“The Advanced Management Programme takes you out of the workplace and gives you the chance to really stop, put away your phone, turn off emails and work on yourself as a leader and as a person. It can be exhausting – from yoga at six am to drinks with your peers in the bar till midnight! But it is worth it, and it is so important to go all in and give it your everything. Because that is when you emerge as a far better version of yourself, with the ability to make meaningful change.”
Paul Bloemendal is CEO and founding partner of a number of consultancies spanning Europe, Singapore and South Africa, focusing on trading and risk management advisory services. It’s a career that as he puts it, has something new going on every day.
Prior to entrepreneurship, Paul was involved in commodity trading within very large corporations, managing global teams and navigating a great deal of complex businesses and industries. Bitten by the startup bug after fifteen years working in Singapore and India, he was keen to do something different. This would mean a shift from managing large groups of people to essentially managing himself. And the place to make this transition was INSEAD, he says.
“INSEAD felt like the place. Talking to the onboarding teams there, it soon became clear that, given the depth and breadth of my experience, the Advanced Management Programme was the best decision.”
A lifechanging learning journey
The experience was also transformative. Coming to INSEAD from a background in fast-moving commodity trading with high stake decision-making and constant pressure to act and react, Paul found he was being challenged to pause and think deeply about strategic change.
“Doing the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD changed me, helping me to become a more balanced and reflective person. I really had to think about the impact that decisions have, not just now, but in the future. And I have made a shift from saying ‘yes’ to everything instantaneously, to taking a moment to pause, and decide when to say ‘no’.”
Participating in this programme eased the transition from managing groups of other people to managing himself, he says. And specifically, to managing his time more efficiently. Where previously he would agree to propositions quickly and ’figure it out later,’ he has now learned when and how to push back. And this is important in managing his startups, he says.
“My entrepreneurial journey started full on. I manage and operate startups of my own, and I am investing in some pre-seed ventures. Before you know it, you are suddenly switched on 24/7, fielding ideas and answering questions. Gaining this understanding and this ability to hit the stop button has been critical in helping me to manage my time more effectively.”
Learning to reflect and delegate
Paul has also honed his ability to delegate—and to make the space and time for others to experience the necessary failures that form part of the learning curve in entrepreneurship. Learning to step back and empower others to make and execute their own decisions turns out to be key in creating a shared sense of ownership and responsibility, he says.
“The programme has taught me this – and helped to carve out expectations around performance in the teams I work with. It has helped me set the tone and set high targets for talented people, while also knowing how and when to stop being ‘the boss’ and let them do the work.”
The Advanced Management Programme is a “life-changing event”, says Paul. The programme touches people in different ways, both personally and in terms of their leadership or ’corporate’ thinking. It also brings different people together in powerful ways. Coming out of the programme, he remains strongly and actively connected to his peers, some of whom have become friends that he sees when travelling. This ability to still connect and share ideas with colleagues from a diversity of backgrounds is proving vital to keeping his own perspective broad, he says.
“When you move, work and connect with people within one industry, it can become something of a funnel. Doing the Advanced Management Programme has exposed me to people from different sectors, organisations and phases of life—some of my peers are quite a lot older than me. Having these bonds and ties has also broadened my business network considerably.”
Going all in
Paul is purposeful about revisiting the key learnings of the programme. He makes time to reread a letter that he and his cohort were asked to write to themselves at the start of the programme, and this reminds him to slow down when he needs to.
“The Advanced Management Programme takes you out of the workplace and gives you the chance to really stop, put away your phone, turn off emails and work on yourself as a leader and as a person. It can be exhausting – from yoga at six am to drinks with your peers in the bar till midnight! But it is worth it, and it is so important to go all in and give it your everything. Because that is when you emerge as a far better version of yourself, with the ability to make meaningful change.”
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