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5 Business skills you master with an MBA

14th February 2020

Yearning to start your own business but not sure you’ve got the entrepreneurial experience to execute?

Or happy with your current company but stuck on a certain rung of the career ladder in a role that feels stale?

Either way, an innovation-focused distance learning MBA can propel your plans and provide the self-assurance you need to move forward and excel in any enterprise.

Still not convinced? You will be once you read about five essential business skills this accredited qualification helps you master.

1. An MBA teaches you strategic leadership

Legendary military strategist Sun Tzu said ‘strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat’.

And more than 2000 years later, strategic business leaders like Ray Dalio still strike the tricky balance between motivating and inspiring those in their charge with visionary thinking and displaying the practical nous needed to push projects through to completion.

Moving from a macro to micro view of your operations is a rare skill, but being able to switch focus swiftly and smoothly provides a business leader with the 360° perspective needed to excel.

You need drive and direction to achieve business dreams – through practical and problem-oriented learning, an MBA provides you with the strategic leadership skills to inspire your team, beat the competition and navigate your way to success.

2. You’ll learn about organisational behaviour during an MBA

No matter how innovative your services or products are, you’ll need people skills to succeed. Emotionally intelligent business people develop psychological insights into group dynamics – understanding the ways people work together best is the foundation of sustainable results.

Models of organisational culture are changing, so understanding the advantages and disadvantages of Adhocracy, Clan, Control and Complete cultures can help you decide which style best fits your requirements.

From Salesforce to Softcat, the best places to work have developed excellent insights on organisational behaviour – you’ll learn all about this fascinating topic during your MBA.

3. Your marketing planning skills are enhanced with an MBA

Today, marketing can span everything from using David Ogilvy’s writing tips to hone a direct mail campaign to getting to grips with editing apps like KineMaster so that you can shoot and edit video ads for LinkedIn.

Therefore, understanding the tools, techniques, processes and operations deployed in modern marketing is mandatory for any company that’s serious about establishing a presence, building a brand and increasing engagement, trust and authority.

Consequently, a distance learning MBA provides you with the knowledge and confidence to make effective marketing decisions that connect with your target audience and deliver the best ROI possible for your budget.

4. An MBA sharpens your finance for decision-making savvy

Fine-tuning your interpretation, analysis and evaluation skills is essential for ensuring that finances are in place for any project, from implementing a new payroll system to launching a commercial spacecraft service.

And although soft skills are increasingly prized when it comes to business leadership, these need to be matched by a practical understanding of balancing the books, protecting the bottom line and only taking risks that are carefully calculated.

And by the end of your MBA, you’ll make informed management decisions because you’ve learned all about accounting objectives, primary financial statements, profit vs cash, capital investment appraisal methods and much more.

5. Your entrepreneurial action is enhanced by an MBA

Successful entrepreneurs like Sara Blakely, Kathleen Griffith and Reid Hoffman are masters of entrepreneurial action – experience has taught them how to drive a new business idea through to proof of concept, then martial all the human and financial resources needed to take it to market.

Becoming an effective entrepreneur requires a mixture of personal, attitudinal qualities like resilience, stamina and determination, and practical skills like people and change management – by the end of your distance learning MBA you’ll be well-versed in all of these elements and equipped to make your mark in challenging markets.

And to prove your new proficiency, your dissertation will showcase your entrepreneurial management skills by applying them to a real-life specialist project – either in an organisation you’re working for or for your own startup business.

But before you get to that point, remember that one of the greatest advantages to completing a part-time MBA online is that its flexibility means you can earn while you learn and immediately use the knowledge garnered at each stage of your course in your current job role.

And when your MBA course is UK quality assured by QAA (The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education), you’ll benefit from the cachet that comes from a British degree – no matter where in the world you’re doing business.

MBA’s have been around for a while, but they’re constantly evolving and improving – meaning that they remain highly-relevant as practical passports to coveted career destinations.

If this article has sparked your interest, apply ASAP for an MBA from ARU Distance Learning if you don’t want to miss the latest intake.

And read the following career-focused blogs for further inspiration: