Coles partners with marketing expert to upskill workforce
10 June 2021
Coles has partnered with award-winning academic and marketer Professor Mark Ritson to increase in-house marketing capability, through the delivery of his Mini MBA in Marketing course.
With more than 20 years’ experience teaching Master of Business Administration (MBA) programmes at leading universities including Melbourne Business School and London Business School, and as a marketing consultant for the likes of Unilever and PepsiCo, Professor Ritson brings a wealth of experience through his online course.
Designed to broaden marketing skill and develop high-level strategic thinking, the 12-week program has been completed by more than 130 Coles marketing professionals, with a further 37-person cohort having commenced.
Coles Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Ronson said the course was designed to fit flexibly around work and personal commitments and complements existing team member experience and expertise.
“We’re partnered with one of the most revered marketing professionals in the world to offer a Mini MBA in Marketing course designed to fit around work schedules and equip our team members with best-practice industry knowledge,” she said.
“Our team are our most important asset and investing in their skills is central to our ambition to be the best marketers in the country by being customer obsessed.”
Professor Ritson said he was delighted to partner with one of Australia’s largest businesses to consult on best-practice marketing strategy and process.
"When I created the Mini MBA in Marketing it was apparent that we needed forward thinking, advanced marketing companies to partner with. I was delighted when Coles emerged as one of the first Australian businesses to express an interest in training their people on the program,” Mark said.
"Because we ran the whole team through the program at once it was possible to take a more specific focus on their business and to ensure the whole team came out with a common language and a common approach to marketing."
As part of its Win Together team member engagement strategy, Coles has made several investments in team member learning and development, including the funding of up to 1,000 Coursera scholarships with some of the world’s top universities including Yale, Duke and Stanford, and a mini-MBA in Strategic Category Management in partnership with Deakin University.
Coles is one of Australia’s largest private-sector employers with more than 120,000 team members.
