In 2020, I decided it was finally time to update my (quite poorly developed) business skills. Browsing through different educational websites, I spotted some “Mini-MBA” programs. As the name would suggest, a Mini-MBA is a fast-track version of the MBA – concentrating the essential content of a one or two-year degree program into a few hours or days. A Mini-MBA program doesn’t result in an academic degree, however most institutions will provide you a professional certificate.
I decided to take the Mini-MBA program at the International Business Management Institute (IBMI) from Berlin, since the whole program is completely online and self-paced. This was important to me, because I want to do the courses when I have some free time (in my evenings after work or at the weekend). The total cost for the entire program is only 90 US-Dollar. I wasn’t able to find a better deal anywhere else.
There are six courses in this program:
- Essential Management Skills
- Marketing and Communications
- Strategy and Operations
- International Business and Economics
- Finance and Accounting
- Human Resource Management
Registration and Purchase
The registration process was easy and I was able to purchase and take all six courses (each $14.99) individually. I started by only taking the course “Essential Management Skills” in order to see if it was worth it. Since I liked the course, I decided to purchase the other 5 courses right after completing my first one. I paid with a credit card (VISA) but they also accept other cards as well as PayPal.
Running the Courses
In each course, you’ll learn the essentials of the course topic in 2-3 hours (8-10 chapters per course). IBMI teaches the basic models, concepts and theories. All courses are text-based and you will also get a lot of examples to understand the content better. Each course concludes with a real business example (case study) and a short quiz to test your knowledge. After each course, I was able to understand the key principles and even explain the core concepts to other people.
After three days my IBMI account looked like this:
All six courses are complete!
My Mini-MBA Certificate 🙂
And here we go… drumroll please!
What a beauty!
Summary
For me, the Mini-MBA was a 100% fit. I wanted to learn the basics of business and management and I wanted to reward myself with a beautiful certificate at a reasonable price. Please keep in mind that this is not equivalent to a full two-year MBA program!
- Positive: I loved the short courses that focus on the core business essentials. I think the prices are fair and reasonable. 90 US-Dollar for a whole online program is a really good deal. Finally, I really love my Mini-MBA certificate.
- Negative: There was no phone hotline I could call. However, Email support was quite fast (Thanks to Daniel from the IBMI support team for answering all my questions!!)
You can find the IBMI website here: www.ibm-institute.com
Raphael Durand
