<p>Is Virat Kholi a hedgehog? Would Dhoni be a fox? Dhoni could bat, keep wickets and lead a team. Virat is the best hedgehog in town, with his bat.</p>.<p>Ancient Greek poet Archilochus elaborated that a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing. If he were alive today, he would have used these examples of cricketers to explain his concept.</p>.<p>Isaac Berlin, a thinker and philosopher popularised this concept in the early 1950s. He divided writers and thinkers into these two slots. Authors like Plato, he argued, viewed the world from a single lens like a hedgehog, while William Shakespeare was a fox. The foxes believed that they can draw from different experiences rather than assume that the world can be tied to a single idea.</p>.<p>Issac Berlin confesses that classification could be a little oversimplified, yet it is largely the truth. The concept now has been adopted to explain the business models of various companies, failures or successes. Many companies failed because they did not focus on being a fox. They did not have multiple offerings.</p>.<p>While a few business consultants demand that a company stick to its “core competence”. Be good at one thing like a hedgehog. In other words, be a Virat Kohli.</p>.<p>Writer Phil Rozenweig argues that companies that are like foxes who can be nimble and agile in multiple areas could be winners. Companies that can take smaller risks, and buy and sell divisions without incurring deep losses, could be winners.</p>.<p>At an individual level, are you a fox or a hedgehog? Your hobbies, choices of books or music could be good heuristics to decide. If they are eclectic and varied, you could be a fox.</p>.<p>At work, you could consciously decide if you want to be a fox or a hedgehog, depending on your age and risk-taking ability.</p>.<p>Deepening your skill in a single area cloud help you earn well and even provide you creative satisfaction but you may not be able to cope with changing societal or technology trends.</p>.<p>As an extreme example, if you are the best cameraman when it comes to shooting on helicopters, your career could end thanks to drones.</p>.<p>Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert comics, calls upon professionals to develop a “talent stack”. He contends that a person who is above average in critical areas is likely to do better than a person who is very good in one or two areas.</p>.<p>Instead of investing time in learning new programming methodologies or a new computer language, the programmer could invest his time in enhancing his presentation skills.</p>.<p>No story talks about how the hedgehog and fox fought each other and how one of them won in the end. However, there are cricketing stories of how teams that had a fox and a hedgehog won a lot of matches for India.</p>
<p>Is Virat Kholi a hedgehog? Would Dhoni be a fox? Dhoni could bat, keep wickets and lead a team. Virat is the best hedgehog in town, with his bat.</p>.<p>Ancient Greek poet Archilochus elaborated that a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing. If he were alive today, he would have used these examples of cricketers to explain his concept.</p>.<p>Isaac Berlin, a thinker and philosopher popularised this concept in the early 1950s. He divided writers and thinkers into these two slots. Authors like Plato, he argued, viewed the world from a single lens like a hedgehog, while William Shakespeare was a fox. The foxes believed that they can draw from different experiences rather than assume that the world can be tied to a single idea.</p>.<p>Issac Berlin confesses that classification could be a little oversimplified, yet it is largely the truth. The concept now has been adopted to explain the business models of various companies, failures or successes. Many companies failed because they did not focus on being a fox. They did not have multiple offerings.</p>.<p>While a few business consultants demand that a company stick to its “core competence”. Be good at one thing like a hedgehog. In other words, be a Virat Kohli.</p>.<p>Writer Phil Rozenweig argues that companies that are like foxes who can be nimble and agile in multiple areas could be winners. Companies that can take smaller risks, and buy and sell divisions without incurring deep losses, could be winners.</p>.<p>At an individual level, are you a fox or a hedgehog? Your hobbies, choices of books or music could be good heuristics to decide. If they are eclectic and varied, you could be a fox.</p>.<p>At work, you could consciously decide if you want to be a fox or a hedgehog, depending on your age and risk-taking ability.</p>.<p>Deepening your skill in a single area cloud help you earn well and even provide you creative satisfaction but you may not be able to cope with changing societal or technology trends.</p>.<p>As an extreme example, if you are the best cameraman when it comes to shooting on helicopters, your career could end thanks to drones.</p>.<p>Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert comics, calls upon professionals to develop a “talent stack”. He contends that a person who is above average in critical areas is likely to do better than a person who is very good in one or two areas.</p>.<p>Instead of investing time in learning new programming methodologies or a new computer language, the programmer could invest his time in enhancing his presentation skills.</p>.<p>No story talks about how the hedgehog and fox fought each other and how one of them won in the end. However, there are cricketing stories of how teams that had a fox and a hedgehog won a lot of matches for India.</p>