Explainers Wanted

“Companies can’t find people with the technical expertise and the business savvy to explain complex products to customers.”

--Business Week, 4/9/07, p. 30.

Ever have one of those moments when everyone seems to discover the same “new” idea at the same time?

It happened to me yesterday. I was reading an article in Business Week titled “Where Are All the Workers?” when Tim Russert’s interview with Tom Friedman came on. Friedman has published an update to his 2005 bestseller, The World is Flat. Almost simultaneously the article I was reading and Friedman said the same thing: The hot new career is the professional “explainer” (Friedman’s word).

I get that. People who can explain why a complex solution is good for business are in demand -- because complexity is abundant and time is scarce. What I don’t get is why this is news. My competitors and I have been saying this for decades. Companies have to figure out how to more efficiently leverage their intellectual property for marketing. It’s a topic that should have received more serious attention by business intellectuals than it has. So maybe now it will.