A New Year: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

As I finalized my calendar for our upcoming events in Asia-Pacific, I am still amazed by the places on my list. Since I moved to Singapore from Boston last June, I have been to: Shanghai (twice), Beijing (twice), Tokyo (twice), Seoul (twice), Hong Kong, Taipei, Manila, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Sydney, Melbourne, and Kuala Lumpur. I’ve also been able to visit the Fontainebleau campus twice. In the upcoming six months, I will visit: Jakarta, Mumbai, New Delhi, Tokyo, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv and Fontainebleau again. Yet, I am only one in a team of six INSEAD staff, constantly traveling the globe, looking to recruit the best and brightest from each continent.

My “slice” of the world fascinates me. Each of these cities that I’ve visited becomes marked in my memory by vast differences in culture, ways of life, standards of living, languages, geographies and politics. Sometimes this last point can hit a little too close to home though; for example, when I turned on the BBC one morning to find the hotel where I stayed in Manila (only weeks before) surrounded and smashed in by tanks, completely under siege, due to a coup attempt (which luckily failed). My five colleagues likely have similar stories – we really are all over the planet, and you really never know what can happen. Our team’s collective dispersion only becomes more apparent when the six of us want to get together for a meeting…but I digress.

On a mission from INSEAD, we each have a number of important messages to get out to prospective candidates, but one which I find the most difficult to really do justice is our diversity. Before I continue (and before you roll your eyes), I must say: I understand, you’ve heard this word used so many times in the context of higher education that you have become numb to it. But the word diversity, when coupled with INSEAD, takes on a whole new meaning. When you compare INSEAD with other programmes, what you will find may surprise you. Well, I was certainly surprised. It took me awhile to really understand both the depth and thus the power of this diversity. Aside from the UN, I know of no other institution as international as INSEAD. Many of our participants brandish not one, but two, sometimes three passports.

My favorite slide in the presentation I give while on the road shows not only that we have typically 70+ nationalities in our classes, but that there is never more than 14% of any one nationality, meaning: everyone is a minority. The pie chart on the screen showing the different nationalities in our programme has so many slices, so many small slices and no large ones – no other school can match us. Plus, INSEAD is not a European school, it is not a French school, nor is it a Singaporean school. INSEAD belongs to no country, yet it seeks to attract candidates from all.

This leads me to a fundamental misunderstanding of how INSEAD compares to other programmes which is quite common among prospects. I am invariably asked, “What is INSEAD’s percentage of international students?” To be honest, I equate this to asking Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “What is the UN’s percentage of international members?” The answer: 100%. But our diversity goes beyond the 70+ nationalities and gets deeper and richer when you look at the professional backgrounds of our participants, as we call them. Last year, we had a female Olympic swimmer, an Opera singer, a fashion model (actually two now in one year), not to mention all of the doctors, lawyers, PhD’s, artists, entrepreneurs and journalists that have come here through the years. This afternoon I am interviewing an Israeli woman who was a professional ballerina (and an Air Force officer) before taking on a marketing and sales role with HP (prior to her current stint at INSEAD).

This rich diversity translates into the kind of education that opens your mind, gives you a broader perspective, enhances your interpersonal skills and arms you with more sophisticated diplomatic sensibilities. And as the world gets smaller and geographic boundaries blur, this becomes increasingly important if you want to become a successful global leader. Actually, I’d have to say it’s essential if you are someone who wants to stand out and make an impact on a global stage. As you will find out, INSEAD graduates definitely do.

To find out when we are in your neighborhood, please check the following link, which is updated regularly: http://www.insead.edu/mba/meet_us/form/Offcampusevents.cfm