Good afternoon friends. All my life I have been constantly learning something new, attending various courses and trainings on my topics - sales, marketing, advertising. In July 2015, I became an individual entrepreneur and started thinking about getting a business education.
Many may not agree with me, but I believe that short-term training courses are often more beneficial than higher education. Of course, I don't mean, for example, doctors. They need to know a lot, that’s why they study for a long time. I'm talking about courses for accountants, managers, and salespeople.
(European Distance Learning and Education Association) with the European application:
How do you like the prospects? I think it's tempting. To this we must add that you can study completely remotely, without interrupting your main job, at any time convenient for you, from anywhere in the world where there is access to the Internet.
The most important question remains to be answered:
How much does the MINI-MBA program cost?
Today you can study under the MINI-MBA Professional program at City Business School. This is a unique opportunity that is worth taking advantage of, especially if you have long dreamed of getting a business education through the MINI-MBA program.
Details at official website of City Business School. Fill out the form and freeze your tuition discount. After the end of the promotion, the cost of training will increase again. Hurry up to apply for training!
Have you already taken advanced training courses under the MINI-MBA program? Please share your experience and impressions with the readers of the School of Effective Sales blog in the comments.
In addition to traditional MBA programs, mini-MBAs exist on the market and are actively developing. Let's say right away that mini-MBA is Not a stripped-down MBA, but an independent training program, which is based on the approaches, materials, cases and practical tasks from the MBA.
Mini-MBA training is a short-term program based on classical MBA training and its advantages, approaches and formats. In a sense, a mini-MBA can be called a short MBA course.
What does the mini-MBA program include?
Courses are often divided into basic (mini-MBA General) and industry-specific (mini-MBA Professional). At the “market average”, the mini-MBA program includes several main modules:
- Management and strategy.
- Marketing.
- Finance.
- HR (personnel management).
- Management and leadership.
- And some other modules (their availability depends on the business school).
Industry mini-MBA Professional programs, as a rule, supplement the basic program with some block dedicated to the chosen field. This could be retail, construction, project management, manufacturing (sometimes there are deeper specializations such as the oil and gas sector), insurance and much more.
Advantages and disadvantages of mini-MBA
First, about the pros:
- Mini-MBA is short-term training, which lasts from 3 to 12 months. Most often, six months. This allows you to improve your qualifications and gain the necessary skills in a short time.
- Mini-MBA training significantly cheaper its namesake MBA. For comparison: a full-time MBA program can cost 300-600 thousand rubles, and a good mini-MBA training can cost about 40 thousand rubles.
- Mini-MBA courses are based on practical approach to learning(the so-called Harvard case method) and the MBA curriculum. The skills and knowledge that students receive after training can be easily used in business.
- Simple admission conditions. As a rule, secondary or higher education and knowledge of the Russian language (or another national language - Ukrainian, Kazakh, etc.) are required.
- Often mini-MBA training is distance learning, which is very convenient in some cases. Can study from anywhere in the world, and also adjust your studies to your work and vacation schedule.
- After completing your studies, you may still have access to all lessons in the business school's internal online system. You can always go back and review the desired block.
There are also disadvantages:
- Alas, the mini-MBA there is no single standard on the market. Each training center under this name means something different. For example, you can find study programs of 40 and 500 academic hours.
- If the mini-MBA courses are distance learning, there will be little communication and exchange of experience with colleagues and teachers during the process (study takes place almost individually).
- Mini-MBA not listed abroad(they only recently began to have such programs) and issues diplomas of advanced training or retraining. If you are planning to go abroad to work, you are better off choosing an MBA program from an AMBA-accredited business school. It will be really expensive, but it will open up great career opportunities in Europe, the USA or other parts of the world.
- How is it different from an MBA?
- Who is it suitable for?
- Where to go to study
Today, business schools, along with classic MBA programs, offer a program with the MINI prefix. Let's figure out what kind of program this is, what its features are compared to an MBA, and whether there will be any results from such training.
How is it different from an MBA?
MINI-MBA is a professional retraining program that is specifically designed to quickly train future leaders and includes the most important knowledge and practices from the MBA program.
There are three main features that distinguish MINI-MBA from an MBA program:
- Short training period. To complete the MINI-MBA program, you will need 6 months, while for a full-fledged MBA program you will have to allocate at least 1.5 years.
- Low cost. The MINI-MBA program is on average 3-4 times cheaper than an MBA.
- You will receive a diploma, but not a degree. After completing the MINI-MBA, you will receive a diploma or even 2 diplomas, like in CityBusinessSchool, but you will only receive a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree after completing a traditional MBA program.
In fact, MINI-MBA is a squeeze out of the classic MBA program, the first step, which gives you the opportunity to try your hand and then decide whether to continue your business education. At the same time, MINI-MBA is designed in such a way as to give students more practical tools.
Who is it suitable for?
The MINI-MBA program is primarily designed for specialists who are just planning to become managers, as well as young entrepreneurs who do not yet have time to immerse themselves in business processes.
