The journey to success is never easy. Even those who makes it look easy has faced a couple of obstacles that have hindered them. Determination, hard work and dedication certainly plays a major role, but so does choosing a university. Your university plays a major role in shaping out the professional that you are. There are a multitude of universities out there, so how do you chose the right one?
A select university will have a sterling faculty, good teacher-student ratio and foster fruitful and commendable industry and educational collaborations. If one were to sum up the above sentence in one word, it would be INSEAD. With campuses in Europe (France), Asia (Singapore) and Middle East (Abu Dhabi), and alliances with top institutions, INSEAD’s business education and research spans around the globe. INSEAD houses 154 renowned faculty members from 40 countries and inspires 1400 students in its degree and PhD programmes. In addition, more than 11,000 executives participate in INSEAD’s executive education programmes each year. There is no other argument, but to say that INSEAD is one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools.
INSEAD stands firm on 5 values:
- Diversity as a source of learning and enrichment
INSEAD frees itself from any dominant culture or prevalent dogma. INSEAD is open to, and respectful of, other views. Learning through exchange of ideas and experiences is one of the best ways to learn, and INSEAD is a true example. - Independence as a governance principle
The university believes in intellectual freedom and is autonomous in its financial, institutional and academic planning and decision-making process. - Rigour and relevance in teaching and research
INSEAD encourages diversity in research and teaching methods with no single school of thought or methodology predominating; what matters is rigor and impact on management as an academic discipline, on business practice, and in the classroom. - Closeness to the international business community
INSEAD partners with the international business community to explore and disseminate management knowledge. The university believe in the role of business as a force for improving people’s lives. - Entrepreneurial spirit
INSEAD fosters entrepreneurship and is willing to experiment and innovate. The university is ready to take risks and manage the results of its actions.
It is due to these 5 values that INSEAD so firmly upholds that the university, in the span of five decades, developed from an entrepreneurial venture to an internationally regarded institution.
Inception and Growth
In 1957, The Paris Chamber of Commerce agreed to establish a European business school, and INSEAD saw light for the first time. Since then, the university has been setting milestones and has never once looked back.
However, it was in 1999 that INSEAD decide to further its frontiers and took the bold step to differentiate itself from other business schools. INSEAD opened a campus in Asia and became the first business school to have two full-fledged campuses with permanent faculty—one in Europe, the other in Asia. The vision in setting up the Asia Campus was for INSEAD to “create a bridge between Asia and the rest of the world.” The campus was inaugurated by Lee Kuan Yew, famously known as the founder of modern Singapore, in 2000.
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Within a few years, the school acknowledged the pressing need to expand the young campus. In 2005, the second phase of campus development began and INSEAD expanded its presence in Asia. In 2010-11, with great pride, the school celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Asia Campus.
In 2015, INSEAD opened the doors to the S$55 million Leadership Development Centre, a six-story, 10,000 square metre building that addresses the accelerating demand for management and leadership education in Asia. The Centre allows INSEAD to build its world-class faculty to 70 in Singapore and significantly increases the number of students, executives, top scholars and practitioners on the Asia Campus.
Customised Programmes
It is essential to mention that besides the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programs that the INSEAD offers, the institute also has more than 40 years of experience in delivering Customised Programmes for some of the world’s largest companies. The fusion of INSEAD’s world renowned, globally diverse faculty, thought leadership, organisation-specific content and partnership approach, make an INSEAD Customised Programme a unique learning experience.
The university’s expert faculty team will partner with the organization to design programmes tailored to the organization’s objectives, building the specific skill sets that the client needs to drive them to success. The result is an integrated solution that allows the client organisation to cascade the learning from top executives to middle management, facilitating harmonised transformation across geographical regions and business functions in a very short period of time.
The Tanoto Library
The Tanoto Library at Asia Campus supports INSEAD members in their research and curriculum activities. To a limited extent, the library also supports alumni, Executive Education participants and affiliate researchers in their research activities. The collections, both physical and digital, cover all aspects of business and management, as well as related areas such as economics, politics, behavioural sciences, information technology, sciences and law.
Apart from the industry tie-ups, INSEAD harbours interuniversity relationships that are conducive to the respective university’s’ students. Three of these rewarding relationships are the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance, Partnership with Tsinghua University, and INSEAD-Sorbonne Université Partnership. Taking a look at the steps that INSEAD has taken to establish its presence in the world, it is only empirical to say that INSEAD brings together people, cultures and ideas to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society.
Propitious Alumni Network
INSEAD takes great pride in its alumni. The INSEAD alumni network is robust, diverse and globally connected. With more than 58,000 Alumni distributed across 176 countries with 163 nationalities, INSEAD’s alumni are citizens of the world, understanding how to balance local and global perspectives, and have “experienced the world as it ought to be”. This aspect of the INSEAD culture is very powerful and valuable in the 21st Century.
In this smaller, connected world, it is critical that leaders view the world as a whole, and think and act both locally and globally. This has been part of the INSEAD culture for over 55 years. Currently there are 49 National Alumni Associations (NAA) representing 52 countries across the world. The purpose of the NAAs is to support its members throughout the world with a comprehensive and wide range of professional and social activities to nourish the network and to promote INSEAD.
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INSEAD encourages its students to create a variety of sector-specific clubs, including consulting, private equity, consumer & luxury goods, healthcare, energy, entrepreneurship and Social Impact. These opportunities enable one to efficiently target and network with groups of motivated students.
Career treks enable students to meet with established and emerging business leaders in their offices and attend networking events. It is most of the time about discovering an industry or a company, and to ask questions about how it works and what your company is all about. These usually take the form of discussions on careers in specific industries or functions, or on issues such as women in business. Three to four speakers are generally invited to share their experience with the participants. The Employer Engagement Specialists can facilitate connections between company representatives and members of the student clubs, thus paving way for recruitment and being signed off by prospective employers.
The INSEAD Advantage
INSEAD’s goal is to develop value-driven business leaders with a global mind-set, and the university’s personalised and comprehensive career services yield outstanding results. Similarly, the university’s global alumni network offers reach and depth beyond any other top business school. Needless to say, INSEAD’s multi-campus format, unmatched diversity and proven academic excellence contribute to the university’s success.