What appears to be the central theme(s) of your classmate’s letter? How does your classmate’s advice compare/contrast with the content you read and analyzed as a part of your literature review assignment?

PROVIDE ANSWER IN 250 WORDS OR MORE AFTER READING BELOW TEXT  

I’m not sure if you are aware of it, but May marks the second year that you have been assigned to the Public Affairs team at the Joint Force Headquarters of the Maine Air National Guard.  The time has really flown, and it has such an honor for me to work with you and watch as you develop in the world of marketing, advertising, and public relations.  When you were first assigned to my department, you were just beginning your MBA with a healthcare management specialty, and had all but given up hope that you might ever end up getting back to your marketing roots.  Now, two year later, you have shown your business marketing skills as you have turned the factory seconds warehouse at the leather mill into a multi-million dollar secondary business line for your company.  In addition, your work as an entrepreneur with your side business with your wife is truly exceptional, and I am supportively jealous of your energy and ability to trust yourself and take risks.

With your MBA in healthcare management nearly complete, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk to you about the Doctor of Business – Marketing degree that is offered 100 percent online by Maine University.  Unlike a Ph.D., the Doctorate of Business is designed for people like us – doers – and I think that with the street-level marketing knowledge that you have gained through your work at the leather mill, and the business skills you have obtained through your MBA, a Doctorate in Business Marketing would be an excellent next step for you.

One thing to consider, is that the Veterans Administration would view the DBA-Marketing as a continuation of your educational career, and so you would be eligible for full benefits through the Post 9/11 GI Bill.  Imagine the opportunities that would potentially be available to you with “Dr.” in front of your name.  You have mentioned to me many times how great it would be to leave your full-time job and be able to focus full time on you and your wife’s home business.  With a DBA-Marketing, you could teach courses online or at the University of Maine to make some extra money that might enable you to take the plunge and invest yourself 100 percent into your business.

While I am certainly enjoying my time in the DBA-Marketing program, I would want you to enter the process with all the information and your eyes wide open if you should choose to do so.  Since your MBA was done 100 percent online, you are no doubt familiar with the style and pace of online classes.  I believe that you will find the DBA-Marketing program pretty standard in that regard.  However, the style of writing is very different at the doctoral level, and takes some getting used to.  That was the hardest thing for me to learn at first.  At the doctoral level, your opinion doesn’t really matter unless it has been peer reviewed.  The opinions that we were able to throw around willy-nilly in undergraduate and MBA classes are totally disregarded at this level.  It makes sense if you think about it.  We experience things in marketing, and have advice to give to younger marketers who are coming up behind us.  However, those experiences are totally anecdotal, and could be examples of an extremely isolated, one-time occurrence.  Before those experiences can be included in scholarly writing, they need to be vetted, and peer reviewed.  This concept offended me at first.  I know my experiences.  I know they are true.  Right?  Not so fast.  Like I just said, those were true for me in the moment, but are they necessarily true for marketers in Alaska, or Great Britain, or anywhere other than my specific situation.  It was eye opening.

The other things about a DBA-Marketing that you should consider are things that I believe your military career has already trained you for.  Organization, communication, being willing to ask as many questions as necessary to get the answer you need, networking, mentoring, working in teams, avoiding procrastination and not easily becoming panicked are things that have been drilled into us for years.

If I’m honest, the only two remaining concerns that I would caution you about a DBA-Marketing are motivation and timing.  I have seen your talent for marketing, and I think that what you have been able to accomplish with almost no marketing budget through digital and social media marketing is incredible.  However, you have to decide if you want to commit to marketing as your area of specialization.  I cannot make that decision for you.  I know that you are interested in healthcare management as well, and I can attest that the healthcare field offers a lot of opportunities for serving others and developing a solid career.  There are even plenty of marketing opportunities in healthcare, as my recent career changes have demonstrated.  Only you can know exactly what you want to focus on.  I see you as a marketer.  I believe that is your area of comparative advantage.  That is for you to decide.  I also mentioned timing.  I know that you and your wife are expecting another baby this year.  Congratulations again!  I know that you are well familiar with the time requirements that online graduate school demands.  You should consider that in light of the new baby if this is the time to embark on a new challenge like this.

In closing, I wanted to once again say thank you for all the incredible work that you have done at Joint Force Headquarters.  We have had some uphill battles, but I firmly believe that we are slowly but surely changing hearts and minds about the value of digital and social media marketing to the Maine Air National Guard.

As always, I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about a DBA-Marketing program, or any other marketing questions you might have.

Very Respectfully: