Resources to Address the Challenges of Our Times

If ever there was a time when flexible funding made a difference, it was 2020/2021. A record 2,494 donors stepped up during the year with unrestricted gifts that enabled the Dean to address the priorities of the moment while ensuring INSEAD’s resilience and agility going forward.

Scholarships When It Mattered Most

Scholarships became especially critical in INSEAD’s mission to cultivate future business leaders as more MBA candidates than ever faced significant financial hurdles. Sixty percent of gifts from the Dean’s Fund supported scholarships, while the number of applicants for student support increased to 79%. Among the 2021 classes, 31% of students received a scholarship.

INSEAD anticipates that the need for scholarships will increase in the year ahead as students continue to experience difficulties in financing their MBAs. Gifts to the Dean’s Fund will enable INSEAD to attract and support promising next-generation leaders who, in solidarity with our global community, will bring INSEAD skills and values to business and society. Your support ensures that INSEAD remains home to a wide range of talents, perspectives and aspirations — people who share our commitment to becoming a force for good.

Faculty Research with Real-World Impact

INSEAD faculty members have continued to produce and disseminate influential research, even during a global pandemic. The world is paying attention: In March 2021, INSEAD rose 15 places to #3 overall in Financial Times research rankings, a tribute to the quality, depth and volume of our research output.

Research made possible by your gifts to the Dean’s Fund reflects the agile and entrepreneurial spirit of INSEAD professors in responding to Covid-19. Mark Mortensen, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, is just one example. To shed light on workplace challenges intensified or illuminated by the pandemic, Mortensen used Dean’s Fund support to create a database on work approaches that blend office and home. He then analysed the conditions necessary for successful hybrid solutions, and found that a sense of psychological safety is essential for employees seeking to balance their personal and professional lives. Managers, he found, must cultivate an environment that encourages employees to share openly how their personal situations impact work schedules.

In a second study, Mortensen partnered with Henrik Bresman, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD and Deborah Ancona, Seley Distinguished Professor of Management, Professor of Organisation Studies, and founder of the MIT Leadership Center at the MIT Sloan School of Management. The trio explored how the pandemic has accelerated and redirected existing business trends, from multiple-team membership to machine-human interaction, often with revolutionary impacts, calling for new ways to study teams in the future.

Findings from these studies, shared in business journals and other forums, are just a sample of how INSEAD professors are supporting enterprises around the world as they strive for a new, post-pandemic “normal.” This important work, like the trajectories of promising students who would not be able to attend INSEAD without scholarships, is possible because you chose to support the Dean’s Fund.