Young Indian entrepreneur wins Cartier Award

Before Tong Sarochinee Paweenawat decided to pursue a master's degree in business administration this year, she had extensive work experience at Schlumberger, both as an offshore engineer responsible for exploration projects in the North Sea and as a field service manager in her native Thailand.

But once she had entered the M.B.A. program at Insead, a leading international business school based in France, she volunteered for an altogether different challenge: In conjunction with the Cartier Women's Initiative Award, an international competition for women, she offered to coach an entrepreneur in the start-up phase of her business project.

And that experience changed her own career objectives.

"I wanted the experience of reading a business plan as an outsider," said Ms. Paweenawat, 29.