DomoDomo@INSEAD

Aussie Kiwi Week 2006

This is at last the first National Week. The tradition is about as old as the School, and serves, according to me, many purposes.

The obvious one is to introduce cultural diversity and have people know more about one's culture (how they do business, eat, have fun).
Another obvious objective is to party. INSEADers are serious fun-loving people!
The main interest though, to my mind, is networking with co-nationals. As P4s pass the baton to us, as we spend a great deal of effort and time in realisations, we get to know all students from our countries or regions. And since the probability to end up working in one's own region, at some point, is high, you increase your network by adding another "team circle" to your already numerous ones. I've already mentioned, in a previous post, the importance of networking in clubs, sections, groups, houses, house dinners. This is just another opportunity.

National weeks are organised around a given format: films, free breakfast, lunch or dinner, conference, fun, and the big closing party. Ever popular are the memorabilia t-shirt, the amphistorming (ie. when organisers get to introduce the week after class), and the party.

On other fronts, work is soooo tough now. Exams are in 10 days, everybody is cramming, attendance in tutorials reach world-record levels. Prices and Markets Wharton letdown has been uncovered: students over there did not participate in time, for reasons ranging from lack of time to unmotivated because ungraded. To all of you: we have just as little time, and over here too it is ungraded! The learnings from the game are pretty interesting though, it's all about cooperating in a business world, and sending signals.

Cheers.

Labels: National Weeks, P1 Courses

posted by DomoDomo@INSEAD @ 9:23 PM