After a number of years experience in the corporate world, all of us feel the need to learn new skill sets which make us ready for the next leap or get us ready for the new challenges we are going to face in the... In our jobs or entrepreneurial endeavors. And while looking at opportunities of learning, ILPSE actually ranked really high as compared to other alternatives. Primarily because this is INSEAD's course, which is actually tailored for Indians. And though it's globally relevant. And I firmly believe that this is one of the few courses which offers you both.

How do you manage your work if you are based in a country like India, and still be globally relevant and still be working across geographies? As a lot of us do at this time. And the second reason which drew me towards ILPSE was the INSEAD brand name. It clearly is the number one B school in the world so... And as managers we all want to be number one, as leaders, we all want to be number one. So, it obviously made a... The best decision was to go with the number one school, which offers you those values.

I think impact... So, we've... I would say it's a journey. We have... We've had a lot of interactive classroom modules. A lot of learning actually happens once we go back from the classroom to our work. It happens both at professional and personal levels. For me personally, the INSEAD Leadership Programme  has helped me understand my key strengths, which are sometimes not that obvious. A lot of us in our work, day to day work, tend to overlook these aspects and digress at times doing things which are not that productive. INSEAD ILPSE gives you a direction, gives you a sense of purpose of what you're doing as an individual. And then it's up to the individual how you take it forward and continue learning. Even post the modules, even post the year into your everyday work and personal front.

This is the sixth year the course has been running and no doubt because once a course is on for six years, things are going right. The faculty who are teaching in this cohort and this modules, have taught five to six previous batches and have evolved their teaching modules for the Indian executives as well. So, I would say the faculty is fantastic.

I think each one brings in a depth of expertise, both relevant for Indians, for a global environment. And in terms of the... In terms of my fellow peers who are with me in this batch, I think it's a great selection of people. I'm sure from the application pool, the selection has been a purposeful one. It brings a diverse range of industries, which we don't get exposed to on a day to day work, when we work in a specialized domain. Here in the classroom, we have a mix of people from... Starting from manufacturing, to consulting, to technology, to medical sciences, to media. And it's a great experience to learn how businesses and those functions also work.

The professional transition, I would... I have seen in myself, has been a lot on basic things which we have to start valuing now is time management, negotiations, strategy formulations, looking at blue ocean strategies, is what INSEAD teaches you very well. And I'm able to take that in my work on a day to day basis. Not only implement that for myself, but also share that with my team, so that they can also start using some of the new strategies and the new policies in their day to day work.

So, my advice to future participants who are looking at joining ILPSE, would be to look at this as a foundation to a journey, to a leadership journey, which they will entail post the course and the learnings would be lifelong. And if that's the sort of impact people are looking at, this is the right course to be in and it gets you ready for a global landscape.
Rahul Mishra