"We look for generalists who want to work in public services or local government and make a difference; it's then about getting the best fit to match the culture of a host council" says Beeton, who says there is still a need to persuade local authorities to take part in the scheme.
Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of UNTAET, has complained that his mission had arrived with "a bunch of generalists", when what he needed were people with experiences of the nuts and bolts of running public services.
Most were trained as generalists, rotating through the company's departments every two or three years, which means they know a little about everything.
But in an industry once dominated by lookalike generalists, the top firms are now pursuing very different strategies.The main variables are the size of their funds and the degree of specialisation.
A search of titles on amazon.com throws up almost 600 containing the word "Enron".Some were written by insiders and whistleblowers who saw just one small part of the forest; others by journalists and writers with differing degrees of access to evidence; yet others by academics and generalists keen to use the Enron story to illustrate wider points about society.
Mr Tien, directly elected himself, says the system works better than the sort where legislatures are full of directly elected generalists who become easy prey to professional lobbyists.
All are fast-growing industries fascinated by uncertainty and with little use for generalists.
Otherwise, traditional firms dominated.Third, notes Til Schuermann of Oliver, Wyman, the greatest shareholder value has been created by specialists rather then generalists; retail firms have done far better for their shareholders than wholesale ones.
Now that even these sorts of company are throwing their unwanted generalists on the scrap-heap (see article), the sarariman had better find a skill.
The question can be asked of people, but it is increasingly being asked about internet search-engines, as specialist or "vertical" sites take on generalists such as Yahoo! and Google.
Many modern chips are generalists; competent at any task but excelling at nothing.
