Outside of
classes, group work, and recruiting, there are actually many opportunities to get involved and contribute to various causes here at INSEAD. For example, on a random Sunday at 8:30am, about 30 of us were on campus mingling over coffee and delicious pastries and learning more about the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, before moving on to screening business plans competing for several $20k awards to fund women entrepreneurs.
In this international business plan competition, Cartier partners with INSEAD to help identify bright ideas by women entrepreneurs. As INSEAD students, we had the opportunity to play an important role in screening hundreds of applications and selecting top candidates, whose applications were then moved to the official jury review later in the year.
The applications were grouped based on geographic regions, and each of us focused on a given region. Here in Singapore, we focused on three regions while students in Fontainebleau focused on the rest. We reviewed hundreds of proposals and learned so much about very impressive initiatives in different parts of the world. It was great to not only read and evaluate the proposals on creativity, sustainability, and impact creation, but also to discuss the overall quality of various proposals in a group.
By the end of the day, we had each evaluated multiple business plans, and the best part was sharing with the whole group the business plans that we had selected within each region. It was fascinating to learn about various innovative ideas that cater directly to local communities. This was also a great opportunity for me personally to learn about these regions and based on entrepreneurs’ ideas, better understand the current needs of these communities.
It felt great to know that one of the business plans that I reviewed in a group and recommended that day will be awarded the $20k of funding for that region, along with professional coaching and networking opportunities.