Fontainebleau, 2 February 2004

Dear All,

Another two weeks have passed and it is time for another update from Fontainebleau.

It feels like we just started, but we are already half way through the first period. The year is divided into 5 periods with approximately 5 courses per period, amounting to a total of 24 courses (and 24 exams!). The work-load is slightly front loaded, allowing people with time for job search at the end.

The third week started of really nice with the announcement that INSEAD had increased its ranking in the Financial Times (there are many rankings but this is the most recognized) from #6 to #4 MBA programme in the world and #1 in terms of value for money (most other MBA programmes are two-year programmes). Only Wharton, Harvard and Columbia are now considered to be better. So everybody was pretty excited.

One of the things INSEAD is known for is diversity. In my class, we are 300 students from around 70 countries, of which we are two Danes (although the other guy has spent most of his life in Australia). We are divided into 4 sections, so there are approximately 75 students for each lecture. The sections are then divided further into groups of 6. My group consist of 5 other guys (there are only 20% women) from India, Canada, Thailand, UK/Iran and Lebanon. In addition to cultural diversity, they try to ensure that nobody has the same mother tongue. Also they try to mix people with different background. In my group there are one engineer, one accountant, a software programmer, a banker, an economist with a background in marketing and myself.  

The idea is to train people to work in multidisciplinary teams in global organisations. Every other week we have to hand in a team assignment where we are graded as a team. I have been fairly lucky with my group. Some groups really have a hard time. But I guess that is the whole idea.

As promised in my first update, I attach a photo of my two housemates, Joe and Jerry in front of our house. If you are interested you can find more pictures on www.jonasholm.com (INSEAD). Here you can also find the first update in case you didn’t receive it. I intend to update this site on a regular basis with more pictures etc as the year develops.

The parties continue. Last week it was a British/Irish school party and this weekend it was bling bling party where people were supposed to dress up in ghetto style (you’ll find a picture on the site). There are so many organised parties that it almost is becoming a little trivial. Fortunately, there are also a large number of smaller private dinners (many of the larger houses host a dinner every other week). This is really the best way to get to know people. We hosted our first one Friday. Chinese week started today.

Although school is pretty tough, it is nice to know that normally everybody passes. I think the only way you can really fail is if you haven’t had fun and made a lot of new friends. (I may see things differently next period when the number of courses increases to 6!).      

Best wishes from Fontainebleau, where the rain finally seems to have come to an end, the sun is shining, and it is 14 degrees.

Jonas

PS: Just to reassure those of you back home, wondering why I’m writing to you in English, this is not because I have been hit by the Brigitte Nielsen Syndrome, but simply so that I only have two do one mail.

PPS: I still have problems receiving SMS’s from abroad. At least now I can send them. For those of you interested in telecom, I can inform you that Orange’s customer service (together with France Telecoms) is not very impressive. And you even have to pay when you call to complain! They totally dominate the market and still have that traditional monopoly attitude. We could sure use some more competition and a stronger regulator. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance after graduation.