Leadership

A desire to be part of the most important conversations was a driving force for the launch of the new INSEAD Africa Initiative this year. With Prashant Yadav as Academic Director and Vinika Rao as Executive Director, the Africa Initiative aims to help develop and disseminate the best of business thought leadership, teaching and research on this vast and diverse continent of 54 countries. The Initiative has already helped run several talks and webinars and welcomed its first Visiting Professor, Lite Nartey, under its African Fellows Programme.

Of course, as the world geared up to COP26, the issue of sustainability was a central topic of discussion in 2021. We welcome the growing awareness of the need for businesses and business schools to get involved and INSEAD has continued to play a big part in that conversation this year through our research, actions and engagement with various global stakeholders.

Much of the work around championing and integrating the UN Sustainability Development Goals into all aspects of the school has been led by the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business & Society, which celebrated its third anniversary in 2021.

Through their efforts, there are now sustainability components in over a third of our core course content. Outreach and engagement are also essential, and this year saw the Institute launch their new Mission to Change podcast series and reach out to over 13,000 participants through 27 events, as well as developing numerous external partnerships.

Of course, our global alumni community remains our strongest and most important partner. Despite another year where the ability to hold physical gatherings was seriously restricted, we continued to maintain our close ties through a raft of highly engaging virtual alumni events, Lifelong Learning webinars, digital reunions and a hugely successful virtual Alumni Forum. Still, we relish the opportunity to come together and meet in person at the upcoming reunions planned for the summer and autumn of 2022.

Our global community’s unwavering support for and confidence in the INSEAD mission was once again underlined at our annual Giving Day in June. Despite the pandemic preventing in-person events on the day, for the second year in a row we still managed to raise a record-breaking €1.3 million from 2,514 donors – including many staff and faculty.

We also broke records for our overall academic year 2020/2021 targets, raising €25 million for the year thanks to contributions from over 5,000 individual donors. Such overwhelming levels of support have made a hugely positive impact on the school at a time of continuing uncertainty.

As this Annual Report shows, we have been incredibly buoyed by the way our community has come together to help one another and to support our mission to develop responsible leaders who can be a force for good in the world.

The pandemic has meant we have had to make difficult decisions, from adapting the way we operate, to developing new teaching methods and learning new ways of working together.

However, we also believe that these actions have placed us in an incredibly strong position in the future. Financially secure, increasingly agile and armed with a host of innovative new products and programmes, we are now well placed to grasp the opportunities that we believe will arise in the post-pandemic economy.

We do not quite know when this current crisis will abate, and the global political landscape today is, without doubt, cause for concern, but what is clear is that the dedication and commitment of the INSEAD community means we will emerge on the other side stronger and better prepared to face the future.

Thank you all for your continued support and dedication.