Dean's Diary - INSEAD Business School for the World

Professor Dipak C. Jain, former dean of INSEAD tells us about his vision for the renowned business school.

Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director of QS, talked to ProfessorDipak Jain, former dean of INSEAD, the international business school, for an exclusive QS TopExecutive interview about the former dean’s vision at the business school for the world.

With campuses in Asia, Europe and UAE, how do you visualize INSEAD’s expansion plans in the near future? What primary developments do you wish to oversee during your tenure?

My vision is for one INSEAD, one philosophy: an integrated, global business school built on four pillars – geographically distinct campuses. Diversity is at the heart of INSEAD. We are in the business of attracting and shaping the best talent and the best faculty from around the world; encouraging their mobility; promoting and enhancing their knowledge. As a starting point, it is vital we attract the right people. Our full-time MBA and Global EMBA programs have always been among the most geographically diverse MBA programs in the world. In order to remain a truly unique business school, we need to continue to grow our presence in each corner of the globe. Our Singapore campus serves as a platform for the Asia Pacific region; Abu Dhabi for The Middle East and Africa; and Fontainebleau for Europe. We must now develop a new pillar in the Americas, serving not only North America but all of the Americas. We cannot be a “business school for the world” by ignoring a $15-trillion economy. We are still investigating the exact form in which this will take place, but given my prior experience in leading a world-class business school in the USA, I feel it is my calling to extend INSEAD’s role and impact within the Americas during my tenure.

How will you adapt your curricula to the rapidly changing business world?

INSEAD already has an exceptional and robust model - I do not see the need for fundamental change. It is a proven model, so the question is not how we can change it but rather what can we add to it. I do see the need to enhance our students’ understanding of the global risks and the opportunities represented by emerging economies. For too long business schools have focused their case studies on the developed Western economies, and the USA in particular. More recently, some business schools, have added cases from the BRIC economies, but there is a world of opportunity in emerging markets, which INSEAD is uniquely placed to understand. We need to move away from a West-centric educational model to a more holistic model. One of our main strengths is that INSEAD is the only business school to have a diverse pool of resident faculty in each of our campuses. For example, we have 55 resident faculty in Singapore and six in Abu Dhabi. They are well connected with local business and are at the forefront of business thinking in their regions. We aim for our faculty to be among the leading lights for business research in each region of the world.

How does INSEAD foster socially responsible leaders?

This is my personal passion. We all need to think about the world in a broader sense than profit and loss. I believe INSEAD’s purpose is to produce socially responsible leaders and everything we do and teach should be geared towards this. Our entrepreneurship faculty have a good track record for producing social enterprises. As the ‘Facebook generation’ arrives into business schools, social enterprise and social good are becoming a necessity rather than a choice. INSEAD will do much more to ensure the new generation feels inspired by the ethos of social responsibility.

This year marked the 10th anniversary of the INSEAD-Wharton alliance. There is also a longstanding partnership (since 2006) with Tsinghua in China. What are the benefits of these partnerships to your students and are you planning any new ones?

The priority is to build on the partnerships we have rather than seek out new ones. Our partners are very well integrated and so our students have a choice throughout the INSEAD experience. These partnerships also enable us to broaden our knowledge and research capabilities within their regions, as well as offering the opportunity to extend our non-degree joint programs in each country, which can be a significant source of expansion. This is already happening with our Executive Development Programs.

The Executive MBA is increasing in popularity. How does an EMBA equip someone for a fundamental career change?

We used to say an EMBA was for optimizing the slope of one’s career, whilst a full-time MBA was to change the intercept. Today, many people are using the Executive MBA to change the “intercept” and bring about a career change. This is partly driven by the dramatically reduced number of company-sponsored candidates (down from over three-quarters to less than a quarter of the number of participants over the last decade), but also due to the greater career mobility and flexibility required in today’s modern, global economy. An EMBA provides the skills and contacts to achieve career flexibility, either in the short term or whenever needed in the future. It is still a route to the boardroom, but it may be a different boardroom!

INSEAD has recently issued the results of its Global Innovation Index. How does INSEAD foster innovative thinking and transform managers into innovative leaders?

I believe innovation thrives in a diverse environment. INSEAD is the most diverse business school and it is the bringing together of such diverse talent, at the student and faculty levels, which drives our innovation. Every classroom at INSEAD is like a United Nations, enabling our students to gain insight and test their ideas against very bright people from many different cultures. INSEAD is doing this very well and we are propelling diversity of thought and driving innovation, not only philosophically, but by building it into the INSEAD experience. We encourage intellectual curiosity, because curiosity is also a driver of innovation. We select the brightest and most curious minds and then push them to pursue their passion. We don’t dictate faculty research, we let it thrive. We want to drive excellence by making our faculty feel that what they can achieve at INSEAD cannot be achieved elsewhere and by driving collaborative work, another pathway to innovation. The collaborative mindset is also fostered by faculty members transferring their innovative research to students. We also have our multi-campus model and our partnerships which facilitate innovative thinking and collaboration in a global context. No other business school employs so many great minds, from so many diverse backgrounds, so geographically dispersed. Our faculty members are able to make connections, gain insights and see trends which are simply not available to faculty at other business schools, rooted in one country and culture. My intention is to set up a worldclass centre for research with an accent on the business practices of emerging markets, further consolidating and establishing the unique INSEAD model.

What management education trends do you foresee in general and at INSEAD?

My belief is that the need for management education is going to grow around the world, in this century, in which human capital is the source of business advantage. The world will need more world-class management training facilities and growth in demand will come from people in sciences, engineering and social enterprise, seeking to extend their ideas into the business world. For INSEAD, our full-time MBA is probably at an optimal size in both Fontainebleau and Singapore and we do not plan to grow numbers. The growth will be geared towards our INSEAD Global Executive MBA in the near future in response to growing demand. I see the need to launch some specialist [Executive] masters courses for professionals, perhaps with technical backgrounds, who are seeking to focus in particular fields, and as mentioned earlier, I also see a lot of growth in non-degree executive programs, for executives around the world looking to quickly refresh or gain an edge in their management skill sets. Our four pillars (campuses) will enable people to conveniently fly in and out, to learn, exchange, collaborate and innovate. This is my vision for INSEAD as the ‘Business School for the world’.

INSEAD Business School for the World Professor Dipak C. Jain was named dean of INSEAD, the international business school with campuses in Fontainebleau (France), Singapore and Abu Dhabi, in September 2010, succeeding Dean J. Frank Brown. Prior to his INSEAD appointment, Dean Jain had an enduring and illustrious career spanning nearly three decades, both as an educator and as a business school administrator. He was dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management from 2001-2009, and was a member of the University’s faculty since 1986, specializing in entrepreneurship and marketing. In 2003, he was appointed as a foreign affairs adviser to the prime minister of Thailand. He has served as a consultant to Microsoft, Novartis, American Express, Sony, Nissan, Motorola, Eli Lilly, Phillips and Hyatt International. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of Deere & Company (USA), Northern Trust Corporation (USA) and Reliance Industries (India). He is a former director at United Airlines (USA), Peoples Energy (USA) and Hartmarx Corporation (USA).