Talent Crunch Major Issue for Marketers: CMA Study
A new CMA study finds that students considering a career path in marketing are often not learning enough about the field of marketing in school nor at job and career fairs typically organized by educational institutions. This disconnect is a serious concern for Canadian marketers. Moreover, as the marketing function takes on greater credibility and accountability, it is presenting a major challenge to marketers seeking out the calibre of talent they need to be successful.
Richard Boire shares his thoughts about the talent crunch, below.
Having commenced my career at such leading-edge direct marketing organizations as American Express and Reader’s Digest, the discipline of numbers to make marketing decisions was embedded within the corporate cultures of both organizations. In discussions with my fellow MBA business colleagues at that time (mid eighties), I thought that this was the norm but quickly realized that these organizations were the rare exceptions. In those days, technology and its associated costs were very prohibitive and effectively were a barrier to entry in terms of using numbers for more effective decision-making within the area of marketing. The old adage of not being a numbers person still implied that you could have a successful career in marketing.
This is no longer the case as technology is no longer a barrier to entry with marketers now having access to meaningful numbers. The real limitation is the skill-set to understand and interpret numbers in order to make effective marketing decisions. Some success can still be attained without a numbers discipline but it is confined within the creative side of marketing. However, in order to advance to the more senior levels, marketing experience without any numbers discipline will be a roadblock to today’s young marketers wishing to advance their careers.
This ever growing discipline in marketers becoming more numbers-oriented provides a level of objectivity regarding business decisions that has often been the sole domain of finance. As a result, the disciplines of finance and marketing are now converging to some extent in terms of a numbers discipline skill-set. Yet, marketers will still need to have that creative thinking and expertise in order to bring more meaningful insights into the numbers. This is the real competitive advantage of the marketing discipline relative to other business disciplines. It is reflected in the growing salaries of marketers who exhibit these new skills.
However in most academic institutions, this message is not being heard as marketing is still considered a non-numbers type discipline. The message is also muted regarding the tremendous salary growth potential for students who have these skill-sets.
Institutions are beginning to offer some courses in these areas in order to allow students to become more familiar with these skill-sets. Yet, the discipline of numbers is not embraced as a core academic objective for any student graduating with a degree in marketing. In the brave new world of marketing, it is academia that is lagging behind the changing needs and skill-sets of marketers.
As academia closes this gap in providing the right academic infrastructure --and it will, we will then observe an increased demand for college/university graduates into the marketing profession.
