INSEAD: May 2009 Archives

Me and some really nice classmates (WY, JJ, AH, GE)

There were high expectations for the INSEAD Summer Ball, which is an event not to be missed while you’re in Fonty. Up to the day itself, people were vying for tickets which had been sold out long ago, even though tickets were fairly expensive. I paid an early bird price of 130 Euros (about S$260) which got progressively higher after that.

Because of the high price and the glamour of the Ball, expectations were also high. We heard stories of how, during the previous Ball, the organisers ran out of champagne, which is a big no-no especially at INSEAD. This year we were told by our Dean that there would be no fireworks, which disappointed a lot of people. The reason was that INSEAD had to be more conservative and sensitive in the light of the financial crisis. There was thus a heightened expectation that the money saved from these fireworks had better be deployed in other parts of the Ball.

Wanting to find out more details, I chatted with an INSEAD administrator who explained to me that the Ball was in fact loss-making and that INSEAD had received complaints in previous years from residents about the noise created. They also ran into French bureaucracy when applying to have fireworks. I relayed this information to other classmates who were surprised at this. And, with all of us having had Managerial Accounting training in P2, we were curious as to how efficiently things were planned (even though I’m sure the Administration did their best)…

Of course, these issues should not have allowed us to be distracted from enjoying the actual Ball, which I felt was set up quite nicely. A big tent was erected inside the Chateau and that was where people gathered at the beginning. What I liked was being greeted on both sides by a row of waiters with many choices of beverages, alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

I also loved the DJ’s chillout music. This was taken when we just arrived, so the place still looked pretty empty.

Later on, there was a man in the middle of the tent who improvised on the trumpet on top of the chillout music, which I thought was a great idea. Later he also played bongo drums. You can see his instruments set up in the middle of the bar:

There was some food in the main tent, which was mostly OK except for one dessert which tasted like hamster cage lining to me - maybe it was. Security staff were visible at key entrances. Generally the ambience was great and I got to meet some new people, including partners of classmates as well as alums.

Inside the chateau there was a lounge, and upstairs the INSEAD band rocked us into a new high from midnight, with multiple encores. However it got very hot and one classmate opened a window to let some cold air in. Later however I noticed the window had been closed back. My feet were worn out (from wearing high heels, walking on cobblestones and then from dancing). I went home at 2+am via the shuttle, and got home at 3+am. This meant that I had missed some bits of drama that unfolded, apparently, when the music stopped earlier than expected. The Ball was advertised to end at 5pm, so understandably people were unhappy that it was cut short at 3+am.

A note was sent to the Dean, citing these complaints, and his reply seemed fine to me. He was still at the Ball when these things happened. As I wasn’t around to personally witness what happened I can only go by hearsay and the emails that have been circulated to all of us. I think however some communication could have been done earlier on so that we knew what to expect. When the music ends and the lights are turned on earlier than expected - these are all things we interpret as spoilers. Also we were told that Alumni were unhappy because they paid even more to come to Fonty, some with their partners.

Sadly, though I’m sure a lot of effort was put into planning for this Ball, most of the talk I heard was not “How great it was!” but “Did you hear, it ended too early… it was so hot but they refused to let us keep the windows open…” It’s human nature, I guess, but still it’s a shame it ended this way.

People have started to ask me how the Moonsoon Ball (the Singapore equivalent) was in comparison, as not everyone gets to go to both, depending on which periods you choose to be on either campus. I liked both Balls, largely because of the people who were there, but of course each Ball is unique. I’ve blogged about this ball previously but will compare it with the Summer Ball below.

The theme for the Monsoon Ball last year was ‘Red Dot’, which represented Singapore, though most of us didn’t come dottily dressed. I felt the food at the Monsoon Ball was much better and in more copious amounts, distributed in almost every room upstairs and downstairs. It was so tasty and there were so much leftovers I almost felt like doggy-bagging some of it! The location was also quite nice as it was in Sentosa. The only spoiler for this ball, I heard, was that some people were totally wasted by the end of it - obviously these organisers had not run out of champagne but were in fact topping up our glasses regularly. However I personally did not see anyone lying on the floors, and eyewitness accounts on this are mixed.

