I was made redundant May 2020 so decided to take rest of the year off knowing that it’s going to be messy and volatile to look for another job. Also, it was a good time to have a break and avoid the shite of working in lockdown.
As my role had become more broader and leaning more into strategy be it within data and tech, I became more fascinated by marketing. I loved reading Mark Ritson articles and I was intrigued by his Mini MBA in Marketing for a while. So, I took the plunge spending £1,500 on the Mini MBA from September 2020 to December 2020.
Since getting my degree at Westminster University in 2006, the Mini MBA was my 2nd round of learning I have done, in 2012 I did an Analytics and Optimisation course run by E-consultancy / Andrew Hood from Lynchpin via Manchester Met University. I do think extra learning is beneficial.
In short, I loved everything about the Mini MBA, and it was value for money.
The 3 key areas that make the Mini MBA stand out.
1 – Reputable, Knowledge sharing and Great Learning
The biggest sell points are Mark Ritson (he loves a swear word) and his fountain of real life experience working with respectable brands combined with using a wide range of reputable materials that was shared from Harvard Business and University of Virginia. In addition to the podcasts, vodcasts he shares his own Marketing Week articles to read.
I was coming in from a different background into this MBA so it was 99% new to me so it was great learning where I could just suck in all the information. There were 11 modules and quite a few modules that did make my brain go into overdrive, it was worth it.
I can’t say for myself but talking to others who came from a marketing background they were gobsmacked by the learnings. You never really know everything.
Working in marketing and being a cricket fan, I took the plunge during the course to put a mini thread on the new format the hundred which only recently launched. Tired to understand it from the key course elements I had learnt: Research, Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.
Taking my learings from the Mark Ritson MBA I am trying to make sense of understanding why The Hundred (in the UK) was formed not from a cricketing view but from a marketing view. There has been lots of confusing messages about The Hundred
— Dipesh Shah (@mrdipeshashah) October 14, 2020
2 – Community
Probably the 2nd best thing if not joint top was being able to mix with other students from a range of backgrounds and the experiences made it fun but also very rewarding. During term time the LinkedIn group was heavily used to debate the topics and homework. Once the exam started the community reached another level of collaboration that I would not have expected all virtually.
The exam was a challenge, stressful but highly satisfying but it would not have been possible without the group that I was part of. I believe there were 8 to 12 of us. We had a WhatsApp group that was heavily used for a period of a month or so and had 2 zoom sessions a week to help each other out in the exam.
To have completed the exam would not have been possible without the community for which I will be very grateful for. I learnt loads from the course and the community and to this day it has helped me look at things differently.
3 – Qualification
The qualification is highly respectable within the industry in an industry where there is not a whole load of training available to the level Mark Ritson delivers the Mini MBA.
Friday 18th December 2020 was the day when the results were out and I was gobsmacked that I got an A, I mean it’s the first A that I have ever received in any form of education. £1,500 has delivered a strong ROI.
One note on the exam (an assignment you need to submit) it is real left brain v right brain; it will stress you out and give you sleepless nights thinking about if the segmentation is done correctly. I would highly recommend investing the time to work on the exam, it is not a compulsory requirement to pass the mini mba but it will give you the confidence and learnings to take in to your next stage of your career.