“For women in particular, change is absolutely constant and a natural part of the cycle of life.”
Ouiza Bechar
Head of Digital Distribution & Customer Experience at Allianz Insurance, Singapore
Executive MBA 2014
Algerian
On identity as a barrier
When I was young, I was convinced that your identity and your origin were one and the same thing. A person’s origin would dictate who you would become in the future.
Over time I realised this doesn't have to be the case, and overcoming my original notions of identity was really the key element for me.
Identity is built over time through the people that you meet, through the circumstances of life, and the opportunities that you will have. At the end, you are probably a very different person compared to where you originally came from.
People are complex, they obviously come from somewhere and along their journey in life they meet people, they read and see things that will have a deep impact on how they think, how they see things.
On women and change
As a young woman, I was extremely tempted by this ultra-simplistic way of looking at things; but I quickly discovered that change, especially in people, is inevitable.
For women in particular, change is absolutely constant and a natural part of the cycle of life. You adapt as you grow professionally and personally to satisfy your need for experiences and to reach a certain level of happiness.
On the meaning of Limitless
Limitless to me means that you need to be fearless about acknowledging that you don't know a number of things, but also that you are fearless in the process of learning them. It also means that you need to be fearless about failure and change.
Why INSEAD?
I got admitted in 2013 to start my Executive MBA. I remember the time on the programme as absolutely fantastic, for a multitude of reasons.
For one it was a dream of mine to be admitted. It was a recognition of the fact that I had achievements I could be proud of. I went from “Oh, if I manage to get through..” to “Oh I’m not that bad actually”.
Another was really around the fact that getting there allowed me to be exposed to multiple and very different topics, some of which were completely new to me - from strategy to statistics, macroeconomics to microeconomics – but they all helped me to get a little more curious about new ways of doing things.
I think the variety of topics was why I enjoyed the programme so much.
A third reason was obviously the diversity of students which formed the EMBA cohort. Everyone came from different backgrounds, nationalities, origins and evolving identities. Meeting so many different people helped me to confirm that people have different points of views and that one element or event can be seen from so many different perspectives, that there is no right or wrong answer.