MINI-MBA is suitable for anyone who has not yet decided whether to get a business education. Six months is enough time to:
- gain knowledge and skills to become an effective leader;
- decide whether to continue studying to get an MBA degree.
What results do graduates achieve?
Despite the fact that the MINI-MBA is the first step towards an MBA, you should not perceive such training as something incomplete. MINI-MBA is a full-fledged program that gives graduates tangible results.
Knowledge and skills. To cope with a leadership position or successfully develop a business, you need to be able to organize the work of subordinates, motivate them to achieve results, effectively manage time, achieve goals with minimal costs, and much more. You can learn this in the MINI-MBA program, which develops leadership, personal effectiveness and communication skills.
Career growth and income increase. Unfortunately, no separate studies have been conducted on the MINI-MBA, but according to CityBusinessSchool specialists, they regularly monitor the success of graduates. According to business school statistics, 40% of them manage to increase their income within three months after receiving their diploma. At the same time, 89% claim that business education significantly helps them in their career.
There are also those who need the MINI-MBA program to gain the courage to open their own business.
Mikhail Krakhalev, graduate of City Business School and CEO of Cellend LLC:
“Today my dream came true. Having completed only half of the training, greedily absorbing the material I had learned, I opened my own business. School taught me to use time more competently and efficiently, and for any entrepreneur and people like me, this a priori means an increase in net profit.”
Where to go to study
First, you need to decide on the format of training: whether you want to study full-time, in modules or remotely. The latter format is now the most popular, as it has 2 important advantages: a flexible schedule and low cost of training. At the same time, graduates of distance programs receive exactly the same diploma as full-time students.
If you decide to take the MINI-MBA distance program, pay attention to the business school CityBusinessSchool, which is the leader of distance education in Russia and the CIS. Studying at CBS gives students several advantages:
- Flexible training schedule. Training takes place remotely through the DLS (distance learning system), which means you determine your own schedule and can study when and where it is convenient. Agree, it’s much more pleasant to solve a case over a cup of your favorite coffee than in a stuffy classroom.
- Quality education. Modern educational technologies, which CityBusinessSchool uses to develop its own LMS, make online learning no less effective than face-to-face learning. Game mechanics help you quickly get involved in the learning process, and tests and simulators help you learn a large amount of information in less time.
- Access to experts from all over the world. The distance learning format gives the business school more opportunities to find experts. CityBusinessSchool teachers are entrepreneurs, top managers of international companies, authors of popular books and business consultants from all over the world.
- Assistance in employment. If you can't get a promotion in your current job, the CBS Career Center can help you find a new one so you can make the most of the competencies you've acquired.
- Low cost of training. Thanks to a different cost structure, online programs are 3-5 times cheaper than their in-person counterparts. At CBS, prices are even lower because there are more students. Over 5 years, the business school graduated 80 thousand people.
So, we found out that MINI-MBA is a full-fledged business education program. In 6 months of training, you will gain knowledge and skills that will help you better cope with your responsibilities and very soon get a promotion, open your own business or increase your business income. The best part is that thanks to the remote format, you will get all this without sacrificing work, your favorite hobby and communication with your family.
MBA (Master of Business Administration) is a business education program that trains specialists at senior and middle management levels. This type of education is necessary for productive work not only in business, but also in state and municipal administration.
Graduates of MBA programs have training in marketing, finance, human resource and project management, general and strategic management, etc. Upon completion of the course, they are issued a diploma of advanced training. Such a diploma is a material confirmation of the graduate’s qualifications and professional competence. Today, the MBA is a prestigious degree for managers.
A little history of MBA in Russia
In 1994, an analogue to the Western MBA appeared in Russia, which many universities began to offer. People still turn to this format now when they want to get a business education. But MBA graduates of this format are often unsatisfied. But the benefits of Russian MBA programs cannot be underestimated. They are built on Russian material, training is in Russian, students and practical teachers mainly represent Russian business. However, the difference lies in the fact that a business school around the world is an educational institution whose focus, unlike a university, is teaching practical business skills.
In order for business training to bear fruit, Just theoretical knowledge is not enough. Business disciplines should be taught by a person with extensive practical experience behind him. At the university, the teachers are mainly theorists, who at the same time give lectures on textbooks in the main courses. In addition, it is almost impossible to integrate business disciplines into a state master's program, in which theoretical disciplines prevail. As a rule, the format of such training has little in common with the original source (Western MBA).
The education system at a business school is a fundamentally different format. When choosing a business school, it is important to pay attention to who its graduates are. This is the environment in which the participant will be for several months; these are his future business contacts. Such contacts are no less a goal when studying in the MBA format than acquiring knowledge and skills. This also applies to teachers, who may also have useful connections for the participant. The interactive format creates particular value when during training there is a continuous exchange of experience and knowledge between students and the teacher. Case methods used in this training format help to comprehend various business situations and model ways to solve problems, the search for which is carried out in a group of like-minded people. This often leads to the birth of new ideas. A business school is a specific educational environment, a kind of reservoir of knowledge, where real examples from the practice of participants are offered for consideration.
