You may have seen an ad for the Invited MBA on social media or went to a sponsored MEET ATX event. But who is behind this new Austin-based mini-MBA program and why is it relevant to you?
The Invited MBA is a new MBA alternative created by Abilitie, an award-winning global education company. Abilitie has developed leadership development programs for Fortune 500 companies in over 30 countries and worked with over 20,000 learners since 2015. Bjorn Billhardt, founder and CEO, has been at the helm of Austin-based education companies for more than 20 years.
Abilitie’s vision is to create a better educated world with more equitable access to opportunity. Abilitie’s founders got their start at Harvard Business School, where they developed interactive courseware for executive education programs. Since then, Abilitie has taught senior leaders at some of the world’s largest companies and is running mini-MBA and executive leadership development programs for organizations like Marriott, Southwest Airlines, Coca Cola, GE, Dell, AMD and the NBA!
Abilitie’s secret sauce is to immerse participants in team-based, competitive business simulations. No one wants to learn business and leadership skills from a PowerPoint slide; and studies have shown that practice and feedback is highly effective in teaching new skills and creating lasting behavior change. Abilitie’s business simulations do just that – they let people learn from peers, their own mistakes, and by observing the outcomes of their decisions in simulated business scenarios and immersive competitions.
Until 2019, no one could access Abilitie’s leadership programs and simulations unless they were selected by their employer to participate.
The Invited MBA is the natural extension of this corporate work, bringing Abilitie’s 20+ years of expertise to professionals in Austin at an affordable price point. With the Invited MBA, our goal is to help build the future leaders of the workforce by making the MBA experience accessible to more people without requiring them to go into debt or put their career on hold. With our in-person, cohort-based approach, we aim to create an experience that teaches critical business skills while offering mentorship, human connection, personal growth, and self-discovery.
We are excited to open the doors of the Invited MBA in the Fall of 2019 and work with a cohort of promising Austin business professionals that will utilize their new skills to become global leaders in the future.
Have questions? Submit them to hello@abilitie.com or visit our FAQ page here.
