INSEAD的企业家精神

1959年9月12日，57名男子走进枫丹白露宫(Château de Fontainebleau)——这里曾是法国国王的乡间府邸——开始了一项将从根本上改变商学院运作方式的课程。他们就是欧洲工商管理学院(Insead) MBA课程的首批学员。

尽管Insead并非欧洲第一家商学院——此项荣誉属于成立于1819年的巴黎高等商业学院欧洲(ESCP Europe)——但成立于50年前这个时候的Insead，却彻底变革了管理学教育。

尤其值得一提的是，Insead创立了一年制MBA课程，并确立了这种课程的地位；引入了全球管理的理念，并用事实证明，独立的私立商学院可以在欧洲大学体系之外运作。

从几十年后来看，为期不到一年、课时和成本均为传统美国学位一半的MBA课程，似乎是一项颇具灵感的创新。但该校创始人之一克劳德．詹森(Claude Janssen)表示，当时作出这个决定，既是出于必要，也有刻意为之的因素。他坦言，“我们觉得一年制MBA课程会更吸引人……但我们也确实没有太多教师。”

还有一点或许更富创意，该校的五名创始人——都是法国年轻人，当时刚从哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)毕业不久——从一开始就决定，必须办一所国际化的学校。他们筹划办学之际，距离第二次世界大战结束仅10年多一点的时间，欧盟(European Union)也才刚刚诞生——《罗马条约》(Treaty of Rome) 是1957年签署的——因此他们把Insead视为欧洲复原进程的一部分。

On September 12 1959, 57 men walked into the Château de Fontainebleau, the former country house of French kings, to begin a programme that would change fundamentally the way business schools operate. They were the first cohort of the Insead MBA.

Although Insead was not the first European business school – ESCP Europe in Paris, founded in 1819, holds that accolade – Insead's establishment 50 years ago this week revolutionised management education.

In particular, Insead created and legitimised the one-year MBA programme, introduced the concept of global management and proved that a private, independent business school could operate outside the university system in Europe.

With decades of hindsight, the creation of an MBA programme that was less than a year in duration – half the length and cost of the traditional US degree – looks inspired. But, says Claude Janssen, one of the founders of the school, the decision was determined as much by necessity as by design. “We thought a one-year MBA programme would be more appealing . . . But we also didn't have many faculty,” he concedes.

Perhaps even more innovative was that the five founders of the school, all fresh-faced Frenchmen and recent graduates from Harvard Business School, decided that from the outset the school had to be international. Planning their venture little more than a decade after the end of the second world war and at the birth of the European Union – the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957 – they saw the school as part of the healing process for Europe.