I am glad I got to attend both Balls, and in time I doubt we will remember the little bad things but just the good memories we had, catching up with old groupmates, sectionmates and other classmates. We will keep our many photos and share them, on Facebook and otherwise, and doubtlessly some of us will return as Alumni and hopefully enjoy ourselves again at other INSEAD Balls.

I had to finish re-reading ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ (BOS) by this weekend in order to prepare for my contribution to the group project. For the past few weeks I felt some inertia in doing this, because:

1. I had already read the book back in 2005/2006, before I even harboured thoughts of doing an MBA and at INSEAD.
2. There was a summary available on Wikipedia, which I also read
3. A hardworking groupmate had already sent us slides/templates from his Blue Ocean classes in P4

I strived to complete the reading anyway. And what better time than to do it at the gym, while exercising! Kill two birds with one stone and maximise my personal productivity! On the other hand, I did not want to look like a nerd. So I decided if the gym was very crowded I might not read the book openly.

The gym was almost empty so I whipped out my BOS book.

And then… someone from INSEAD marketing department showed up with a group of (prospective?) students. She recognised me and laughed, saying I was reading a book that was so representative of INSEAD! That of course made the group of visitors peer at me and my book… They walked off, amused, and I shouted in defence: “I have a deadline!!”

The gym did fill up a bit more but by that time I didn’t care. After an hour of cycling I finished reading the BOS book and went for a shower.

Just another day in the Fonty campus…

In the past week, three people who read my blog approached me. One guy wrote to me, suggesting we catch up for lunch. Another guy wrote to me as well, asking for a job lead. One gal spotted me as I was walking across the Bar and called out my name, even though I hadn’t met her before. Two are P3s and one is a fellow P5. In time I hope I do get to meet them face to face.

If you do see me around, say Hi! It’s nice to meet you in person and I do hope some of you have found this blog insightful.

So I’m finally feeling like a tourist, because I’m no longer in my home country. On Friday I, my housemate SA and another classmate EH headed out to Epernay. We had an appointment for a tour at Moet & Chandon in the morning. We visited the cellars (carved out of limestone), tasted some champagne and bought some since the price was decent.

After that, we drove to Reims for lunch at Les Charmes, which gave us a very good 3-course deal. Then we found our hotel, Porte Mars, which was facing a landmark with the same name. However, the area was in the midst of re-construction so the view wasn’t as pretty as it was in the guidebook. We visited the Notre Dame cathedral (a Unesco world heritage site) where French kings were crowned. We walked around the city centre and had dinner at Le Grand Cafe which is famous for its mussels. We had 3 types of mussel dishes, then went back to the hotel and drank more of our champagne. Hic!

The next morning we drove out to Marne and visited another cathedral. We took a 2+ hour drive back to Fonty.

After that I headed out with WY to the Chateau de Fontainebleau which had a musical event. There was a mass of people in every chamber. At one point we were squished so badly I just wanted to get out! Crowd management could definitely be improved.

We saw performances by a flutist, who was then accompanied by what looked like a violinist (though the instrument looked more medieval). The next chamber of music had 4 harpists - 1 teacher and 3 students who were of different standards. Finally we listened to someone play a harpsichord. I shot videos of each performance.

Updating this blog at WY’s place now, since I still don’t have internet at home. AHEM. Definitely have to raise this to our landlord when we see him tomorrow.

Good idea: Tagging along with housemate, who registered her interest in dining at a gourmet restaurant in Paris (which is difficult to get into), and recently received good news that a table would be available today for lunch.

The food and service was excellent, and if we hadn’t ordered 2 cups of coffee, the bill for our three-course lunch would’ve amounted to only 37 Euros each. (With the coffee it came to 40 Euros)

Bad idea: Thinking we can make it to Paris and back in less than 2 hours per trip (i.e. to Paris and then back from Paris). Paris traffic was bad. Along the way, we started to appreciate the value of our Electronic Road Pricing system back in Singapore.

Mitigating factors: Telling our professor in advance that we may arrive late to school (which did happen), and contributing more in class to (hopefully) make up for whatever we missed earlier on.

God, please, I want a 4.0 for this subject….

