Can You Do The Most Important Job in Our Business - Jerry Shereshewsky

Rick Boyko, after eight years of building and running the VCU Brand Center, is stepping down. I sit on the search committee seeking his replacement, and the one thing we all agreed upon, at our very first meeting, is that this job is absolutely the Most Important Job in Our Business. The Brand Center is training the leaders of the next generation and doing it in a way that is radically transforming the way people in agencies and marketing companies, media enterprises and service firms think about the business of (what has been called) commercial persuasion. The Brand Center is organized both horizontally and vertically…just like real life. Vertically there are disciplinary specialties; writing, art directing, planning, brand management and even technology. Horizontally in that all the students participate in cross-disciplinary teams to solve problems. Silos don't work here.

This is the legacy Rick is leaving us. He took a program in Richmond Virginia that hardly anyone had ever heard of and placed it firmly at stage center. He has built an extraordinary faculty and augmented it with visiting professionals who illuminate the world for the students (and faculty). In eight years he and the faculty have revised the curriculum six times to reflect the pace of change in our business. He recognized that simply being a portfolio enhancement school was nowhere nearly good enough for an industry that is running hard trying to keep up with the changes in audience, technology, competition etc. His replacement has to be equally as agile intellectually….or more so. His replacement has to be equally as visionary…or more so. And his replacement has to be able to command the attention of the entire industry as Rick has….or more so. Because the person who is going to hold this job for the next eight years or so is going to shape the leaders of yet another generation and shape the way the industry sees itself.

I love our business. It has been good to me. And you love it too; otherwise you wouldn't be reading my blog or any of the other 'nice to do' non-critical things you do every day to keep yourself intellectually supple. Do you love it enough to want to do this job? Are you good enough, visionary enough and a strong enough leader to do it? If you are we absolutely want to hear from you. And if you are not, but think you know someone who might be, then we also want to hear from you.

This is the most important job in our business because it is a job that will shape the future of our business. Go for it.

Jerry Shereshewsky has formed a new marketing consultant firm, GrownUpMarketing, to help agencies and marketing companies strategically understand the 45+ market and the relevance to their particular brands. Jerry can be reached at jerry@grownupmarketing.com

Read all Jerry’s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Rants & Raves from the Heart of Advertising.

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MediaBizBloggers is an open-thought leadership blog platform for media, marketing and advertising professionals, companies and organizations. To contribute, contact Jack@mediadvisorygroup.com. The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggers.com are not those of Media Advisory Group, its employees or other MediaBizBloggers.com contributors. Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors.