While speaking to our MBA programme manager Aaron this afternoon I learnt that BusinessWeek 2008 rankings are just out, and INSEAD has moved up to third place in the international MBA category!
This is great news; we’ve been moving up the Financial Times rankings over the past few years and are current #6 on a worldwide MBA scale.
Well done, everyone!
Yesterday evening a journalist contacted me regarding the INSEAD Dash. Thanks to my earlier post on the Dash getting featured on Tomorrow.sg which drew lots of new visitors, we will now get coverage in a national newspaper!
It happened all in a rush. I and the INSEAD Corporate Communications team in Singapore were notified just half a day ago, while the Cabaret was taking place, and news being news (tight deadlines!) I had to mobilise help fast - photo contributions and more interviews with classmates.
There were lots of photos in our shared folder but we seemed to be short on road-crossing scenes. These would have been the funniest, especially from the point of a passer-by who’s on his way to work and is stunned by this tidal wave of costumed freaks running past. I found a few photos of such locals looking stunned, which is pretty hilarious!
I also notified the P5s (thanks to RBenson for relaying the message!) and one guy sent me really good road shots. I’ve noted wherever possible the names of all the photographers, and hope they will be credited.
Anyway, I shan’t mention more. I don’t know how much of what I said will be reported, and I don’t know which photos the newspaper is choosing, so we shall just have to wait and be surprised on Monday! :)
Like the Dash, Bar of the Week, Cabaret, Olympics, national weeks and Champagne Fines, logoff messages are a tradition at INSEAD. This is a prank which occurs when you forget to log off from a computer in school. Someone else discovers it and sends naughty emails using your name. Some even consider it an art to write a convincing message that gradually reveals itself to be a fake. My Greek groupmate in particular is a Master in this art.
Our batch has seen several good logoff messages so far. One of the best ones - right before the Dash - was sent from the account of a pretty Italian classmate who announced she was going in a bunny suit and asked if anyone wanted to accompany her as carrot. Immediately many men announced that they would be her carrot, a few even claiming have to purchased carrot suits already. Finally, the real girl replied to confirm it wasn’t her, with a humorous rebuttal. However it wasn’t the end of the story as our marketing professor got wind of it, and inserted a bunny and carrot in his lecture slides!
An Asian female classmate forgot to log off twice in a day. Both times, logoff messages were sent, e.g. about how she was so stressed and needed an Italian ‘stallion’ to comfort her. The message didn’t deride the victim but simply praised the sexy Italian men (which kind of indicated who exactly might have written the message!). Her rebuttals to both fake messages were impressively witty as well. It doesn’t just happen to girls. Guys who forget to log off are usually made to sound like sissies who need security blankets and children’s toys. Other logoff messages announced the victims’ supposedly secret feelings for unlikely people (like Accounting professors or admin staff).
However today I was informed of a more malicious type of logoff message that wasn’t so funny. It was sent from the account of another Asian classmate and implied that sexual favours would be given in exchange for a place in an elective. However many times I re-read the message, it didn’t look funny at all. My female classmate replied to tell everyone on the list that this was not in very good taste. The thing is, the message was sent while my section was in class, and a lot of unfamiliar names were CC’d as well - presumably our P5 seniors. I think it’s not so bad if the joke’s sent to people you know, who will understand it’s a prank and laugh it off, but it’s worse if it’s sent to people who don’t know you.
Thing is, I didn’t even receive the email myself, as I was in French class this afternoon. I guess the IT Department deleted it off the server before the rest of us could see it. I don’t think we need to ban the logoff message tradition because 99% of the messages have been roaringly funny so far, and rather harmless as we all know it’s fake. However, one requires a certain skill to craft such messages well. Even if you want it to sound kinky it should be done with class.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my post on the INSEAD Dash has been featured on Tomorrow.sg. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s Singapore’s premier blog community portal. It’s possibly the equivalent of getting linked from BoingBoing (for want of a closer example).
My analytics is now reporting an overwhelming number of visits from Tomorrow.sg readers.
