Kellogg is an interesting school. When I visited the school in early April, it was probably the most haphazard of my visits: classes were cancelled without notice, tour guides did not turn up and even the weather was slightly grim. I don't know much about marketing, but for a school that is reputed to be the Marketing King, it sure was not thinking too much about customer touchpoints.

By comparison, Kellogg's downtown neighbours, Chicago GSB, was a slick operation. I attended their Chicago Live event. The event kicked off with some good speeches from the admissions team and, on the whole, the event was quite well run, even if some parts were dubious (like the loud and rowdy pub evening).

However, it is Kellogg that has been growing on me in the last few months. There are articles all over about the delight that is Kellogg, with the most recent being Business Week's Choosing Kellogg. Perhaps the school's touch points are not as important as the touch points with what everyone else says about the school?

So I have stretched my initial list of MBA schools to apply for from 4 to 5 to include Kellogg. Just adding this one extra school makes the application process suddenly seems like a lot of work, but I am only applying to schools that I would not mind matriculating to.

Here is my shortlist, in alphabetical order:

• Harvard Business School
• Kellogg School of Management
• MIT Sloan
• Stanford GSB
• Wharton

I've been working on my Career Goals essay. As I have hinted about previously, it has been slightly torturous. It has forced me to think really hard about the time-line of my life leading to the MBA and afterwards. After reading around and a lot of thinking, I've finally gained some clarity. As unlikely as it would have seemed to me even months ago, in broad terms I am thinking of a Private Equity type role immediately beyond the MBA. In the much longer term, I fear I'm going to spew out the usual 'starting a company' spiel that I'm sure many candidates will give - but it is what makes sense for me to say.

So what helped me? Perhaps one of the most useful articles that I have found is Jaguar Paw's Career Goals essay framework. Although it is structured in a similar way to how I was already thinking about approaching the essay, it has made me think more about my Short Term Goal following the MBA. I have also been inspired by the posts of many people blogging out there on all manner of MBA-related things. Some people say they go to MBA school to reflect on their life. I think there is plenty of reflection to be done in simply applying!

Now all I need to do is finish writing this essay in "400 words", "1000 words", "2 pages" and whatever other forms that the different schools require it in.

I listened to a speech by the BBC's Mark Harrison (Head of the Multi-platform, Innovation & Development Studio) today and was impressed that someone has been thinking about the collision of the Internet and broadcast technologies in a similar way to me!

Mark pointed that all the substantial and popular web sites in the world today are platforms for content, e.g. Facebook and Youtube. None of the big sites are content providers. Yet, these platforms, particularly something like YouTube or VLogs, do not produce content of the quality that the BBC does. The BBC has significant expertise in producing quality TV programmes. Youtube and other sites hosting content do not host any content that matches the quality of the BBC's output. Mark stipulates that the big challenge in the coming years is producing a site or technology that successfully marries the Platform and the substantial content quality that is possible through BBC expertise in content production. If and when this becomes a reality, a 'creative dividend' will be realised that truely redefines what is possible and takes TV programme production to the next level.

My personal opinion is that YouTube makes it easy for people to upload and share their videos. However, to produce a quality programme requires many different skillsets, such as script writing, acting, directing and post-production to name a few. Very few people or groups of people have all these necessary skills to produce quality content. Instead, on Youtube we get clips that feature a few of these skills in isolation: perhaps a 3 minute video that features a great comic script or another video with inspiring photography. I expect that in the next ten years technology will emerge that will make it easier for different people with different skills to collaborate online to produce a quality programme. In the same way that software like Firefox is produced in an 'open source' environment, ways of producing 'open source' TV programmes will develop. In the same way that open source software like Firefox includes contributions from developers working for commercial companies, 'open source' TV progammes may feature skilled people from the BBC and commercial companies helping in the production.

If and when such a technology that allows for colloboration and creation of quality content emerges, this will truly reshape the way TV programmes are produced. If this method of production becomes widespread enough, it may even become a 'Youtube killer'.

I've been catching up on some of Marc Andreessen's posts; there is one in particular that stands out - career planning. It starts with:

The first rule of career planning: Do not plan your career.

There is irony in this for me. I'm looking at doing an MBA in year or so, and the one thing that almost all the business schools ask is for you to describe your career goal. In fact, the 'career goal essay' is considered one of the most important parts of any MBA application. He goes on to explain:

The world is an incredibly complex place and everything is changing all the time. You can't plan your career because you have no idea what's going to happen in the future. You have no idea what industries you'll enter, what companies you'll work for, what roles you'll have, where you'll live, or what you will ultimately contribute to the world. You'll change, industries will change, the world will change, and you can't possibly predict any of it.

…

Career planning = career limiting.

So what should you instead?

Instead of planning your career, focus on developing skills and pursuing opportunities.

The rest of the article focuses on taking risks, because you can only really make your mark on the world by taking risks. Speaking to friends, it always seems easy to just ‘get comfortable’ – to stop pushing your career. Andreessen pushes us to take risks if you want to succeed. People don’t get ahead by not taking risks. Andreessen goes into some depth about risks, but the sum is as follows:

The issue is that without taking risk, you can't exploit any opportunities. You can live a quiet and reasonably happy life, but you are unlikely to create something new, and you are unlikely to make your mark on the world.

So this makes me wonder about the MBA career goal essay. Can it ever really be possible to define what your career goal should be?