Posted on Wednesday 13th July 2016 by James Howell
A leading marketing agency boss has argued degrees should not dictate a graduate's future in a Twitter rant against a professor.
Will Critchlow is the founder of Distilled, an online marketing agency with offices in the UK and the United States. After reading Professor Mark Ritson's column in Marketing Week, Will launched a scathing attack in a series of tweets on the need for marketing experts to have qualifications in the field.
Professor Mark Ritson is an Adjunct Professor at Melbourne Business School and Visiting Professor at Singapore Management University. His column, entitled 'Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't an 'expert' in marketing be trained in marketing?', encouraged Will to send a series of 19 tweets against the article. Mark highlighted the fact only four of the twenty-four 'marketing experts to follow' had ratified qualifications.
Will railed against this and argued a university education helps develop new ways of thinking and are not career focused.
"Many of the best degrees are not vocational. They teach thinking and learning, not tactics or strategy," Will tweets midway through his Twitter rant.
Mark later responded to the criticism from Will and said the intention was to cause debate around the issue and his points were referring to 'Marketing Gurus' not "everyday marketers".
Read Mark Ritson's piece in full at Marketing Week.
Image credit: Jeremy Bishop
Best of the Twitter Beef
1/ I read this article from @markritson this morning after seeing @ipullrank tweet about it: https://t.co/VsH95CaHk0
-Will Critchlow (@willcritchlow) July 13, 2016
2/ The short version of my answer is "no". Longer answer will take more than one tweet.
-Will Critchlow (@willcritchlow) July 13, 2016
5/ If you're talented, I want to work with you - I don't care what you studied or where you studied it
-Will Critchlow (@willcritchlow) July 13, 2016
8/ Many of the best degrees are not vocational. They teach thinking and learning, not tactics or strategy.
-Will Critchlow (@willcritchlow) July 13, 2016
10/ If the objection is about capability, then realise that real-world achievements > scores in a test.
-Will Critchlow (@willcritchlow) July 13, 2016
15/ Would you seriously say that a list of business leaders should comprise only those with MBAs (no Mark Zuckerberg)?
-Will Critchlow (@willcritchlow) July 13, 2016
16/ Or that a list of top novelists should comprise only those with literature degrees (no Harper Lee)?
-Will Critchlow (@willcritchlow) July 13, 2016
@RobBothan @willcritchlow it might help to try & imagine I wrote my column about this topic because it's important & interesting & debatable
-MarkRitson (@markritson) July 13, 2016