Thanks to Tinkertailor for the link love :)
Got my first job application ding from my #1 favourite company of many zeros. I was not too surprised, and in a way I feel almost relieved. During the phone interview last Friday, I had the impression that they wanted more senior. Even if I did have the potential to lead this new team (which I still believe I do), I sensed they wanted someone with lobbyist experience, which I do not have. I nearly wanted to reply, “Here in Singapore you don’t exactly do that sort of thing, and if you asked any other local candidates they’d say the same thing too” but thought that would sound a bit rude.
As for the job itself, I had lots of ideas on forming a strategy, and did research on each country in the portfolio. However I wasn’t asked about my plans at all. The good thing about being in such a diverse school, however, is that you will find classmates from the country/industry you’re targetting. Plus, everyone was very supportive of my interview. I must thank G, H, N and Z for advice on their countries.
I was also curious as to how the position has been advertised since at least Nov 2007 and has yet to be filled. Obviously there were very particular needs and I am not sure if all the checkboxes can be ticked, because it will be very hard to find someone with all the required experience and qualifications in this region. Not that it’s impossible; just very difficult. I would not be surprised if this position is still unfilled a few months down the road. But I understand the company’s need to find the right boss who will then form a team. Having the right manager/leader is so important.
In response to their questions on my rank/experience, I explained that despite being relatively junior, my input was consistently sought at much bigger agencies and that was an achievement. However I respect their decision and will remain on their file for other positions, so it’s not the end of the world. I have many more months to go. Most classmates were surprised that I was being called for interviews so early.
As for school - while I understand P2 topics better, that isn’t going to be enough. I need lots more practice and re-iteration to improve my scores. So as much as I’d like to enjoy myself I have to cut down on events. INSEAD Cabaret beckons but … most likely I will not even show up. There’s the INSEAD Olympics at Sentosa which I will skip in favour of French lessons over Saturday and Sunday, as well as the Lexus Cup golf tournament which I shall tryyyy to attend briefly.
I’ve had second thoughts on whether I made the right choice - whether rushing through 10 months of business studies just to re-enter the workforce quickly was the best idea. If my priority was to learn and enjoy new friendships, then I could’ve given myself a longer time. Quite often we classmates talk about how we’d love to do more things but there’s just not enough time. I told an academic rep that if you graded me on how much I actually learnt, my score would be infinite. From having zero knowledge on Finance, Accounting etc to having some knowledge which I can apply to my work and personal life, means I have achieved my personal goals.
Also, I wonder if I’d have chosen INSEAD if I knew what I was going through now. In case you’re still contemplating which business schools to go to, let me elaborate on the grading system. Here, you aren’t graded by absolute scores but on how the rest of the cohort did. You can get a good percentage, but if the majority of your cohort has better grades, you will fall below the average and this will affect your GPA. You thus need to be even better in other subjects to make up for this. On the other extreme, if you kick ass, you may get a GPA of 4+ or even 5+ which sounds crazy, as we are used to having a maximum of 4 only. As you can imagine this also means that some of us have grades of less than 2 or 1, because the system just makes grades more extreme.
To be fair, those who already have strong groundings in certain subjects can get exempted, but these classmates were told they needed to take another subject when they’re in P4, instead of being able to join their seniors immediately for an elective. So, this resulted in many whizzes in Finance/other subjects remaining in our class, scoring full marks. The only consolation is this widens the standard deviation which also affects the GPA. But many of us see this as a waste of our whiz classmates’ time and an unfair comparison for those with no such background and only 2 months (or less) to learn everything.
But don’t get me wrong - I do enjoy the classes, I like my classmates, and every day there are jokes and laughter and lots of participation, which is hard to find in most local schools. However, sometimes I wish I could upgrade the RAM in my head and also my hard disk space and write speed so I can simply take in everything that’s being hurled at us and regurgitate them at the right moments. When we graduate, will we remember everything we were force fed? I also learned that while my GMAT score is above the average, that doesn’t necessarily make a difference. And if you fall very sick during the exams, that isn’t taken into account by your markers. I found out the hard way. So keep yourself healthy when you come to INSEAD, especially when it’s time to perform.
It was a calm, clear morning in Singapore. Buona Vista Road was busy as usual. A steady stream of traffic droned by, adding to the humdrum of yet another working day.
It was, really, just a normal Friday.
And then a cluster of crazed students dressed as chickens, ducks, bears, bunnies, female fantasy figures (including cross-dressers), superheroes, warriors, scuba divers and other oddities streamed past, cheering all the way into school.
Exhibit 1:
Which brings up a familiar riddle:
Q. Why did the chicken cross the road? A. (Modified) Because it was part of the INSEAD Dash!!!
The Dash is something you CANNOT miss at INSEAD. It takes place in the Singapore campus. Being encased in furry suits, large headgear or capes also means you will end up rather sweaty, but still pretty happy, by the time you reach school.
INSEAD staff and faculty are fully aware of the Dash. So while ordinary passers-by may stare, inside the campus nobody would blink an eye. Which makes it all the more hilarious.
After the Dash, many remained in their costumes while engaging in discussions with our Processes & Operations professor. You’d see the seriousness of our questions and our rapt faces as we hang on to the professor’s every word, even if some peoples’ wigs were obscuring their vision (and of those sitting behind them).
In between class, other INSEADers opened our amphi door and squeeze a rubber duckie at us. Then a few furry beasts broke in, ran to the centre of our amphi, did a jig, and ran out. We also had a mystery guest, Fred Flintstone, who refused to unmask his true identity and thus the professor said he was unable to give a class participation score to him.
I took some high-definition footage which should be processed and uploaded eventually - when I have the time.
Friday is going to be a big day for me and others at INSEAD. First of all, at 8.27am at Heritage View, a motley group of MBA students dressed in costumes will be making the traditional INSEAD dash to school.
I am torn between volunteering to take photos/videos or wearing a costume. Some of us Singaporeans are looking for a Lion Dance troupe outfit, complete with lion head. If we find one, I want to be the cymbal crasher.
After the Dash, my section will probably have Operations class, which is supposed to begin at 8.30am but we will probably start late after all the revelry. And after class I will find a quiet room and await … a telephone call from Google!
Yes, my dream company has finally called, for a position which had very specific requirements which I happen to meet. It is not an easy job in terms of scope and depth, plus the vastness and diversity of the regions to be covered will probably require heavy multitasking and political savvy. I believe it is important for both sides to find a good fit and I hope to ask some salient questions about the job as well.
Send good vibes my way!
Just to let you know I’m still alive, running on adrenaline (actually, it’s sangria left over from dinner), checking on groupmates down the assembly line who are reviewing our Marketing and Strategy graded assignments for one final round of quality control. It is going to be a tough week ahead… and 3 more weeks before exams!!!
I received many questions from classmates wanting good, cheap, convenient massages in Singapore. My answer was usually that the ones in town aren’t that cheap and they’re better off getting massaged over the weekend in Bangkok/Bali etc.
So the thought occured: Why not organise an on-campus massage? Get the visually handicapped masseurs to come to INSEAD. There’s no overhead costs and their rates are reasonable.
I sounded the idea with James the head of Operations, who was very supportive of the idea. In fact INSEAD staff already had one massage session with the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) so I invited SAVH to send its masseurs again, this time to massage the students.
They were only able to make it today as the service is very popular. Also, they sent just two masseurs with the request that each masseur makes at least S$60 to cover the cost of their trip to INSEAD. I offered to fetch them from Buona Vista MRT but emphasised that they should go to the bus stop near the Ministry of Education. They were misdirected and ended up on the wrong side of the road, but thought they were on the correct side, and thus I was unable to locate them. They took a taxi instead and arrived in the middle of my Operations class, so I asked the professor to excuse me while I settled them in. So my plan for a perfectly timed schedule where everything would begin before I started class, went out of the window.
The other thing I underestimated initially was demand. Feedback from classmates on the idea of a massage (aka my ‘market research’) was quite strong, so when the service was confirmed I only emailed the P2s. However in reality not as many signed up - even though many said it was a good idea (i.e. one does not totally translate to the other). Many had groupwork at the time. I also learnt that early morning massages are not popular, so in future these sessions will be scheduled later… provided we can find another suitable date!!
