Career means different things to each of us and so does success, some attribute it to increasing monetary gains while others may ascribe it to personal satisfaction and then again the personal satisfaction may have different meanings to each of us and it can go on and on...
I am not here to argue about perceptions since that kind of analysis ie beyond my expertise, the motivation to write these few lines is to underline the importance of Business/Vertical/Industry Knowledge for success or even for survival, so to speak. Over the past few years, my humble observations have indicated that business acumen of an individual has become a primary factor for his success in any stream. Some 5-10 years ago, things used to be much different whereby the knowledge of technology alone would suffice to procure you a job or success in a job but things have radically changed over the course of time. Now an individual's comprehension of the business or the industry he aspires to serve, is a deciding factor whether he would be a good fit for the organization or not. Organizations already look for people who have the basic technological expertise as well as the business understanding and more than that the ability to foresee how the technology can serve the business based on their understanding of the business.
So far I have pointed out the changing trends, and say if we call it a 'problem' there just has to be a solution :) In my humble opinion, technological expertise will continue to remain important yet the business acumen will take precendence on the front stage and although technology will never be less than vital yet its fate will primarily be driven by the business and therefore a substantial part of any technologist's career should encompass the business and its path as well.
You may find the above statement more applicable to consultancy world, yet as I look at it I even see the products in future to be dependent upon business; may be I am stating the obvious yet the point I am trying to make is that even as pure technologists evolve in their careers they must meet with the challenge of understanding the business better than they already do.
What substantiates my observation above is the off-shore model rapidly taking over North America. I see a lot of technology implementation being pushed out of North America to Asia etc and what remains is the technology analysis. I am not too sure if its a good thing or not yet to survive in this increasingly competitive market we must load ourselves with the business understanding weapons.