Why Expertise Matters

When do you want to have an expert at your side? Is there ever a time that you would not? Do you want a Doctor who is "probably good enough" to help you? If you have legal troubles, do you want a lawyer who is "ok, but tries really hard". Those scenarios seem pretty clear cut. Of course there is a need to have experts with specific expertise in these cases. In the medical example, you most certainly want an experienced medical specialist in the field for which you are seeking help. Taking an even bigger step back, you certainly want a hospital that is full of the best doctors in all specialties so that if things get complicated, they can collaborate to find the best course of care for you.

Expertise in IT

This concept applies to IT as well. If you have a single IT person for your company, there is very little chance that they can be the expert on all of your complex needs and in all of the technologies that are out there. Throughout my over 30 years in IT, I have seen countless times where companies have issues because they hired a mediocre IT person or an IT company that was just good enough, or was inexpensive, only to regret it later when they lost data, productivity stalled or a variety of other issues that can occur and negatively impact their business when hiring this way.

Experience vs. Inexperience

This link (and you can click the picture below to play too) represents a whimsical analogy to show how three experts in a specific field can outperform a literal army of inexperienced counterparts. An army of children trying to get a soccer ball are no match for a mere three skilled soccer players. The children do not have the expertise in the game of soccer to know they should not be simply chasing after the ball, but instead strategically aligning themselves along the field and using knowledge of the game to help them see what might come next.

Why It Matters for Your Company

If you staff your company with hundreds of  “inexperienced kids” at a fraction of the cost, yes - it is cheaper, but your success will be stagnant. If you, instead, hire three experts while costing more - your results are nearly guaranteed to be better.

What Makes an Expert?

So what makes an expert? Malcom Gladwell in his book Outliers established what he called the "10,000-Hour Rule", which basically states that you need 10,000 hours of practicing something correctly to be an expert. How many years does it take to get 10,000 hours of practice? Conservatively, if you worked at your job for eight hours a day, five days per week and took four weeks of vacation a year, you could achieve just over 10,000 hours of expertise in about five years. I don't know anyone who really works forty hours per week, perfecting a specific skill, so the numbers only serve as an example.

At iuvo Technologies, the average number of years’ experience is eighteen. That equates to over 34,000 hours of experience across many technologies and disciplines. When solutions are needed, we have a bank of experts we collaborate with to ensure that we are providing the best possible service and solutions.

Hopefully it is clear, that expertise does matter in all aspects of life. Surround yourself with experts to ensure that you can be the best person or run the best business possible.

If you would like to talk more about this, please reach out to me!