Researching the question of just who is likely to land a C-level job (CEO, COO, CFO) and why, Stanford Graduate School of Business labor economist Edward P. Lazear has found that generalists, who have knowledge in a broad range of areas, hold a higher chance of reaching the corner office than do specialists.
"The higher you get in an organization, the more likely you are to encounter problems from a variety of different areas," he says. Because CEOs in particular encounter so many different kinds of issues, "those people have to be generalists."