The marketing training platform departs Centaur Media after nine years, ushering in a new chapter for its founder, marketing professor and leading industry commentator Mark Ritson.
Oli Green, Mark Ritson, Tim Plyming and Theo Green
Marketing group Brave Bison has acquired MiniMBA, the industry training platform founded in 2016 by marketing heavyweight Mark Ritson.
The deal will see MiniMBA form the foundation of a new skills and capabilities practice within Brave Bison, operating independently from its existing marketing businesses but benefiting from its AI team and tech hubs. MiniMBA CEO Tim Plyming will lead the new practice.
The course delivers MBA-level marketing and management training to more than 6,000 professionals each year. Seller Centaur had a 50% stake in the business, now taken up by Brave Bison. Ritson will remain in his teaching role and become a top-five shareholder in Brave Bison after personally participating in Brave Bison’s fundraising to acquire MiniMBA.
Advertisement
To date, some 40,000 alumni have completed the MiniMBA program. They represent 78% of Interbrand’s Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands and include clients such as American Express, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Salesforce, Red Bull, Oracle, Google, and Tesco.
Oli Green, executive chairman at Brave Bison, said the addition of MiniMBA addresses the increasing complexity marketers face: “With culture fragmented and technology constantly evolving, the need to move with agility and think strategically has never been more paramount. MiniMBA’s mission is to give CMOs and their teams the common language and strategic foundation they need to thrive in this new world.”
Ritson added: “I am well known for my general disdain at the state of many, perhaps most, marketing outfits. But I have been genuinely impressed from the very outset with the way Brave Bison operate and their vision for the future. We could not have found a better home.”
Plyming described MiniMBA’s mission as equipping “the global business leaders of today and tomorrow with the universal current and future industry standard in marketing strategy.”
The acquisition supports Brave Bison’s ambitions to grow its global presence and expand the MiniMBA curriculum while reinforcing its role as a marketing, media and technology partner.
For Ritson, a multiple winner of PPA Columnist of the Year and one of marketing’s most respected and forthright commentators, these new beginnings also usher in an exciting era for his must-read industry columns. Beginning in September, Ritson will publish weekly on thedrum.com.
You can check out The Drum’s opinion section here for an idea of what will be coming.
Advertisement