James Edsberg started his MBA programme at Insead, in Fontainebleau, France in 2001, in the hope of moving away from his career in commercial law into a more business-oriented role. But things did not quite go to according to plan and he graduated into the worst market for MBA graduates in the past decade.

“Career-changing opportunities are tough to come by in the best of times – we graduated into a market that was just recovering from the dotcom, so it was safety first for most people,” Mr Edsberg explains. Some of his fellow MBAs were forced to return to their former jobs, often out of economic necessity, with loans taken out to cover tuition costs being a heavy burden.

Mr Edsberg took a slightly riskier approach, co-founding the London-based consultancy, Lighthouse Global, where he still works today as a partner. “My entrepreneurial spirit was lit during the programme and I decided to give it a go while the fire was still in me,” he enthuses.