Faced with the prospect of some empty slots, I wanted to announce the service to all at INSEAD, but another classmate assured me that more A2ers would sign up at the last moment so I waited longer. It didn’t happen. So the day before the massae, I asked for the message to be passed on to the P5s but it wasn’t sent out. I sent another email for dissemination to staff, but it also wasn’t sent out in time. I sent another email to another P5 councillor who offered to spread the word, but it was rather late by then. I resorted to designing a poster for passers-by to see, and made acquaintances with a few curious P5s in the process - all of whom said it was a good idea but they had classes on.
Anyway, I also learnt that as neat as my scheduling was, it did not have enough buffer time to acommodate people who were 10 minutes late at the beginning. I was supposed to give a 5-10 minute break every 2 hours. I decided to be generous and allocate 10 minutes, but learnt that if there were 4 customers every 2 hours and if each customer arrives just a few minutes late each, that would have eaten into the break time already. Alternatively if I scheduled a 5 minute gap between each session that would help, but if classmates were punctual (most were) then the masseurs would also serve less people in total.
A similar thing happened with the lunch break. I thought 30 minutes would be enough, but spent 10 of those minutes in the toilet waiting for one of the masseurs. I couldn’t leave her alone and dash off to buy lunch for them, as this masseur was almost (if not totally) impaired and would walk into the wall if I wasn’t holding on to her. Poor thing! It taught me a good lesson, that I cannot just give a little bit more allowance because they have much slower movements.
As a memento, I got satisfied classmates to sign on the poster, and took a photo of the masseurs with it. May I say to my classmate-patrons that they were happy that you were happy, and they went home with decent earnings. Many good learning points and good vibes too.
I was happy that the girls and guys (mostly in my section) were supportive of this initiative - my first attempt at enabling social entrepreneurism. Feedback has also come in. Yes, I will make bigger announcements in future when there is more supply available. Also I will ask for someone else to help me because it is a time-consuming job, having to be there as a guide.
Thank you to those who made this initiative a success!
This morning I was early to class… but not early enough to catch a small slim black snake slithering across one of the long tables in our amphi. However, some classmates and our professor were at the scene.
According to one eyewitness, the snake was so thin, it was easily mistaken for a laptop cable. Another eyewitness said it had red and black markings. However, our professor has experience in jungles, he apparently could ‘smell’ the presence of a snake, and said it wasn’t poisonous because it emitted a smell; non-poisonous snakes do that to compensate for their lack of venom power.
He called maintenance, who apparently did not seem very surprised about it (has this happened before???). They used a bamboo pole to hit the snake’s head repeatedly until it died, then it was lifted up and disposed of.
I started wondering which nook and cranny the snake slithered in from. Our doors? The air con vents? Some unseen crack? Surely not the large glass windows because they’re sealed in… I theorised that maybe it came here to lay eggs and more snakes would appear soon! Ssssssssss!
One classmate, who is a mother of two young children, had an opposite reaction from the rest of us. She said the snake was obviously a baby, and its mummy was probably looking for it along with its siblings, and she felt sorry it was dead. I was like “!!!!!!!!!” but didn’t hesitate to frighten another more squeamish female classmate that maybe its family would miss it and come to our amphi to look for it! Other classmates who came later refused to believe there was a snake, until more of us chimed in, along with the professor. One guy was told that the snake had been on the part of the table where he sat … fortunately he wasn’t squeamish (at least in public).
So anyway, that was the exciting event that was experienced by only a few early birds … who most certainly got their worm.
This year’s INSEAD ball theme was Red Dot, which represents Singapore. It all began when an Indonesian politician said Singapore was just a little red dot. Somehow the name stuck and it doesn’t have very negative connotations anymore. It is true, on the world map the dot marking Singapore can be bigger than Singapore itself. Yet our small size has also been our strength as we are more determined to prove ourselves, surviving on human capital and working efficiently to compensate for our lack of natural resources.
So I came in pink today (closest to being a red dot) and someone actually said I was following the theme, so - yaay!
Many of us supported our Zero Coupon Band (or bond?) and screamed support for our classmates on stage. Virginia had the biggest fan club… I just started a Facebook group for them!
