Is this the age of the generalist?
So many experts, so much information – how do you make sense of it all?
We are supposedly in the information age, yet suffer from information overload. We find it difficult to know what information is accurate and relevant to our needs, and we can spend endless time searching Google, government websites etc. sifting what is fact and what is opinion, worrying that we’ve missed the one piece of information that makes it all clear to us.
So how do we make decisions that are meaningful to us, when we have had to wade through all this stuff first? We’ve looked at expert’s opinions, but do they really relate to our situation? And we know that an expert knows more and more about less and less – if this is a true expert that is, and not just someone who is louder and more opinionated than the rest. (After all, anyone can be an expert or a consultant). Can the true expert put his knowledge into context for you, so you can take effective action and solve your issues?
We have always believed in asking more questions than we answer. If a client rings us and asks what the VAT rate is on hot food, we never just tell them. We do eventually of course, but first we want to know why he wants to know – what has changed, what is he thinking of changing. We want context, so we can tell him all the other things he needs to know so that he has full information about the contemplated change, and more importantly, how it all interacts together. We want him to have the best result, which means transferring knowledge, not keeping it to ourselves, and doling it out sparingly as though we are doing them a favour, being so clever. We want successful clients, which means keeping them informed, keeping them safe from legislation issues, and giving them all the knowledge they need to accomplish their objectives.
We do this by having wide business interests, not just accounts and tax, and being able to put information into context.
We do this by being generalists.
Talk to us and you’ll find we think differently at Hixsons.
