Moving between three campuses in Singapore, France and Abu Dhabi, 74 students of 34 ethnic backgrounds spent a week at Insead Abu Dhabi to acquire a global view of leadership and improve their entrepreneurial skills.
Professor Philip Anderson delivered a lecture on the entrepreneurial rollercoaster of financing a new venture. He discussed how different financiers approach and evaluate opportunities to determine the potential returns relative to their investment strategy.
Businesses aiming to expand beyond their domestic markets must understand the people and culture of their workforce and customers he said.
Insead programmes meet Abu Dhabi Education Council's (Adec's) mission to create world class students with a strong sense of culture and heritage to meet global challenges, said Javier Gimeno, Dean of EMBA.
"The diversity of students and faculty at Insead, combined with education at multiple campuses, allow students of the Global Executive Master Business Administration (GEMBA) programme to leverage the knowledge of professors and business leaders with varied backgrounds and management styles."
Participants in the Insead GEMBA are mainly professionals. They spend 12 weeks of study on the three Insead campuses over 15 months. In between campus sessions, they return to their work for four to five weeks, where they hope to practice their new skills.
"Acceptance into the programme isn't based solely on academic merits. Personalities and ability to contribute to the group's education plays a big role," the EMBA Dean added.
"My visit to Abu Dhabi is a good way to get insight into the UAE market and discover its commercial and industrial developments," said Olivier Bajard, head of customer service at a French technology company and a student at Insead.
Vaneshree Naidoo, a South African engineer, said: "Prior to my visit to the UAE, my only knowledge about the culture was book-based."
Social interaction is considered an important part of the programme. "We work in groups of multiple backgrounds, sharing and comparing experiences, including how to balance family and work obligations," Olivier added.
"Learning from each other, is a key element of Insead approach to education," Mazen Al Moulki, a Syrian IT consultant said. "This is more than an academic MBA,..." said Rotimi Akinde, a student from Nigeria.
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