As planners and strategists our roles and required skillsets are constantly evolving with the changing media landscape and the effect this has on both consumer behaviour and our own agency models. There's so much to know, and luckily there's a great deal of fantastically useful information being shared and created in the planning community - not least the recent IPA Social, for example.
However, one thing that seems to be missing in general is a really good grasp of business. There have been a few recent online case study discussions where the statistics have been used in entirely the wrong way to arrive at conclusions and "insights" that are quite frankly, wrong. This is a huge issue and something that worries me constantly as a specialist in Brand & Business strategy - how to make sure that we stay relevant and confident against the likes of management consultancies who are producing rigorous, data driven brand strategies for our clients, and how to be sure that as our clients adapt to new business trends, we do too.
While I'd love to take 2 years out to go to London Business School, the cost of tuition plus lost income is too frightening right now. So, I've decided to set myself the Recessionista's 30 Day MBA challenge: I've bought 3 books (pictured above) but will use the 30 Day MBA as the core. I'll be taking one chapter at a time, including the web lectures and online exams, and posting about what I'm learning and how it's relevant to what I do.
So... now it's out there.. here I go!
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