Advancement Strategies: Trends and Offerings in Executive Education Part II
June 9, 2008
An Amtrak ride north, in the Manhattan headquarters of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, executive education is top-of-mind for Nancy Hill. The president and CEO of the AAAA in mid-May hired David Prince as senior vp of training, education and development to help oversee the day-to-day operations of the organization's educational programs.
Chief among those is the tentatively titled Center for Excellence in Advertising. The center, a partnership with Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Communications, was announced in April with a four-fold mission: to provide leadership, training and resources to help increase the number of minorities in middle- to senior-level positions in the industry; to educate the industry on ways to be more inclusive of people of color; to highlight best practices in building amore diverse workforce at advertising agencies; and to build retention and promotion opportunities for minorities in advertising. The partnership also will endeavor to create a pipeline for executives in other industries to transition into careers in advertising.
The center-conceived with the help of O. Burtch Drake, immediate past AAAA president/CEO-is slated to open this fall and will be targeted to Howard alumni and other college graduates.
"It's become increasingly difficult to identify, recruit and nurture talented people with a bent toward creativity," says Hill. "And I think the advertising industry needs to start fishing in a different pond. We need to cast a wider net to make sure we, as an industry, represent the diversity in our society. This partnership isn't going to be solely about what people look like. It will be about their points of view and the skill sets they can bring to the table."
The partnership likely would not have come together without the support of Dr. Jannette Dates, dean of Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Communications, who shared Drake's original vision on the initiative.
"Our goal is to be as inclusive as possible," she says." It's something that we're very excited about. It's going to be a challenge, but it's one that we embrace and that we feel will really enhance the industry in the future. Our greatest hope is that this partnership will be transformative for the industry."
But Adonis Hoffman of AAAA's Washington office, another key architect of the partnership, says it will take more than the organization's and the university's good works to make that transformation a reality. That, he says, will take some leadership backbone on the part of current top executives.
"Ultimately, what it will come down to is having CEOs out there issuing the mandate to their staffs and to their boards and to their recruiting firms that if the appropriate African American or Hispanic or Asian comes along and possesses all the right skills for leadership, that person must be hired," Hoffman says. "Otherwise, we're just talking about it, and it's all academic."
In addition to getting the center off the ground, Hill and Prince, who formerly ran the AAAA's Institute of Advanced Advertising Studies in New York, are taking a hard look at the AAAA's online executive education offerings. The group already offers a number of Webinars focusing on agency management, new business and agency compensation. But Hill believes that the popularity of the current programs proves that still more can be done.
"A face-to-face classroom setting is the best way to go, but online education allows for a lot of flexibility," she says." Online allows people to take our classes when they want. And it allows agencies to participate in groups or with select individuals."
Meantime, the Institute of Advanced Advertising Studies remains a solid choice. The program, one of the AAAA's longest running executive education initiatives, offers young ad professionals the chance to shine in real-life marketing situations, to develop their best creative thinking, and to hold their own in front of discerning clients. The 13- to 16-week-long program is designed for those with one to four years of agency experience.
Another hub for executive education is Boston University's Metropolitan College and Extended Education in Boston. The school, in collaboration with BU's College of Communications, offers a master's program in advertising that is designed, in part, for professionals who have been in the industry for one to three years. The goal is to assist students in advancing their careers, either at their agencies or on the client side, according to Chris Cakebread, an assistant professor of advertising who has become director of the master's program.
The focus of the 10-course program is to provide a broad foundation in traditional as well as new media disciplines. "We cover all of the traditional bases," he says." But the focus has started to move more toward the interactive and digital possibilities now available in the advertising industry. We're looking to establish a strategic program that integrates all of that and helps people stay at the forefront of the latest trends and developments."
For more Executive Education coverage:
Advancement Strategies: Trends and Offerings in Executive Education Part I
Advancement Strategies: Trends and Offerings in Executive Education Part II
Advancement Strategies: Trends and Offerings in Executive Education Part III