We felt hot and went downstairs to some air-conditioned rooms so it was less hot. Seems like our seniors knew where to go, cos they were already there. Consumed lots of appetisers - smoked salmon, seared raw tuna, absolutely delicious and fresh brie on french bread… it was great for hungry people. Then the pyrotechnics came on outside, and the Singapore percussion band gave a long, powerful performance. I think this was the band which performed at other big events (like National Day last year, I think). I was so proud to be Singaporean when I saw these young performers doing a great job and getting lots of cheers from my international classmates.
Danced a lot with Julian in the Bhangra room where there were lots of Indians showing their rhythmic skills. Felt a little woozy, walked out to another room, bumped into Panos who gave me bread and told me to drink water. Went to the bar across the corridor and drank water. Bumped into Raphael and Amel’s friend who’s contemplating going to INSEAD, and we both encouraged him to apply. Stepped out for a heart-to-heart talk with Raphael about how I can improve from P2 onwards (yesss even at parties I take my groupwork seriously!!!). At different stages, Eloy popped around to see how I was doing; thanks a lot for your concern!
Me with Raphael
Me and Eloy
At the end I felt much more stable and went home successfully, my feet aching but my heart feeling quite happy.
Juniors, if there is only one event you ever go to, make sure it is the INSEAD ball, either in Fonty or Singapore. It was a tremendous bash, definitely not a place where you’d wanna leave halfway. Enjoy it to the max.
And guess who else I met there … Stefanos, the most famous INSEAD blogger!!! Hey dude if you read this blog, remember my request and link to me too! Great to see him back in Singapore.
Now I am home, blogging this while feeling high, and I somehow have to go to church in 7 hours’ time….
The results just came out today. We got a summary sheet containing our own grades compared with the cohort’s, as well as our marked exam papers.
Most people should be happy or relieved. I was expecting the worst, but fortunately I do not have to retake any papers. I’d like to think I’ve put the worst behind me in P1, because of the heavy load of quant subjects that I’ve never done before.
Could I have performed better? Quite probably. The food poisoning I had just before exams didn’t help at all. I felt terrible not being prepared enough for my exams because I didn’t get to do my revision over the weekend. Still, it should not be the main (or only) scapegoat. For the quant subjects, I let gaps in my understanding accumulate, when I should have asked questions upfront to make sure that I totally understood what was going on for each lesson. I did ask my groupmates for help, but only towards the end, so this time I am going to start earlier! Like, right now!!!
I felt the professors’ class participation grades were quite fair. I had lower marks in classes where I spoke less, and nearly full marks for Leading People and Groups (LPG - the first segment of Organisational Behaviour) where I spoke almost all the time and on a few occasions punned my professor and had after-class conversations with him. However I also expect most people to have received about the same grade since everyone gets a chance to speak.
And generally, if the professor picks on you (because you look sleepy, bored, distracted or simply haven’t spoken at all before), you don’t necessarily get higher marks. I think you still need to volunteer a valuable insight or ask a deeper question - and on a fairly regular basis - to get higher participation grades. My UDJ (Statistics) participation grade was average despite being Lobo’s blue M&M girl for a few periods.
On the bright side, my group scored 90% for the LPG exam and I’m very proud of our teamwork. Who’d imagine scoring this high for a soft skills exam! We spent a long time planning the process, and during the group exam I was nearly brain dead (having subsisted on plain porridge for the past 2 days) but managed to contribute 2+ pages of the essay. I am really glad to be a part of a winning team.
Moving forward, I know I have to do much better in P2 onwards to pull up my average. I am not too pessimistic about it, but also have to be realistic. When competing on a bell-shaped curve with a large proportion of classmates having much stronger quantitative backgrounds, I know I will probably not get on the better side of the 2.50 average ZScore, as much as I try. However, as our LPG result has shown, it is possible to do very well for other subjects requiring soft skills and beat others at it.
Ultimately, I know in my future jobs I will not be in a sector or role that requires heavy number crunching. That has never been my objective in doing my MBA. I just wanted to understand how the numbers fit into the big picture and interpret what they mean and what action should be taken. Our marketing professor has also warned us not to miss the woods for the trees. As we become more senior, soft skills become more important, not number-crunching. Alums have told my classmates that Organisational Behaviour is the one subject that will stay with us as we move up the ladder.
