The Generalist vs. The Specialist

When I was working at Samsung Electronics as a regional account marketer, there was a huge difference between sitting at my desk in the HQ office and traveling across Ukraine and Russia as a one-man salesperson to prominent on-site companies. I believe such experiences can relate to the argument presented in the two readings.

Working in HQ makes you a specialist; you are designated to engage in one job defiintion, which is being an expert of product sales in the regions you take charge of. Perhaps this can correspond to the conventional newsroom environment with beat reporters, different job descriptions (editors, photographers, graphic designers) and roles. what is good about this is as long as everyone performs their job to a certain extent, the depth and perfection of job handling is maximized.

On the other hand, business trips to your actual regional accounts make you the generalist. You have to be able to talk financials, advertisements, sales of other products, etc - and all you have is a single laptop to report back to HQ. It is virtually impossible to rely on "expertise" of departments at HQ with poor communication and obviously a very urgent deadline. You are on your own to give a comprehensive (but surely not as in-depth as you would at HQ) report including everything.

In terms of perfection, of course the specialist would be on top. However, in terms of getting the job done and getting prompt results, actually being on-site has many more advantages. Of course, a party of specialists from HQ can visit a certain region to get a somewhat HQ-level result, but that can never be as timely and as efficient as one person reporting on a one or two-man business trip.

Although the articles were written some six years ago, they seem to point out an important argument of backpack journalists - the generalist vs. the specialist. However, I don't know if "mediocre" is the main word to describe their performances. Yes, sometimes they can seem mediocre at times, but technology as well as journalist utilizing it are developing, which make them generalists with specialties. It seems neccesary to focus more on the timely reporting, integrated media approach (which appeal to people) and vividness that can only be delivered efficiently by backpack journalists. Just like one-man business trips that enables a giant leap for business in a certain region.