Every year at this time, Poets&Quants asks deans from the top business schools around the world to share their thoughts on the changing calendar, and what they expect the next 12 months to bring — in business education, in higher education overall, and in the world writ large. This year’s answers are just as insightful as always: a window into what students and other stakeholders in business education can expect in 2025.
INSEAD: Embracing Global and Regional Relevance
Francisco Veloso, dean of INSEAD: “Our commitment to innovate will create opportunities to further strengthen our regional contributions”
As we enter 2025, it is a moment to reflect on INSEAD’s impact on business and society and set our sights on a shared resolution: to continue advancing business education’s global and regional relevance.
In today’s rapidly evolving world, staying at the forefront of business education requires agility, innovation, and a strong commitment to excellence.
This past year, we have seen tremendous acknowledgment of INSEAD’s global impact. INSEAD has been consistently recognized for the quality and influence of our programs, the excellence of our faculty and the rigor and relevance of our research. Our success in The Case Centre awards – where we became the first school to surpass 101 awards – and The Financial Times rankings – where we were named the top European Business School – are just two examples of such recognition.
At the same time, INSEAD demonstrated how we are at the forefront of innovation and transforming the learning experience with the launch of our Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) Flex program. By offering a flexible, hybrid learning model, we empower senior executives to advance their learning in a way that fits into their professional and personal life. We also reaffirm our commitments to being “The Business School for the World” and to a sustainable future, facilitating the access of executives from all over the world to our program – further increasing participant diversity, while limiting their carbon footprint. And this coming year will bring further innovation through new AI driven approaches and solutions.
But while INSEAD continues to lead and innovate globally, our engagement with key regions around the world is equally vital. In a world that is becoming more polarized, our ability to create synergy between global perspectives and regional focus allows us to rapidly learn about specific market dynamics, engage diverse communities, and make meaningful contributions at to multiple regions. With a presence in France, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S., INSEAD is uniquely positioned to connect global expertise with regional priorities. In 2025 we celebrate 25 years of our Asia Campus and 5 years of the San Francisco Hub. Our regional campuses allow our faculty to be close to business across the world and to embed relevant regional perspectives into our research and teaching at a global level, as it supports our student engagement and employment. Our leading placement of MBA’s in Asia the Middle East is remarkable, and can further strengthen the impact of the INSEAD community in these evermore dynamic regions.
INSEAD has established itself as an important community player in all our locations and we will build on these solid foundations and further strengthen our role in local ecosystems, through our connections with our alumni, partner schools, businesses and governments, and the development of communities of practice and research. And our commitment to innovate will create opportunities to further strengthen our regional contributions. San Francisco, the hotbed of AI is a leading example of such opportunity. As we embark upon 2025 INSEAD will continue paving the way for positive impact in the world through business exchange, through commerce and through leadership, across the globe.
—Francisco Veloso, Dean of INSEAD
