The
Marketing
Leadership
Masterclass
Become the influential marketer you always wanted to be
The Marketing Leadership Masterclass is unlike any other class. Join a global peer-network. Learn the other side of marketing. Mobilize decision makers, clients, and colleagues. Skill up with proven leadership techniques from top business schools, and from the world largest study on marketers’ success. On demand, bitesize, perfect for busy people. In just 3 months, accelerate your business impact and career success.
Book now
September 6, 2021 (1,095 €)
Teams? Contact us for a great group rate
Realtime peer group learning
Build your network, ask questions, help others, learn together with international peers
World-class curriculum
Effective strategies from top global business schools and our extensive research—learn to lead upwards, sideways, teams, and yourself
Completely flexible, but paced
Bitesize lectures, on demand, in your own time—for 100 days. But no worries: we’ll pace you. Perfect for busy people
Why this class is for you
We aren’t teaching marketing. What you are going to learn is the art (and science) of making your marketing ideas happen. Lead upwards, sideways, teams, and yourself.
Welcome to the unique Marketing Leadership Masterclass. Taught by Thomas Barta, featuring Syl Saller. In collaboration with The Marketing Society.
Introduction by Thomas
Perspective by Syl
Participant success stories
Learn together with peers
We’ve built one of the world’s most interactive learning platforms to help you learn from your peers.
From day one, you can network and interact with peers from around the globe, ask questions, and exchange advice 24/7.
We’ll release fresh lectures every couple of days, with bite-size videos, exercises, readings, practical challenges—but no exam.
You’ll learn a lot from the course material. But the real magic happens when you team up and solve problems together with your peers.
Master the art of marketing leadership
Many leadership classes help you build teams or purpose. That’s important. For success as a marketer, however, you need more: mobilizing bosses, clients, colleagues. We call this leading upwards and sideways (see our McKinsey Quarterly article).
For this Masterclass, we’ve designed a world-class curriculum. Each of the 12 modules has bitesize lectures with videos, questions for your Power Journal, further reading, and the lively peer discussion. There are also 4 reflective challenges and live sessions.
LEAD
UPWARDS
MODULE 1:
Your Value Creation Zone
- Stakeholder needs
- The V-Zone
- Big-picture view
- Getting promoted
MODULE 2:
Deliver Returns, No Matter What
- Measurement
- Funnels
- Budget strategies
- Execution leaks
MODULE 3:
Become Irresistible
- Change leaders
- Jargon
- Emotional leaders
- The best partners
LEAD
SIDEWAYS
MODULE 4:
Align The Silos
- Change in the matrix
- Idiosyncrasy credits
- Going around the roots
- Walking the halls
MODULE 5:
Start The Movement
- Windows for change
- Storytelling
- Bite-size issues
- Movements
MODULE 6:
Grab The Ball
- Pushing back
- Feed forward
- Role model
- Going first
LEAD
TEAMS
MODULE 7:
Get The Mix Right
- Distinctive skills
- Team missions
- Alignment
- Team focus
MODULE 8:
Give Them Wings
- Building team trust
- Building confidence
- Permission
- Forgiveness
MODULE 9:
Let Outcomes Speak
- Fair stretch targets
- Counting what matters
- Biting the bullet
- Letting go
LEAD
YOURSELF
MODULE 10:
Know How You Inspire
- The power of inspiration
- Why you inspire
- Fire in your eyes
- What makes you tick
MODULE 11:
Do It Your Way
- Become an influencer
- "Binfluencers"
- Authentic leaders
- Effective leaders
MODULE 12:
Aim Higher
- Job descriptions
- Setting a vision
- How to be brave
- Dreaming & planning
The ripple effect of the course is fabulous.
This class is not a Marketing course but a Marketing Leadership course, which is what makes it great!
The Marketing Leadership Masterclass has been an insightful, innovative and thoroughly enjoyable experience that I would recommend to even the most seasoned marketer leader.
This is the “no BS” experience I was looking for. This course has given me the complete toolbox to help me manage my stakeholders at all levels and, most importantly, manage myself.
I discovered new ways to build more influence and inspire others. I’m now better prepared to achieve the greatest business impact and career success.
From the world’s largest study on marketers’ success
Thomas Barta and London Business School professor Patrick Barwise wanted to know: what makes an effective and successful marketing leader?
To find out, they conducted the largest ever global study of marketing leadership, involving over 68,000 executive assessments. The research revealed 12 essential traits that can make or break marketers’ business impact and career success. You find all details and more in the #1 leadership book for marketers: The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader.