Learning points:

• Good to tap on INSEAD classmates’ knowledge of getting around Paris - that helped us find a cheap parking lot
• Good to be friends with your GPS system which can help you avoid heavily congested areas - though we have yet to find out for sure if it helped or made things worse, or made no difference at all
• Bad idea to leave the car park ticket in the car, because we required a code on the ticket to get back into the car park!
• Good to speak a bit of French so we can ask for directions when really lost

I’d like to upload photos of my Paris escapade but have to dash from school now and get home. The internet connection at home is busted so I can’t update anything from there. This is not how I’d like to operate… hopefully we can resolve this problem soon.

I had a most unusual weekend.

Let’s start with the story of the chance encounter with a professor I’ve been yearning to meet for some time. If you’ve been following this blog or my main blog for some time, you might know that one of my passions is for social media.

I learnt that an INSEAD professor had co-written a book, “Throwing Sheep In The Boardoom”, which was on social media invading the corporate world. This was right up my alley, and I was proud that one of our professors had taken on this topic. ‘When I go to Fonty,’ I decided, I would drop Professor Soumitra Dutta an email and see if I could meet him.

Little did I expect how I would meet him, however. On Saturday, I attended a dinner thrown by a nice female Spanish professor, Lourdes Casanova, for her Brazil field trip class. As my housemate Sing Ai was part of this class, she asked if I could come along, and so I too was invited. All I knew was that she was married to an Indian professor. At first he didn’t mention his name, but he looked rather familiar. Later when I offered to help lay out the food, he asked me what I did, and I replied that it was mainly “social media’. He said, “I wrote a book on that.” I looked at him and exclaimed, “You’re Soumitra Dutta!”

My next comment was, “You’ve been following me on Twitter!” (I did, of course, return the favour out of Twitter courtesy.)

Needless to say we had an interesting conversation and I will meet with him again to discuss social media.

The second element to this most unusual night: Music. I noticed a piano in the corner of the living room and, being curious as always, lifted the lid to see what brand it was. Our Spanish professor noticed my interest and invited me to play. Since it was a dinner for the Brazil trip folks, I started with my familiar number ‘Girl From Ipanema’, which was well-received, Corcovado (Quiet Nights), La Vie En Rose (since we’re in France), Autumn Leaves, Music of the Night, a couple of Beatles numbers Yesterday and Hey Jude, and ended the night with Con Te Partiro. Since I haven’t practised in a while, I improvised. Along the way another Brazilian classmate, S, started singing. It was a magical moment!

As a result of my entertainment value, I have been invited to a second dinner. I would however like to get some practice first. Already I have found the grand piano at the INSEAD bar very tempting, and maybe one night when nobody is around I will sneak back in and start playing on it.

So far, I’m lovin’ the Fonty campus. It is much bigger than the one in Singapore and more spread out. Despite the huge number of students now in Fonty (close to 400 for my promotion alone), we have not had much problems finding empty cubicles to work in.

The weather is splendid today. The sun’s out, but the wind’s cool enough for comfort. There’s a lovely forest at the back of the campus which I walked through yesterday.

The selection and quality of food here is amazing. Fish and meats are cooked right in front of you, Teppanyaki-style, and somehow that makes it feel more delicious. Some people think that, being Singaporean or Asian, we will miss Asian food, but I beg to differ. Back home, the nickname for me was ‘jiak kantang’ which means ‘eat potato’ which in turn means that I’m more Westernised than the average Singaporean. I know some other Singaporeans have packed Asian sauces but I didn’t bring any seasonings with me. My flatmate Sing Ai and I will jiak kantang all the way (or so we hope).

Very importantly for me, the Internet connection on the Fonty campus is much faster than the one in Singapore. I suspect it is because there is lower population density in this region than in Singapore, and/or the website we visit tend to be overseas and the servers are in or nearer to Europe than Asia. It is such a good feeling to click and have an entire web page loaded in a couple of seconds.

The facilities in the Fonty campus are fantastic too. The gym here is bigger and brighter and I have already paid my 85 Euro membership for 2 months, because I really have to exercise and work off the cholesterol that has surprisingly built up over the last couple of years since my last health screening. My diet hasn’t changed much and the only thing I’ve stopped doing is exercising regularly, so that has to resume soon. Also, the shower facilities here are nice and clean and towels are provided on weekdays, which is good enough for me.

