I know some who even resented company pressure to expand their product line to the point where they opted to become independent, thus enabling them to focus on their best talent and market.
A few decades ago we heralded the entry into the "age of specialization." The idea being that life today was more complex than in prior times and intricate problems required specialists to resolve them. Just as the one-room schoolhouse had given way to more specialized education years before, industry and business needed to focus more intently where their expertise was needed and in demand.
However, despite the hoopla associated with the need for specialization, the reality was somewhat different in many fields of endeavor. Companies merged and conglomerates were formed, many with divisions where they had little or no experience. A few were successful, many were not, and divestitures such as the recent one at Citicorp resulted. Often the reason given for such divestitures was simply that the cultures of the merged companies did not fit. That's really another way of saying they could not properly focus on what they did best, and they had become a company with a lot of short radii.