The Marketing Leadership Masterclass takes everything we have learned to a whole new level, including latest insights from top business schools and C-suite leaders from around the globe.
Guest mentors spring 2021
Wendy Walker
Salesforce
Senior Director Marketing Asia Pacific
Mark Sandys
Diageo
Global Head of Beer, Bailyes & Smirnoff
Jackie Lee-Joe
Netflix
Former Global CMO
Meghan Farren
KFC
Chief Marketing Officer UK & Ireland
Mark Evans
Direct Line
Managing Director, Marketing & Digital
Rory Sutherland
Ogilvy
Vice Chairman and Creative Director, UK
How the class works
You have a demanding day job. It’s tough to carve out time for learning. We understand. We’ve built the Marketing Leadership Masterclass from the ground up to help busy people like you learn, stay motivated, have fun. Here’s how we’ll pace you:
- Each week we’ll launch 2-3 lectures with short videos, questions, readings. Take them as they come out, binge-watch—do what work’s best for you
- We have mentors who can help you any time
- You’ll get to solve 4 fun, reflective “challenges”
- With our workbook, you can craft your own personal plan
- The course calendar helps you keep you on track
- We’ll message you with new lectures. You can get platform updates daily, weekly—you decide
- You can problem solve directly with Thomas, Syl, and top ranking executives during the live sessions (the picture has our April 2021 guests)
- Most importantly, the peer discussion is always happening. Ask questions, tag people, get involved
- Need more motivation? You’ll get a Certificate of Growth. You can even achieve merit or distinction if you hand in the challenges and help your peers
Even when life gets very busy, we are certain you can successfully take this masterclass.
Thomas Barta
Thomas is a former partner of McKinsey and an organizational psychologist. Founder of the Marketing Leadership Masterclass, he conducts groundbreaking research at the intersection of marketing and leadership – including the world’s largest study – with over 68,000 assessments – on what makes for an impactful marketing officer.
Thomas has created the Marketing Leadership Masterclass in 2016. The aim? Help build the next generation of influential change leaders.
His and Patrick Barwise’s book, The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader, has set the new standard for marketing leadership. As a dean of the firm’s highest-rated internal program, Thomas trained over a thousand McKinsey leaders on driving change without authority. To date, thousands of executives have attended his marketing leadership classes.
Thomas is Marketing Academy leadership dean and an Honorary Fellow of the Marketing Society.
His work appears in Forbes, Marketing Week, and on his TryThis.Blog.
Syl Saller
Syl Saller CBE, is among marketing’s preeminent global leaders of our time.
In her role as Chief Marketing and Innovation officer for Diageo, owner of iconic brands like Johnnie Walker, Guinness, and Smirnoff, Syl led all global marketing, media, design, innovation, R&D, and reserve—Diageo’s luxury division. Her experience ranges from luxury goods to FMCG and retail/franchisee models, and she has a deep understanding of both developed and emerging markets.
An experienced Board member, Syl is President of the Marketing Society, sits on the board of the Marketing Academy, and is an Executive Coach for their Fellowship program. She has been a Non-Executive Director of Domino’s Pizza Group plc, on the executive committee of the World Federation of Advertisers, a Trustee for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and Chairman of Distill Venture’s Investment Committee.
Syl has been consistently recognized for her service to industry. She was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queens 2020 Honour list in recognition of her services to business and equality in the workplace. She has been Marketer of the Year and one of WFA’s Top 5 Global CMO’s, Debrett’s 500 Most Influential People in Britain, Campaign’s Top 5 Marketers, Ad Age’s Women to Watch, and Forbes 50 Most Influential CMOs.
Answers to your questions
Participants
Who is this Masterclass for?
We welcome all skill levels. The Marketing Leadership Masterclass is for everyone who wants more marketing impact and career success. If you want to make change happen, this class is for you.
Experienced leaders will learn how to shape the top agenda, influence throughout the firm, and build powerful teams that ask for forgiveness, not for permission.
Emerging leaders will discover why projects sometimes get stuck and what the world’s best influencers do to win.
Agency executives will gain the skills to influence the people who matter and become their clients’ most trusted advisor by helping them achieve real impact.
Career movers will learn how to plan their next gig, get ready to ask the right questions, set the right priorities, and hit the ground running.
What exactly is included in the Marketing Leadership Masterclass?
