2. Echoes of Islamic Finance in Piketty, Porter, and Lagarde

    For most people when hearing about Islamic finance for the first time, the new term usually begs the question, “What’s different about Islamic finance compared to regular finance?” I get asked this question quite often, and it’s difficult to know where to begin and how deeply to delve into the details. During our second week of P3 in Abu Dhabi, we had a guest lecturer from the Department of Economic Development for the Government of Dubai, Harun Kapetanovic, deliver a talk that I hoped would help me answer the question more succinctly.

  3. INSEAD: First Impressions of Fontainebleau

    When describing life at INSEAD, students and alumni often talk about the world-class courses and professors, the enriching extra-curricular activities, and the outstanding career services. After an exciting kick-off to the program these first two weeks with a variety of team-building, orientation, and preparatory activities, I thought it would be worthwhile to share some first impressions which I plan to reflect on at the end of the year.

  4. Start-up Bootcamp: Is It For You?

    One of the first emails I received upon arriving on campus was for a weekend-long ‘start-up boot camp’. 7pm Friday night to 7pm Sunday night with strict instructions that there would be no free time for anything else over the 48 hours, but that you would walk away with the tools to equip you to begin the start-up journey as either an entrepreneur or an angel investor.

  5. The INSEAD MBA Experience Arrives in Abu Dhabi!

    After 10 days of travelling through the relative wilderness of East Africa, my Etihad flight made a smooth landing at Abu Dhabi’s International Airport. My journey to a brand new continent had just ended, but another, entirely different adventure was about to begin. Aside from the sprawling lights from buildings and cars, I was greeted by a vast number of tower cranes erecting the new terminal expansion of the Abu Dhabi Airport - probably three times the number used to construct the new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis.

  6. The INSEAD Menu

    Ah INSEAD…. So unique that it’s hard to describe it to other people sometimes. The diversity, the pace, the combination of hard work and social life… but what makes INSEAD stand apart (and be the BEST MBA IN THE WORLD) is its short length mixed with the incredible number of options it offers to students. The hard part: choosing what to do. Finding out what we really want. And make decisions. Just like when we go to a restaurant with a long menu…

  7. The Day We Became #1

    I reach INSEAD's Singapore campus late for a gym class and for the start of another crazy packed week of school. There are balloons in the hallway, in different shades of green. I have no idea what is going on, but I love this school, never a dull moment. At the gym I overhear a conversation that the Financial Times has ranked INSEAD as the #1 MBA programme in the world.

  8. Zero Taxes vs Social Impact - A Letter to Pauline

    Below is Pauline's latest email:   “Raconte.” One word that calls for many. Pauline is French and she lives in Paris. She is a friend of mine, and a former colleague. We used to work for the same newspaper, she as a journalist and I as an art director. Her one-word e-mail means roughly: "Tell me how it goes". When I first read it, my reaction was panic: Time has been so scarce since the MBA has started! I was about to write back: "all great — will tell you all next year — love— C."

  9. Reboot in Realworld Mode

    I am a month removed from the joyous graduation of the 15D promotion, which has given some time for the euphoria to dissipate and objective reflection to be undertaken. I will attempt to avoid the stereotypical words and phrases that accompany the end of an MBA program, “path” and “journey” come to mind but I’ll apologise in advance for any such transgressions. With this being my last entry I‘d like to summarise the year and share my thoughts for post INSEAD life.