Bill Taylor’s post Great People Are Overrated on the HBR Blog Network has generated a lot of heat. His post was triggered by a statement Facebook CEO Mark Zukerburg made in an interview: “Someone who is exceptional in their role is not just a little better than someone who is pretty good,” he said. “They are 100 times better.” It emphasised what Marc Andreessen had told him: “Five great programmers can completely outperform 1,000 mediocre programmers.”
Bill Taylor does not agree with them. He goes on to make a case that a team of average performing individuals is better than high performing superstars, and concludes: “Most of business life isn't really a choice between one great person and 100 pretty good people, but if that is the choice, I'm not sure I'd make the same choice as Mark Zuckerberg — especially if those 100 pretty good people work great as a team.”
The last I saw, his post had received 272 comments, mostly from software practitioners, and the majority pilloried him.
