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Sobell Rhodes
Mini MBA Programme
“Your business is a reflection of you. If you want it to grow, you have to grow first.” — T. Harv Eker
Running a business is a skill few people are ever formally taught.
The Sobell Rhodes Mini MBA is designed to develop the knowledge and mindset to build stronger, more successful businesses. Created and led by business strategist Paul Kennedy, who has been running the course for over 20 years, many business owners and their teams have gone on to “graduate” and run more successful businesses.
It delivers practical, MBA-level training tailored to the realities of ambitious, entrepreneurial businesses.
Exceptional Course Delivery
Paul Kennedy
Is a Chartered Accountant and has been providing business development consulting services to owner managed businesses for more than 22 Years. Paul continually studies why some owner managed businesses succeed while others fail and uses these insights when teaching this course. He has developed courses and seminars for various clients including Enterprise Agencies, Trade bodies, legal and accounting networks and firms, professional bodies and banks and speaks to groups in United States, Australia, New Zealand as well as in the UK.
Mark Rhodes
Is Partner of Business Consulting at Sobell Rhodes LLP and works with business owners to develop clear strategies for growth, profitability and long-term success. A Chartered Accountant with experience in major mergers and acquisitions at Ernst & Young, Mark now focuses on helping entrepreneurial and owner-managed businesses to strengthen their strategy, improve performance and make better financial decisions through structured business development programmes.
Jeremy Leboff
Is a Chartered Certified Accountant and Partner at Sobell Rhodes LLP. Combining deep financial expertise with an analytical, data-driven approach, he helps business owners gain valuable insights from their numbers to make smarter, more informed decisions. With over a decade of senior management experience in the restaurants, pubs and leisure sector, Jeremy brings both commercial understanding and technical precision to his consulting work. He specialises in using data to identify opportunities for growth, improve performance and strengthen business strategy across a range of industries.
Tailored For Ambitious Entrepreneurs
You’re busy running your business — we get that.
That’s why the Sobell Rhodes Mini MBA is designed specifically for ambitious entrepreneurs and SME owners who want maximum impact with minimal disruption to their workday.
Each session runs from 9:30am to 12:30pm, so you’re back in the office before lunch, ready to put new ideas straight into action.
12 focused session of 3 hours
In person
Round table setting
Limited to 10 people
No more than 2 people per business
* Of course it is not a real Masters degree. People who attend this course are not looking for a qualification, but for a better way to think about and run their business.
Testimonials
Steven
Lauren
Course Structure
Who is this for
The course is unashamedly directed at the needs of entrepreneurial businesses. Many “graduates” send fellow team members to attend subsequent courses.
What will you get from this course
You will get an understanding of the major disciplines required to run a successful business. You will cover:
1. How we think, learn, make judgements and make decisions
Heuristics and bias
The simplified “Onion” brain
The myth of rationality
System 1 and system 2 thinking (Kahneman)
6 principles of influence (Cialdini)
Anchoring and Framing
2. Leadership
The critical role of leadership in growing a successful business
The difference between leadership and management
The 5 levels of leadership
Leadership as a function not a position
Leadership is a verb
Soliciting discretionary effort from your team
Understanding what “drives” your people
8 qualities of an inspiring leader
Untangling goals, mission, vision and purpose
Leading change and the 8 reasons why change efforts fail
3. Wealth, profits and value
Where does wealth and profit come from?
The Law of comparative advantage
Intellectual capital as the source of all wealth
Constituent parts of intellectual capital
How businesses create and capture value
Effectiveness Vs. efficiency
Innovation and value proposition design
The value equation
The determinates of value?
The 5 ‘C’s of value
Business as a force for good
Porter’s 5 forces and pushing back against them
4. Competitive strategy
Distinguishing between strategy and planning
Understanding strategy is only ever a theory
Market segmentation vs. Competitive positioning
Positioning vs. operational effectiveness
Strategy relies on unique activities
The importance of “Trade-offs” in sustaining advantage
The cost of under or over servicing customers
Understanding and meeting customer needs
Sources of competitive advantage
Porter’s 2 generic competitive strategies
Sources of non -Price differentiation
Halo effects
The importance of proprietary differentiation
The problems with straddling (Being stuck in the middle)
Blue Ocean vs. Red Ocean Strategy
Articulating and communicating strategy
The holy trinity of business model design
The cunning plan for most small businesses
5. Finance and financial management
How to read and use financial statements
The critical difference between profit and cashflow
Why businesses need to make investments
The 5 purposes of a balance sheet
The 4 sources of business finance and their relative merits
Equity Vs. debt finance
Key ratios for financial analysis
Mark up Vs Margin
Business models and the finance implications
The 4 types of cost and their behaviour
Break-even analysis
Driving profitability – the 7 leverage points
Understanding profit quality
The lifetime value of customers
Understanding working capital and the working capital gap
Assessing solvency
Predicting cash flows
What financial accounts do not tell you
Pareto analysis and the whale curve
The balanced scorecard
Using lag and lead metrics
EBITA and EBITDA – What, why and how
Evaluating potential investments
How businesses are valued and sold
6. Management
The 2 simple steps to people management
Managing people or process?
Using measurements or judgement?
Qualitative vs quantitative approaches
KPIs
OKRs
Sponsoring innovation
After Action Reviews
The system is the solution
Using performance standards
7. Pricing
The pricing paradox
The volume vs. margin trade-off
Commodities and differentiation
Cost led pricing vs. price led costing
Extracting the consumer surplus
Alternative pricing methodologies
How customers assess value
Pricing psychology
Decoy pricing
Using pricing to change customer behaviour
Dealing with price objections
The 6 myths of pricing
8. Marketing and sales
What is marketing?
The 4 P’s of marketing
Developing a marketing plan
Understanding your marketing funnel
Marketing ROI
The desirability vs achievability trade-off
Picking the low hanging fruit
Reversing customer risk
Using guarantees
Referral programmes
Using host / beneficiary relationships
Test and measure
The principles of consultative selling
9. Personal skills – mini topics
The 7 habits of Highly Effective People (S Covey)
Presentation tips
Delegation
Managing priorities
Managing meetings
10. Business simulation game- Simbiz
During the course students are be expected to play a business simulation game called Simbiz. The game is run over 8 months and students are invited to make 7 decisions per month around their price, production quantity, marketing spend etc. Decisions are entered into the simulation model and the financial results are calculated and presented to students before they make decisions for the following month. Playing this game is meant to be fun but is also a tool for students to learn how to regularly review and use financial reports to support decision making.
11. Sturdy Case Enterprises – Case study
Students are expected to read and analyse a 27,000-word case study based on a fictitious and highly dysfunctional family business and to present their findings to their fellow students at the end of the course. Although this is not an examination and students cannot fail, it is a useful exercise for each student to demonstrate and reinforce learning from the course.