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Chapter 3
Clash of the Titans
There’s a book about the future of professional firms that I admire: The Firm
of the Future, by Paul Dunn and Ron Baker.* In it, they make the following
statement:
Yet the debate between the generalist and specialist is over, and
the latter has won. The accounting profession is one of the last
professions to have specialized; doctors started in the 1940s, law-
yers in the 1950s.
This simple statement neatly defines a constraint in our firms’ developmen-
tal capabilities. It’s critical that we continue the path toward the market’s
demand for specialization. More expertise is a good thing.
Unfortunately, though—good con