Of course, administration-wise things are much slower. A classmate tried to collect a box that was shipped to him and was simply told to go into the store room and look for it himself. Stationery and other items are more expensive, but (naturally) the wine selection is vast and attractively priced. We are living off different types of jamon and fromage (ham and cheese) and have so many kinds of breads at home it is turning out to be a ‘pain’ [that’s a pun!].

Our landlord however warned us that utilities are costly here. 1 cubic metre of water costs 4.50 Euros! I think it’s more expensive than in Singapore - and we don’t even collect enough water on our own! Also, our landlord’s internet connection is slow and wonky.

So it looks like I will spend more time on the Fonty campus than in Singapore, even if I only have 2.5 credits of classes left to take.

After a mind-blowing trip to India, I unpacked and repacked within half a day and headed off to Fonty with my new housemate Sing Ai. I only had 2 hours of sleep on my way back from India, and fought back drowsiness throughout the day. I then tried to sleep on the plane to Paris, but found it difficult. I was however happy to learn that 3 other INSEAD gals O (Mongolian), K (Japanese) and E (American) were on board as well.

We arrived at Paris CDG and parted ways with the trio. Sing Ai and I looked for the Peugeot car leasing booth but found there was none at Terminal One. We called up to learn that a blue van was coming to take us to the Peugeot agent’s. However, after waiting for what felt like 15 minutes in 8 degree Celsius cold (wearing clothes meant for about 15-20 degrees) and being told by an Information counter person that we may be waiting on the wrong floor, we called up again. We were told the van was indeed on its way. Finally it arrived, but it had no “Peugeot” sign. I don’t even think it was a Peugeot van. Fortunately we figured it had to be the van, and we learn that other passengers were also going to pick up their Peugeots.

Once there, we queued up again while one man behind the counter bravely attempted to answer two ringing telephones and process our documents at the same time. My Singaporean-ness was already twitching, with thoughts like “So inefficient! Back home it would’ve been done in minutes! etc” but I controlled myself. Finally I got my keys and was told to wait around to be shown how to use my car. That’s nice, I thought. So wait we did. For another 10-15 minutes.

Finally, the brusque man who drove the van reappeared, took my keys and showed me how to open the diesel tank lid. Thereafter he handed the keys back to me. That was it?!

I tried to move the car but forgot how to change gear manually after not practising for 9-10 years (since I passed my driving test) on a manual car. Every time I stalled the car in the car park lot, a British woman tourist (who we met on the van) looked at me and laughed. I laughed back. After it happened twice, Sing Ai took over and we made our way to the petrol station. After paying what felt like a bomb for diesel (not even petrol!) we headed to Samoreau which is where we’re staying.

GPS failed us on a few occasions as suddenly the road pattern differed from what we saw in real life. We had to reboot the device a number of times. Also, at circuses we were told to turn at the ‘third exit’ but ended up at the wrong turning because the GPS system counted inconsequential small lanes (in between two major exits) as an exit as well, even if it simply led to a small car park where you had to turn back into the circus. After we figured out that we had different interpretations, we got better at it and finally made our way to Samoreau, an hour later than planned. Our landlords were waiting for us but fortunately were understanding of our situation.

We learnt that our landlords are a very nice French couple. They took great pains to make sure we knew how to use everything in the house. We had a tour of the large gardens around their properties and the wife took us to a grocery store that was still open on Sunday. The couple then invited us for ‘tea’ which turned out to be 3 bottles of liquor, and we also met the wife’s sister who just got back from a trek to Nepal. Sing Ai spoke of her Cambodia trip, and I spoke of my India trip so it was an interesting exchange of international experiences - quite fitting for INSEADers. We then went back to our little cottage to settle down. We made a simple ham sandwich lunch.

After unpacking in our rooms and pottering about the place, we visited another classmate WY who was living in town. We went home, I cooked spaghetti, showered and am now typing this. Very sleepy. My first class starts on Monday afternoon. Goodnight…