Brian Doidge, Chair, CIM South West Regional Board

I met with an Accountant friend recently, who reminded me of his favourite anecdote, which is about a Doctor’s response to a letter of complaint from one of his patients.  Apparently, the patient was very upset by being charged £25 by the Doctor for writing a letter for her. In his response, the Doctor pointed out that he had only actually charged her £5 for writing the letter. However, he added she was charged a further £20 for him knowing what to write!

There is of course a long tradition of us paying a range of qualified professionals a fee, both for advising us and for carrying out work that we feel ill-equipped to deal with ourselves. Marketing is undoubtedly a profession, a point that was formally recognised by the granting of a Royal Charter in 1989. In turn our ability to work towards and obtain individual Chartered Marketer status is also further testament to this.  However, it did make me reflect on how we actually continue to justify our own £20.  We know, that collectively, we spend far too much time ‘doing the day job’ and all the indicators are, that this being continuously stretched by a range of influences, that continue to make sure that we keep a constant focus on the £5. So, it begs the question about how we can justify our own premium?

The good news of course, is that our accredited Study Centres and Graduate Gateway Universities work tirelessly to provide the underpinning skills and knowledge, that will give us that all-important solid grounding, that we need to practice effectively.  In addition, of course, there is a need to ensure that our practice remains current and that we are actively embracing a tangible programme of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). There is little doubt that we must remain at the ‘very top of our game’ if we are to continue to be acknowledged as a value adding profession, worthy of our professional premium. 

As I am sure you know, the Chartered CPD Programme is a great way to manage your professional development, whilst also demonstrating your commitment to keeping up-to-date and learning new skills.  What constitutes a range of appropriate activities is clearly set out and as you also know, at a local level, your regional team work hard to support you in this.  Our range of high quality, relevant development activities, focus on a variety of traditional and more contemporary areas of practice, that ensure you have an excellent opportunity to engage, with the minimum of fuss.

So, as you return the never-ending demands on your time, making sure your own five pounds remain safe, ask yourself, what am I doing to make sure that my twenty pounds remain just as safe and that it continue to do so for many years to come?