"The first job of the planner is to create problems," Faris Yakob believes.
While many creative people (and numerous clients) would probably agree, Yakob's assessment of the strategist's craft – as informed by stints at agencies including MDC Partners/KBS+, McCann Erickson, Naked Communications, and OMD – is based on planners' characteristic willingness to identify, analyze, and solve the pressing issues that a brand faces.
"Planning is a creative process, just as much as creative development of work is. The beginning, obviously, is research and synthesis," he observed. "That leads to the center point, which is defining a problem."
As hinted...