Career development

Turning Barriers into Opportunities: How Purpose Activates Your Personal Board of Directors

Every professional needs a true understanding of their purpose and a Personal Board of Directors (PBoD), especially when the career landscape is constantly shifting beneath our feet.

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Maka Chanishvili

It is not simply about learning new concepts. The programme transforms how you think about subjects you may have believed you already understood.

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Hannes Santana

I still value instinct and vision, but now I pressure-test ideas much more rigorously through a financial lens. That balance has made me more confident in the decisions I make.

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Tijs de Boer

Everything is very focused on application. There are many real-world examples and case studies, which makes it easy to connect what we are learning back to practice.

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Julian Gropp

What I've learnt applies not only to traditional businesses, but also to newer asset classes and innovation-driven contexts like crypto and AI, which is where much of my work sits.

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From Aspiration to Market Reality: Turning Ambition into Market Fit

By Rhoda Yap, Executive Director, INSEAD Career Development Centre | 2 February 2026Career transitions are often framed as personal journeys—stories of ambition, reinvention and courage. These narratives are compelling and often inspiring, but they rarely tell the whole story. In practice, many stalled or frustrating career transitions do not progress as expected; not because individuals lack talent, motivation, or clarity of purpose, but because effort is often concentrated on the self without a sufficiently structured way of engaging with market realities. 