Week #5 of INSEAD

Time flies! 2 weeks ‘till the exams! A quick summary of week #5:

We started playing the Amphi games. These games take place in class during lessons. The game this week involved squeezing in top-100 movies in class questions and explanations. If you are successful in placing a movie title without the teacher noticing, the person next to you must donate a bottle of wine or a 6-pack to the end-of-period party. If you get caught, you buy the beer or wine. I managed to squeeze in two without getting caught: “Die another day” and “Home alone”. My neighbour tried to pass the penalties on by placing movies herself. She got caught in economics class saying “With this Matrix Reloaded, …” The teacher figured out what was going on and responded “Something is going on here, my radar is tingling.” There were several other interesting successful and unsuccessful attempts. One of the important rules is that you attempts must be within the context of the class, so we don’t waste time and get sidetracked. (By the way, I calculated that we pay 80 Euros per hour for our classes, and that collectively, we waste around 150 Euros per wasted minute.

On Monday, we had the first meeting to organize the Winter Ball, a big black-tie party held at the Fullerton Hotel in November. Being the external relations rep of our class, I have to find around $35,000 in sponsorship to cover some of the costs for the party. No expense will be spared. We are doubling the budget from last year. Later that day, I also had an entrepreneurship club meeting to discuss potential business ideas.

On Tuesday, I handed in my inbox exercise in the “Leading People and Organisation” class. We had a 2-hour role play as a VP of marketing, answering 37 memos/letters and make important decision. Some of them had sensitive ethical issues, and it was extremely interesting to see the opinions from different people in the world. For example, when it comes to bribes, many people agree that they are ok if you operate in developing countries. This discussion would be extremely different in an American school.

On Wednesday night, I first attended a company presentation from LEK Consulting. We then had our Canadian hockey pool draft. There are 6 Canadians participating, and I realized that my hockey knowledge is far outdated. My team is composed of veterans/senior citizens. It was great fun, however, and I will be following my results closely as the season progresses.

After the draft, we went out for Tapan’s birthday. We already had a few beers at that time, and once we were in the taxi, Chad forgot that the driver sits on the right side of the car and thought I was sitting there. He slapped the driver on the shoulder pretty hard thinking it was me, and the driver was quite surprised! We laughed all the way to Attica. We then ended up in a place called Double O. Wednesday nights are ladies night, and they get to drink for FREE. All night. So a friend’s spouse kept pouring her glass in mine, and it was a very cheap night out for me. I ended up eating duck soup at 4am at the local hawker center.

We had Friday afternoon off, so 15 of us went wakeboarding again. We hired 3 boats and had a great time. I had a slow Friday night, preparing for a weekend in Kuala Lumpur.