Street art by Summer@INSEAD students
Innovation at Work
The changing season has brought a fresh group of students to INSEAD, and there’s an unmistakeable energy in the air. It’s inspiring to watch these bright and ambitious individuals convene from around the world to begin their studies and pursue their professional aspirations. They stand for the future; they represent the next generation of management leaders who will build transformative organisations, spur economic growth and drive innovation.
Soon, they will follow in the footsteps of alumni like you, dispersing across the globe to support INSEAD’s mission of business as a force for good.
This eye towards the future has directed many of our recent investments and initiatives at INSEAD, and those efforts are starting to yield remarkable results. I’m delighted to share this update about the growth and progress we’ve experienced in recent months, none of which would have been possible without your support.
On the rise in global rankings
In the most recent ranking by Bloomberg Business our MBA has been ranked #3 in the international MBA programme category, up two places from last year.
Our TIEMBA programme was ranked #1 worldwide in the Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2015. It moved up two places this year, displacing Trium and Kellogg-HKUST. In addition, our Global EMBA programme was ranked #7, rising two places since last year. It is now the highest ranked single-school programme. INSEAD is the only school on this list with two programmes in the top 10.
This month, The Economist ranked INSEAD a top-10 business school for the first time ever. We placed eighth globally — ahead of Wharton, Stanford and Columbia, to name a few — and rose 10 places compared to last year. INSEAD was also ranked top 10 in “personal development” and third globally in “potential to network,” a strong endorsement of the excellence of our alumni network.
We also learned this month that INSEAD is one of three schools (alongside Harvard and Stanford) with more than one graduate on Harvard Business Review’s “The Best-Performing CEOs in the World” for 2015. Meanwhile, our MBA Programme was ranked second best in Western Europe by Eduniversal, a ranking agency specialising in higher education. We were also ranked as the fourth best school for networking by Business Insider, behind Harvard, Stanford and Columbia, and as the school with the best social life.
In September, INSEAD earned the No. 1 spot for the best ROI of any MBA Programme in the World in the Forbes ranking.
And earlier this year, INSEAD was ranked 4th in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking. I want to thank the classes who participated in these rankings and for the constant support of our global alumni, staff and faculty communities.
Overall, this was a very good year for our school. INSEAD has improved its position in every single ranking – from Financial Times MBA, EMBA, and executive education rankings to the rankings published by The Economist, Forbes, and BusinessWeek/Bloomberg.
New and improved career services
In case you missed this article in the last issue of Salamander, INSEAD has made a series of significant investments in the Career Development Centre to improve our career support and professional development services for students and alumni. As such, we’ve mobilised a team of career experts, overhauled our services and built a new suite of offerings. We encourage you to take advantage of our new distance-learning service, sign up for one-on-one career coaching or visit with our career experts across the three campuses.
If you’re someone who actively recruits at INSEAD, you’ll be glad to hear that we now have an enhanced team in place to provide outreach and support to employers, particularly those based in North America. We’re also pleased to share that our recruitment numbers have reached new heights, as 98% of the 2014 graduating classes responded to the three months out survey and 90% of job-seekers had received at least one offer.
Growth abounds in Executive Education
Building on our longstanding success as an Executive Education leader in Europe, we are focused on growing our presence in Asia, Abu Dhabi and North America. To that end, we’ve made a number of key investments and advancements in those geographic markets:
- In Singapore, we successfully opened the new Leadership Development Centre, a 10,000 m2 Phase Three extension. This new, state-of-the-art facility, which was financed in part by the generous INSEAD community, provides a fantastic environment for INSEAD to run its global leading Executive Programmes.
- We launched new Customised Online Programmes that enable us to collaborate with global organisations to shift mind-sets, behaviour and capability quickly and effectively.
- We increased our activity and presence in the United States, delivering our Transition to General Management programme in San Francisco and our Management Skills for International Business in New York.
- In Saudi Arabia, we ran a large custom programme for the faculty and executives of the largest women’s university in the world, The Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh.
- Another key achievement is the development of the EDP and INSEAD Corporate Governance Initiative collaboration which, this year, saw the expansion of our successful International Director’s Programme to our Singapore campus.
Expanding our team of world-class faculty
Thanks to our amazing faculty, INSEAD’s “magic in the classroom” continues to inspire our community and beyond.
To extend that reach, we hired seven new faculty representing six different nationalities. They will join us during the academic year (five in Europe, one in the USA and one in Asia), bringing the total number of resident faculty to 148. We now have over 50 research staff across our campuses. We have also introduced new in-house resources (researchers to assist faculty with case-writing and teaching notes) and continue to welcome area researchers who are extremely dedicated to providing research assistance to junior faculty.
Our new Singapore Data Team (SiDaT), led by Professor Stefan Thau, is using a pop-up lab strategy to conduct behavioural research with varied subject pools. It serves as a great complement to our Paris lab.
Surpassing our advancement records
Because of your support, we set new Advancement records in the 2013/14 academic year. We surpassed the fiscal target of €14m for gifts and pledges, an increase of 25% over the previous year!
Your support for INSEAD’s MBA scholarship programme has enabled us to name new MBA scholarships, which will help us attract the very best students internationally. This year, 90 new Salamanders received awards. I want to extend my personal thanks to the alumni and companies that gave major gifts to name these new scholarships.
The student engagement programme was also very successful. We raised a total of €36,059 and secured a participation rate of over 75% in support of the Robin Hood Scholarship Campaign.
Celebrating the past in the present
Our alumni network had a lot to celebrate this year as we surpassed 50,000 graduates. It was a pleasure to see and speak with so many of you at these fantastic events around the world.
In June, we welcomed back our very first MBA graduates from the class of 1960. It was absolutely inspiring to hear the stories of these pioneers who joined INSEAD not only for its strong business practices in Europe but also for its multi-national approach.
This year’s Circle of Patrons dinner was even more exceptional than usual as we honoured two of INSEAD’s strongest champions and volunteers, Claude and Tuulikki Janssen, by naming an orchid after them.
In September, we held our 3rd Global INSEAD Day in 75 cities across 47 countries. It was truly remarkable to see so many members of the INSEAD family gather for a day of parties, panel discussions, fundraising and sporting activities.
Our alumni reunions brought a record number of 2,428 alumni back to campus, and we also hosted alumni forums in Sydney, Washington and Stresa, Italy. Do keep an eye out for our upcoming alumni forums in Tokyo, New York and London.
Building on the momentum
In the year ahead, we’ll be continuing on this trajectory as we move forward on a number of other new initiatives at INSEAD. To name a few, we’re working on advancing digital technologies in education, launching new programmes and research conferences, and preparing for the renovation of the Fontainebleau campus. We’re also working towards the possible construction of a new campus in Abu Dhabi.
As we continue on this exciting path, I hope you will join us for the journey. I’m confident that, with your support, we will continue to be a disruptor in management education, a leader in academic excellence and a change agent for the world.
Best regards,
Ilian Mihov
Dean