- 12 modules, seeded over 12 weeks, covering all aspects of marketing leadership
- Networking with peers on our 24/7 discussion board, where you can ask questions and help others
- 50+ videos, exercises to trigger your thinking, links to articles and speeches …
- … bizesize insights, perfect for busy people
- 100 days overall access to the platform
- Weekly email updates, SMS reminders (optional)
- Interactive live sessions with Thomas, Syl and a panel of guest speakers
- Becoming part of the Marketing Leadership Masterclass Alumni network
Are there tests or exams?
You’ll be glad to hear: no! The Marketing Leadership Masterclass holds powerful strategies to help you tackle real life issues. You’ll get to discus with peers. You can work on your personal plan. We’ll put on 4 fun challenges.
But you don’t need people to check on your knowledge. Your real exam is life. That’s what we are helping you build.
Upon completion you will receive your Certificate of Professional Growth. We’ll award pass, merit and distinction, depending on how much you have contributed to the class discussion and how many challenges you have handed in.
What's the real time commitment?
You have a lot of freedom to decide.
If you are looking to experience the full Marketing Leadership Masterclass depth, devote 3-4 hours per week. If you are pressed for time, 30 minutes a week will allow you to attend all lessons and discuss with peers.
Here is a simple 1-2-3 rule. Each week, watch 1 lecture, ask 2 questions, and answer 3 questions from your peers. If you can do that – and that’s easy, right? – you’ll take your skills to a whole new level.
How does the discussion platform work?
The Marketing Leadership Masterclass platform lets you collaborate with participants from different companies, across the globe. Form groups – start new topics – join powerful debates. We have moderators to help direct the discussion—as needed. Thomas and Syl will reply to your questions during the Q&A sessions.
How much does the Marketing Leadership Masterclass cost?
The standard tuition fee for the full 12-week course, all material, the live sessions, and 100 days access to the collaboration platform is 1,095 € + VAT for companies, where applicable. That’s less than your average couples’ weekend trip.
Booking for a team? Contact us and we’ll get you a great group rate.
Is the Masterclass good value?
The Marketing Leadership Masterclass differs from almost any other class you can take. At its heart is intense peer discussion. You can interact and learn with others, debate, and form groups. In this Masterclass, you’ll work on real-life issues—and on your plan. If you fully embrace it, this class will be transformational for your career.
Can I change my mind?
It’s important to us that you can take the Marketing Leadership Masterclass at a time that works for you. The course fee is non-refundable. But if your plans change, we’ll happily book you on the next class. Stay informed about the future classes.
When can I start?
We run open Marketing Leadership Masterclasses about twice a year. Learn more.
If you have a team of 100 or more, we may put on a class specifically for you. Just message us at [email protected]
Team and L&D leaders
How does the Marketing Leadership Masterclass differ from other classes?
Leading marketing isn’t the same as doing marketing. The Marketing Leadership Masterclass doesn’t teach functional marketing. What we are teaching is marketing’s other side: influencing stakeholders to make change happen.
In the world’s largest ever study on marketer’s impact and career success, Thomas and Prof. Patrick Barwise have proven: marketing leadership skills trump functional marketing skills. Marketing—and perhaps all future-focused work—is uniquely challenging and personally risky. There are three reasons:
First, much of marketing is about an uncertain future—the exact opposite of accounting. That future focus gives marketers an intrinsic trust gap within the top team.
Second, for a firm to deliver a market-leading customer experience, most of its functions—way beyond marketing—will need to get involved, giving marketers an inherent power gap.
Third, almost every day brings a new—tactical—marketing tool, making it hard for marketers to keep up to date. This creates a permanent skills gap.
No other class in the world (to the best of our knowledge) is teaching marketers the art of mobilizing bosses, colleagues, clients, teams, and self—to achieve what really matters: making business growth happen.
Where does this class fit in our learning schedule?
In our experience, the Marketing Leadership Masterclass aligned well with existing firm training. When speaking to companies, we often find thee types of trainings:
Functional training: in marketing, that often means product management, pricing, marketing communication-incl. digital, distribution, etc.
Company training: that’s where people learn the specific ways of working inside a firm, the culture, the processes.
Leadership training: as soon as people start to manage others, they’ll often get to learn the basics of leadership—and later add skills like dealing with conflict, leading with purpose, etc.
The Marketing Leadership Masterclass overlaps very little with these trainings. Our focus is on the specific leadership challenges of marketing. Participants learn how to bridge the important trust and power gaps—and how to lead bosses, clients and colleagues to actualize change. Our class complements the essential functional and leadership training of most firms.
