Analyzing The Analysts

I love Askthevc. It really is one of the best resources on the Web for entrepreneurs about VC (thus the name eh?). Today they had a young VC analyst ask a question, which encompassed what I consider two funny sentences.

1. "I'm good at technology without much development experience"
2. "I am strong on operational metrics without any operational experience"

So I thought I would add some more analysts to the list who I have met along the way (and even been at one time or another) in my work:

1. The Advertising Budget Analyst:

"I am successful at evaluating the appropriateness of advertising production budgets without any advertising production experience"

AKA - "I have a digital camera and friends who work in advertising"

2. The Advertising Creative Analyst:

"I know what makes great advertising creative even though I have never built a brand"

AKA - I watch a lot of TV

3. The Consumer Research Analyst

"I know what people want even though I have no practical experience in qualitative or quantitative research"

AKA - I am a person. I have friends who are people. How hard can it be to figure out what other people want that I don't know?

4. The Marketing Analyst:

"I know if you have positioned your product correctly even though I have never positioned a product in my life"

AKA - It will either sell me or not and let's face it, I am representative of the entire marketplace

5. The Management Consultant

“I can tell you how you need to reorganize your company for greater success even though I have never actually worked at a company or ever had to implement any of my grandiose plans”

AKA - If it works great. If it doesn’t they can bring me back to assess why it didn’t and pay me a whole bunch more money to try it a different way all over again