This question was posed to me recently by a national client who is actively searching for a new person to lead their internal marketing department, and it is worth a long, hard look.

Certainly, it depends on the organization. In some situations, an advanced knowledge base in the complexities of business would be essential to the success of the individual’s effort. In other organizations, being freed from the constraints of a textbook focus on the “right” way to attack a business marketing issue might just allow for a more creative solution and a breakthrough effort to solve a marketing problem.

Can someone be “over-educated” in marketing? That answer is a definite ‘yes’. The business of marketing is the business of human interaction and emotion. Not in a clinical way, not in a scientific way. In an industry that is evolving and pioneering far ahead of most others, being detached from the textbook methodologies of the past is critical if you are to accept, embrace, and even generate the solutions of tomorrow.

Timothy Corcoran blogs on this subject as it relates to law firms in particular.

It’s important to note that Tim has an MBA. I’ve clearly seen the fact that MBA’s want to hire MBA’s. Is this a survival tactic, or an attempt to justify one’s own investment in time and money?

In the end, the debate will rage on. Generally, I am suspect of anyone who spent too much time being “educated” in marketing. That does not mean MBA’s in particular. But the sooner that someone gets into the “real” world and starts to learn about the human spirit, the more enlightened they become — and ultimately, the more successful their marketing efforts will be.

Let’s safely say that there is a place for all levels of education in the marketing team mix — those with formal and informal educations must mix well together. And perhaps they are a bit like yin and yang, feeding off one another and making each other shine brightly, whereas alone, they aren’t nearly as effective.

What have you seen in your marketing department? What is the dynamic between those on your team with MBA’s and those without? How do they work differently from one another?