Valley PR Blog

What I learned

By Dan Wool on May 17th, 2010 In Advice

I completed my MBA coursework last week and graduated Saturday.  (Thanks to Len and the VPRB team for the nice post last week).

Several months ago, I explained why I went for an MBA. Now that I have a six foot-long shelf of textbooks and course notebooks crammed into my head, I thought it might be interesting to share some of what I learned, at least the parts that related to PR and communications practice:

• Even if you have a great team, you have to regularly network outside the team.
• Having your priorities straight and being well-organized are often more important than having the knowledge itself. Being able to say “no” sharpens your focus.
• Setbacks set you free. You can’t be the best at everything. And knowing exactly when you’re not is great information.
• It’s life-work balance, not the other way around. Stress will literally tear you apart.
• The best teachers set the highest bars, offered the most practical methods and were the most available to others.
• You must go outside your comfort zone in order to succeed.  If you don’t, you won’t.
• People skills are critical to success. Patience and listening are the most important skills for advocating. It’s never about you. Your opinion, however good, is just one of many valuable others.
• Excellent presentation skills save all. It’s amazing how many people fear public speaking even to a small, friendly audience; pay attention to detail in their powerpoints, or fail to put any energy into their talks.
• Your ethics must be beyond reproach — always.
• It is not always about the numbers, but it usually starts there.
• Here are the two answers that crack 90% of B-school cases: (1) failure to set clear expectations up-front and (2) misalignment between desired behavior and employee incentives. If these fail, look hard at inventory, receivables and cash flow.
• The Goal is to make money
• Engaged, hardworking people are easy to spot and they are magnets for others. The people I respect the least were “social loafers”. Sadly, we had a few in the program. They worked the least, listened the least and participated the least — and I feel sorry for them. They have an MBA but in the long run will get nothing out of it.
• PR is a real niche. It hardly ever came up in coursework because managing operations makes or breaks public perception.
• All politics is macroeconomics. Understanding macroeconomics, I found, is also the key to enjoying the Wall Street Journal.
• The best negotiating tactic is respect.
• Many PR firms I know lack a business strategy.
• For all the complaints about Washington DC, the American government up-close is inspiring and well-run. Lobbyists are generally the most skilled PR people.
• Most important internal skills to have in business: managerial accounting and supply chain management. Most important external skills: finance and emotional intelligence.
• Bagpipes are better than “Pomp & Circumstance”.

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