He took the Italian business schools’ Entrepreneurship and Innovation Concentration (similar to a Major), which aims to give students the skills to take entrepreneurial projects to market successfully, and was inspired.
But where many MIP graduates have gone on before him to lead successful start-ups, Markus dropped it all for something with much bigger potential. Digital marketing holds huge promise for MBA students and they are snapping up roles with a new wave of marketing firms.
“I don’t see myself as an entrepreneur because I see the beauty of working in a hyper-growth market. You can earn a lot if you’re successful in digital marketing, and you can earn a hell of a lot if you’re with a small company that grows fast,” says Markus.
In 2010, a peak of 55 per cent more marketing roles were offered to MBAs, according to a recent MBA jobs trends report. Last year, the marketing function was on a par with consulting, which has traditionally been the dominate MBA career path – and was even above some finance functions.
Around half of MBA students switch career paths after graduation. But many are now making the transition to digital marketing because it has huge potential, says Markus. “MIP encouraged me to take the step because it’s a fast-growing market. It was the best step in my career so far,” he says.
The figures speak for themselves. Last year the average MBA salary plus bonuses in the media industry, where many digital marketers work, was a meaty $100,000, just a few thousand dollars below what management consultants can expect to earn.
Markus’s pre-MBA background was managerial roles with a wholesaler, but that path just couldn’t compare, he says. “I was thinking about doing an MBA because I thought there was no real career growth potential in traditional industries,” says Markus.
His plan was to go into strategy consulting, which is an equally popular function, but the innovation course at MIP steered him towards start-ups, he says.
Markus now works at Turn, a digital marketing firm which provides solutions for some of the largest advertisers and trading desks, and which was considered the fastest-growing software company in Silicon Valley in 2012.
It isn’t an entrepreneurial venture, but he considers the company a relatively small start-up when placed on an international stage. Turn’s blend of technology and marketing may have been a perfect fit. The entrepreneurship and innovation track at MIP focuses partly on technology, says Professor Federico Frattini from the school.
“The most useful skills are about intellectual property management, understanding technology development and marketing these future trends in technology,” he said. “The second course in the concentration is about using technology to develop new business models and new strategies.”
The digital marketing industry is worth $62 billion globally. And it holds huge potential for MBAs, says Markus. “Most things will switch to a digital channel and digital has the highest growth potential of all the industries. And companies which are relatively small need people with managerial skills and not just technical skills,” he says.
When Markus graduated from MIP’s MBA program, he first worked in email marketing, but the industry was relatively mature and presented less opportunity for growth. When he got the opportunity to join Turn, and the opportunity to be based in London, he jumped at the opportunity, he says.
“I wanted to come back to the UK because the European area is still relatively conservative in digital marketing, but also has lots of potential to grow,” says Markus.
His role, however, means he travels to several locations across Europe to support the company’s multiple sales executives. An MBA program prepares you for that cultural diversity, he says.
MIP, cut from the same cloth as the wider, technology focused Italian university, provides marketers with an education in tech trends, says Markus. “Day to day at work I’m not using much specific knowledge from my finance or accounting classes, but the analytical skills are something [that I do use], and are something which I didn’t have before the MBA,” he says.
There are huge opportunities for MBAs in digital marketing, no doubt, but you should choose your program wisely.
For Markus, MIP gave him the inspiration to ditch entrepreneurship for something much greater, he adds. “I still have a desire to be, at some point, an entrepreneur, but I love the space I’m in,” he says.
“And I don’t see the need to open a business. This industry is ever growing and changing.”
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