Participants will benefit most if they work inside an organization and/or lead clients. We welcome all skill levels.
Shall I send a team?
Absolutely: yes. Our participants leave the class equipped with new ideas and powerful strategies for change. Imagine what could happen when an entire team joins. People will start to speak the same language, ask similar questions, draw on joint learnings. We believe in the power of team learning and we highly encourage it.
When your team joins the Marketing Leadership Masterclass, we’ll assign a dedicated mentor to your group. The mentor will constantly observe the group dynamics and can work with you to maximize success.
We also have attractive group rates. Just contact us for the details.
Is this only for people from the marketing department?
What’s a marketer? In our view, a marketers is everybody in the business of change. The Marketing Leadership Masterclass is for everybody who markets a product, a service, or simply an idea. This class is about mobilizing people for change—a broad skillset that’s going to be useful for most leaders.
We have a broad range of participants from B2B firms, consumer goods companies, consultancies, agencies, technology firms.
Check out some of our past participants here.
Without exam, how can we be sure people have learned?
You want to invest in training the delivers results—that’s our mantra too. But how to find out? Many courses end with exams. Instructors check on people’s learnings—often via a multiple choice test or one final paper. That can be very useful. We want to go further.
For over a decade, Thomas has lead the highest rated learning programs for McKinsey and other firms. He’s also the dean of the Marketing Academy CMO Fellowship. Through many years of piloting different methods, he made a stunning discovery: success in business had little to do with people’s exam results. A much better success-predictor were the quality of their contributions in the classroom (1) and their ability to reflect (2).
The Marketing Leadership Masterclass builds exactly on those two pillars. We award pass, merit, destination, based on a participant’s contribution to the debate (1) and their handing in of the reflection papers (2). We are confident: if someone leaves the Marketing Leadership Masterclass with a distinction, they truly are distinctive.
Read about some of our top participants here.
Are you offering company programs?
We believe in team learning and we’ll happily help you skill up entire teams.
For groups of less than 100 people, the most powerful option is joining one of our open programs. This way, everybody will benefit from the live debate with peers from around the globe. We’ll assign a dedicated mentor to your team who can work with you to help steer the group’s success.
If you your team is larger, we’ll happily put on a dedicated program. It’s an easy 3-step process:
- Together we’ll agree the learning goals and the participant profiles
- We’ll adjust the learning platform for your team (questions, workbook, schedule, live sessions)
- Your team gets one dedicated mentors from our (or your) team, who work with the group throughout the program. (We’ll also put on a farewell gig to celebrate together)
Booking for a team? Contact us for details.
Is the Marketing Leadership Masterclass accredited?
We thought about accreditation. It’s easy. We purposely decided against it.
Accreditations are useful for certain types of courses for certain types of participants. A badge helps the course to stand out. And it helps learning professionals to not make a mistake. It’s about norms. This isn’t what we are doing. We rather develop each Masterclass to be the best version it can be. We believe our participant success is proving us right.
To help everybody understand the effort put in, we are awarding each participant a Certificate of Professional Growth. It currently shows the equivalent of 27 learning hours.
Can we pay by invoice?
You can, if you are booking for 15 people or more. Joining the class is as easy as buying a conference ticket. Our platform takes all major credit cards and you’ll get an invoice momentarily. Supplier processes, in some firms, take longer than the Masterclass. That’s why we are only offering invoice payments for larger groups, as long as payment is received by the start of the class.
A letter to your boss
Dear ____,
I’d like to take the world’s leading course on marketing change leadership: the Marketing Leadership Masterclass. Would you sponsor me?
As you know, I’m working on several important projects for our firm. I’ve already developed my functional skills through training and your apprenticeship. But you also know, making change happen inside organizations can be tricky. That’s why I’m keen to skill up.
The course I’d like to join is the Marketing Leadership Masterclass. It’s taught by one of the world’s foremost marketing leadership experts, Thomas Barta, and by world-leading Diageo CMO Syl Saller. The course has a rigorous curriculum and teaches the essence of leading change inside organizations.
Previous participants have said the course is “eye opening” and has “lasting impact for both professional and personal life.” I can apply these change-skills directly to my work.
The next class starts soon and I’d love to sign up by _______.
I believe the Marketing Leadership Masterclass is the training I - and perhaps our entire team - need right now.
Would you support me and reimburse the training fee?
Best regards,