The INSEAD Turn

A couple of days back, we had a guest visitor at CEL - Prof. Patrick Turner, Director, International Center for Entrepreneurship, INSEAD, Singapore. First off, I am to take the blame to putting him through the 4-hour bone-breaking drive from Delhi to Pilani, which incidentally nowadays, is no more bone-breaking; and for our guest visitor - it was more of a scenic ride thorugh the lush fields of Haryana and later the barren lands of Rajasthan.

The most memorable times were when we used to sit around the dining table. I distinctly remember the topics that our discussions veered into. Starting from Singapore to France, Spanish to Russian, Concorde to DC-10, BITS to IIT, India-China to India-India. It was interesting to meet a man who has a bachelors degree in modern languages, who went on to work in a Jeans company, later started up on his own, and then went on to becoming a professor of entrepreneurship. Now, he gets paid to travel all over Asia, meeting people or as he puts it "[sniff-sniff] feeling" the pulse of the land.

Prof. Turner also went on to give a thoroughly entertaining talk on 'Developing Creative Thinking' which was well-received by the students here. More on the talk, coming up soon on the website.

Prof. Turner also shared with us a lot of insights on how courses are held in INSEAD. (If I were to take home one point - 'I ought to do an MBA - Just for the experience'). Coming soon (probably)

• More of Turner's visits to BITS
  
• A workshop to be handled by him next year
  
• Some joint case writing by BITS and INSEAD
  
• A International Conference jointly organized by CEL,BITS & INSEAD sometime next year