management blog

Malcom Gladwell has written an article for the New Yorker examining whether self-made successes from the wrong side of the tracks have an advantage over those who never had to battle for acceptance by the establishment.

He focuses on Sidney Weinberg, who left school at 15 and became a famous senior partner at Goldman Sachs. Long after becoming powerful, Mr Weinberg still played the role of “dumb, uneducated kid from Brooklyn” when advantageous.

Mr Gladwell says his underprivileged past eventually became an aid rather than a hindrance, even though he was operating in a relationship business that normally rewarded cultural insiders (or so one would assume).

“There are times when being an outsider is precisely what makes you a good insider,” he suggests.

Playing up humble origins can indeed be a good career strategy. But the article got me thinking about other ways in which canny individuals exploit dual identities in the workplace, often to disguise the extent to which they are part of the establishment.

Look at France. There are few genuine outsiders in French boardrooms but this doesn’t stop some businessmen from borrowing an edgier image. In lieu of deprivation, they stress regional ties, ostentatiously locating themselves outside the Parisian mainstream.

Vincent Bolloré likes to highlight his Breton roots, for example. This helps his reputation for recognising investment opportunities the herd ignores. But he is not a real outsider, having attended a top Parisian school and put up Nicolas Sarkozy on his yacht.

The point is that there are many variations on the workplace insider-outsider strategy. All that is needed is some form of dual citizenship that makes one harder to pigeon-hole, and therefore harder to take for granted.