As someone who has an MBA and has both been on my own and worked for an agency, I cannot tell you how much of a competitive advantage an MBA has provided me. An MBA's value should not be measured or quantified using traditional measures, vis-a-vis monetarily; rather, it is measured intangibly. If I were to do a traditional ROI analysis on my MBA, I have more than made up the cost of the work in less than five years.

While I cannot speak for Mr. O'Brien, I have to assume his commentary is based on how few PR professionals don''t look at their field beyond PR, marketing and/or communications lenses. On at least two occasions, my agency has been chosen because we were able to pinpoint ways that PR results could augment other business functions (e.g., finance, distribution, supply chain partnerships) beyond sales and marketing. I have used the following model (http://sidneymaxwell.com/process.html) to describe our process; this model was developed in my MBA program.

I often lecture in front of students and entry-level professionals; I tell them that an MBA ranks among the best post-secondary education for whatever side of PR one wants to accomplish. Consumer and brand teams can benefit just as much (if not more so) than those in the corporate arena.