David Blake

Co-author (with Kelly Palmer) of The Expertise Economy, the book on workforce capability that Kyle read January 8–25, 2019 — and a personal recommender of it (Kyle’s notes credit the read to Blake and Signal Peak Ventures). Within the book, Palmer and Blake propose the Skills Quotient (SQ = skills you have ÷ skills you need × 100) as a way to quantify how well-equipped a workforce is, surface threats and opportunities, and flag flight risks — anyone scoring above 90 gets flagged because they’ll seek growth elsewhere if it isn’t offered. Their answer to the question of what expertise is — “anyone who can demonstrate the skill” — is what makes the book a deliberate title-rhyme counterpoint to The Death of Expertise.

Context: David Blake is an education-technology entrepreneur, co-founder of Degreed (and later Learn In), and co-author of The Expertise Economy: How the Smartest Companies Use Learning to Engage, Compete, and Succeed (2018) with Kelly Palmer.

Where this appears

• The Expertise Economy — co-author with Kelly Palmer; recommended the book to Kyle; originator of the Skills Quotient capability metric.

Current role

Founder & CEO at Degreed — profile.