We would like to build up a network of about 200 mentors (on and off campus) in various countries and covering varying experiences to help advise not just our students but also our entrepreneurial alumni.
This means broadening the INSEAD mentors network beyond our current Entrepreneurs in Residence who are present on campus at least one day per term and are providing priceless support to our entrepreneurial students.
If you would like to become a mentor please email us at entrepreneurship@insead.edu with your contact details, a bio, and a list of industries or types of ventures that you are happy to guide and assist and we will upload these details onto the new Entrepreneurship website currently being developed.
In the meantime, below is an article from one of our current Entrepreneurs in Residence about his experiences in this role over the last three years.
Entrepreneur in Residence - a gift to you!
When I began my job as an Entrepreneur in Residence, many people from INSEAD began to thank me for my willingness to be a mentor for the students planning to start up their own businesses after INSEAD.
But I looked at it in another way. First of all I wanted to give back to INSEAD what I gained from INSEAD during my MBA year in 1977/78. Secondly I hoped to get something back from meeting the entrepreneurial students.
After 3 years I must conclude, that I get much more back than I give. It is fascinating to sit down with people 30 years younger than me - but with partly the same background - the INSEAD MBA.
I understand from many of them, that they are extremely thankful to me for my advice, although I often feel that I am telling them rather obvious things. But sometimes it is important for everybody to have an external view of the situation. During the many months at campus, you are missing the lifeline to the real world outside. I am representing the real world, when I try to give - what I call - obvious advice.
But for me, the most challenging thing is all the ideas and the network I get from the EIR experience. With more than 70 different nationalities, I listen to business ideas from all other the world. And starting and running a business in China is very different from starting and running a new company in the U.S. - in some ways. In other ways it is exactly the same challenges you meet anywhere in the world.
So, when I like - or better love - my EIR job, it is merely because I get so much back from meeting the students.
You should try it!
Peer KOLENDORF (’78J)
