Sleed: Strengthening the managerial skills of our Senior professionals with an Executive Programme in Business Administration

Sleed is among the leading 360 Digital Agencies in Greece, with over 150 proud Sleeders, dedicated full-time digital experts. Our team includes exceptionally trained executives with immense growth potential. Therefore, training, lifelong learning, and acquiring new hard and soft skills are issues we always prioritize and support by all possible means.

Our people are eager to take initiatives and propose actions and training programmes that can be utilized by executives from various specialties or by all employees. Additionally, Sleed’s ecosystem maintains a steady collaboration with Udemy, offering free unlimited online courses to all Sleeders. In 2023, we aimed to try a bigger, more inclusive and more comprehensive educational initiative, thus creating a programme modeled after a mini MBA tailored to our executives’ needs. The course was the Executive Programme in Business Administration and was implemented in collaboration with the Athens University of Economics and Business.

The constantly changing field of Digital, along with our people’s need and desire for continuous development, gradually brought forth the initial idea of designing a course that would enhance the managerial capabilities of Sleed’s senior executives. The challenge was to design a demanding yet feasible programme, aiming to strengthen our team in critical business areas such as strategy, leadership, etc.. At the same time, it was crucial to ensure that the training could be smoothly integrated into the already busy daily routine of our executives; hence, we especially paid attention to timing, duration and content, so that our people could benefit as much as possible.

Sleed, in collaboration with the Athens University of Economics and Business, developed the Executive Programme in Business Administration – a training course that met the company’s aspirations for the future, providing a foundation for new activations, and fueled our growth even more dynamically by supporting our primary goal: to grow together with our people!

The programme included topics such as Business Economics, Leadership, Finance, Marketing & Communication, Project Management, Strategy, Human Resources, and Technology Innovation. The lectures were given by top professors from Universities in Greece and abroad, while also the itinerary encompassed interactive seminars and hands-on tasks. A set of assignments was pre-designed for participants, including case study reviews from the global market, research projects, and exercises regarding current Digital & Business issues. The semester concluded with a group project showcasing innovation, presented in a pitch before professors and Stelios Eliakis, CEO of Sleed. The programme offered a unique opportunity for an entire semester where learning would conquer the forescene in our ecosystem.

 The Executive Programme in Business Administration provided targeted training and ECTS credits to over 20 senior executives at Sleed, offering not only a unique experience but also certified knowledge that counts towards our executives’ qualifications.

This six-month course was undeniably a strong team bonding experience. Among its positives are more immediate strategic decision-making processes that can now be assigned to more team members. There is also greater ownership of projects observed alongside improved crisis management and negotiation skills. Furthermore, there is a noticeable increase in efficiency within business processes and communication.

The programme proved that investing in executives’ education has an immediate positive impact on the company’s growth. Its results underscore the importance of commitment and satisfaction among team members – two parameters that increase as organizations undertake initiatives focused on their people’s overall development. We would like to sincerely thank the participating professors and staff from AUEB for implementing this programme. Special thanks go to Katerina Pramatari, Professor at AUEB’s Department of Management Science and Technology; Lila Despotidou, Networking and Outreach Manager; and Angeliki Karagiannaki, head of ACEin (Athens Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation) at AUEB. Of course, we warmly thank our excellent and highly active HR team who managed all organizational aspects of this initiative from start to finish.