Mini MBA - a fundamentally new format
In 2003, the Russian School of Management introduced a fundamentally new format to the Russian market - Mini MBA. It is based on a similar format that appeared in China in the 90s. When the market there began to develop rapidly and there was an acute shortage of managers in various areas. However, the business could not afford to train specialists in the classical format; they did not have three years left. This is how a concentrated course appeared - Mini MBA. This model was adapted to Russian specifics.
There is no single Mini MBA format in Russia, but the most optimal course is a 6-month course. It fully adheres to the idea of a Western MBA, containing a certain set of specific courses, broken down by key business functions: leadership, management, marketing, finance, sales and personnel. But in the case of the Mini MBA, these disciplines are presented in a more concentrated form, with an emphasis on the most necessary and basic things. The peculiarity of this format is that the manager receives not only training in each area, but also a general understanding of how the business is structured as a whole. This is very important for a manager who is not an expert in all areas within one business. It is very difficult to be a professional in such areas as marketing, finance and personnel at the same time, but you need to understand how each of these processes works, you need to speak the same language with specialists, and properly manage and interact between departments.
To participate in the formation of company policy, it is important for a manager to know, see and be able to influence control points by which he can determine the state of affairs and the position of the company in each direction. This is the idea of comprehensive training in the concentrated Mini MBA course. At the same time, it is the face-to-face format of training that is important, since live communication in a group and with an expert teacher plays an important role.
Who makes sense to study under the Mini MBA program?
Usually, it is the manager who is the first to begin studying for a Mini MBA; when the company is developing successfully, there are certain results, but the next step needs to be taken (and there may be several such steps). At such a moment, the manager’s operational thinking prevails and thinks only about solving current problems. He needs to learn to think strategically about how the company will develop in the future. He must “get out” of operational thinking and “jump” into strategic thinking.
However, not only the manager and owner of the business should understand business processes. For example, in the practice of the Russian School of Management, there is an increasing tendency to train not only the company’s management team in the Mini MBA course. The owner of the company comes for training, then sends the CEO to the Mini MBA course. He, in turn, sends training to department heads. After which, each of the managers trains leading employees in their area (functional management) in the Mini MBA, although they are not managers. This approach to training contributes to more productive development of relations between departments, the search for new business solutions within the company, increasing employee loyalty and team cohesion. As a result, after training according to this scheme, the company can make a serious breakthrough in its development.
If you choose a school to study in regional cities rather than in capitals, pay attention to the program and teaching staff. It is extremely important that the program is presented by the same teaching team, and that training is carried out to the same standard, using the same technologies, tools and models, regardless of the location of the training.
Mini MBA is certainly a professional retraining program that retains the advantages and benefits of modern management education, but at the same time, is strictly focused on practical solutions.
Nikolay Kozlov,
Head of the Mini MBA department at the Russian School of Management,
A special educational product called mini-MBA. The first such programs appeared before the crisis of the late 2000s, but it was during the recession that they flourished. Mini-MBAs attracted attention because, as business schools promise, « in such programs you can get an MBA degree for much less money and spending much less time.”
Features of mini-MBA programs
Having analyzed the Russian mini-MBA market, we can say with confidence that the MBA in these programs is only in name. No matter how high-quality the training is here, mastering the curriculum of this MBA program in three months or six months (which is how long mini-MBA courses usually last) is impossible. Therefore, Russian mini-MBA programs are advanced training or professional retraining programs intended for managers and usually have a specific industry or functional focus (specialization).
Business schools, in principle, do not hide this fact, directly indicating what diplomas and certificates participants in these programs will receive upon completion (shorter programs are about professional retraining, longer ones are about advanced training).
Many schools offer classes on an individual schedule, and some even offer distance programs, such as Moscow Business School, Synergy and the Moscow School of New Economics). True, the magic word MBA still does its job, and the cost of such programs is still higher than the cost of traditional professional retraining or advanced training.
In Moscow, such programs are offered by a number of universities, including a mini-MBA from Moscow State University. RUDN mini-MBA programs have been very popular for a long time, but now RUDN University does not offer a mini-MBA.
MSU mini-MBAs are offered in a dual degree format in conjunction with American Business Studies.
Cost of mini-MBA programs
The cost of mini-MBA programs varies quite widely. Mini-MBA in Moscow costs from 40 thousand to 200 thousand rubles. The most inexpensive programs are offered by the Moscow School of New Economics - mini-MBA Professional - here you can study for 35 thousand rubles. At Moscow Business School, programs cost 50 thousand rubles. These are all distance programs. The cost of a full-time mini-MBA is significantly higher. In Synergy, for three months of training (72 hours) you will have to pay from 105 thousand to 180 thousand rubles, in MIRBIS the cost of a 7-8 month program is 116 thousand rubles. In the same price category of the REU program. G.V. Plekhanov.
Find out more about which programs mini-MBAs offered by Russian business schools how much they cost and how to adjust training to fit your schedule, you can always