Also I need to remember that my strengths are in creativity, innovation, communication and the use of technology. These didn’t get used much in P1 but from P2 onwards I hope to stand out more and contribute more to the group.
In our very first Finance lesson, our beloved professor Hillion warned those of us who had no Finance (or similar) backgrounds and weren’t engineers, that we would struggle. The most important thing was that we learnt something.
In his famous words, “Who cares?!”
As an update to my previous post:
Not surprisingly, most of us today were in blue, some stayed neutral and 3 in my class of 75 or 76 classmates were in red or some shade of red.
We could not focus totally on Marketing but our professor kindly paused at some points in the lecture to show us the vote count on CNN.com.
Then we attended Dean Frank Brown’s talk from noon to 1pm, which was PRECISELY the time that CNN would project a winner. We’re not supposed to be using our laptops when an important person is speaking, so we held on until the end… then I peeped at my iPhone and exclaimed to my Swedish classmate (who was in pink; booooo!) that Obama won! Right after the talk an American classmate behind happily announced to everyone that Obama won! Of course we were so busy dashing off for a quick lunch that there wasn’t exactly a huge shout of joy, but we were generally pleased / relieved / happy.
Back in the bar lounge, people huddled around the TV screen. Obviously those who were there were Obama supporters too. One or two seniors were wearing Obama campaign t-shirts and looking VERY delighted. I think I hugged one or two American classmates. Somehow today we felt a little closer to the Americans, and we knew it was a very special moment.
Of course, after the euphoria Obama has to get down to business, and we business students should try to be objective. Our MBA Dean Jake Cohen will be giving a 7.30am (very early morning!) talk about the impact of the incoming President on the world economy. That should be interesting, if I can get to the talk in the first place.
INSEAD’s logo may be green, but on Wednesday those who believe Barack Obama will win are wearing blue, and those who believe it’s McCain, red.
So I just found my bluest T-shirt, a pair of blue slacks to go with my blue sports shoes. My schoolbag is already blue. Pity I don’t have blue socks.
Some of us may not be in the mood to concentrate in class in the morning. I sense that we in INSEAD support Obama more. I haven’t heard the views of most of my American classmates specifically on each candidate, but sentiments about George Bush are consistent with the rest of the nation…
I’ve decided to post questions emailed to me, on this blog, so that everyone gets the information and I don’t have to repeat myself.
Q. How many hours a week are you in class? I can’t seem to find that on any website. Also, for every hour you’re in class, about how many hours does the average student spend on preparation?
A. For both questions, it depends. So far for P1 and P2 (where we only have core courses, not electives) we usually have 2-3 classes a day, each class lasting 1.5 hours, and in between we have a lunch break. However we also have other activities like career talks, club meetings and groupwork.
[Applying what I’ve learnt for microeconomics, there are fixed and variable times in the equation. We have a certain fixed time of 1.5*3=4.5 hours per day. However, lunch break is usually from 12-2pm which is an extra 2 hours. It doesn’t make sense to walk home to Dover or Heritage to prepare lunch then walk back, so most will have lunch in school. When you have lunch in school you tend to linger at the tables talking/networking, or dashing off for some other activities. These other activities are like ‘variable times’. Career talks will last a fixed period of time, but you might linger on to ask more questions. There may also be club meetings. Time spent during group work also depends on how efficient your group is. So if you have many activities and lots of time spent on groupwork, you could very well stay past dinnertime, which has happened to me several times already. ]
The time spent on preparation varies for everyone. Some already have quantitative backgrounds, so it’s faster for them to complete the readings and exercises, while others who have non-quantitative backgrounds will take a longer time. Some even go travelling almost every weekend.
Having said that, the readings are generally heavy and many of us think it is impossible to finish everything all the time. From what I see, even if we do the readings, not all of us complete the exercises for each session. However, given how fast-paced INSEAD’s MBA programme is, I’d strongly advice those weaker in a particular subject to prepare as much as possible for it before class starts. I am trying to do this myself as it really facilitates my understanding.
