Emerging Europe

The Last Word: Vitality can tell you if an organisation has life enough to grow, but only reinvention can explain how that life is renewed. A company can look healthy while becoming less relevant. Revenue is coming in, margins are holding and the strategy

The city that abolished outdoor advertising is having second thoughts. Two decades on, the admen it banished have found their way back in. Walking around São Paulo for the first time, very little looks out of place. Certainly, there are few signs that the

Set the bar honestly and it can be cleared with ease. Create unrealistic expectations however, and prepare to see people left disappointed. Edith Piaf allegedly had a simple piece of advice for anyone wanting to become famous. "Use your faults, use your d

Türkiye might not want to join the EU at the moment, but it would certainly like a lot more out of its current relationship with Brussels. During the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, Boris Johnson, who would later become the UK's prime minister, made grea

Bulgaria's fourth-largest city will be a fabulous host of next year's 71st Eurovision Song Contest. The many naysayers need to get a grip. Be it boycotts over Israel's participation, smaller countries not being able to afford the hefty entry fee, rows ove

Post-Brexit, millions of young Europeans want an English-taught degree. Central and Eastern Europe's universities have an opportunity. In the often fierce but ultimately fatuous argument over just what university degrees are 'worthy' (usually restricted t

Building infrastructure is a game for giants. Keeping it running, especially the clean-energy grid, is where nimble start-ups now break in. As anyone who has driven over a pothole, struggled to get through airport security, seen trains delayed, or suffere

Nadya Zhexembayeva began discussing the need for Chief Reinvention Officers in 2015. A decade on, reinvention is more relevant than ever. Nadya Zhexembayeva was 14 when she took a job selling insurance in a country that had never had any. The Soviet Union

The Last Word: The hard test for companies is finding out whether or not they're willing to stop pretending while they still have a choice. This week, I read a post about why start-ups fail that stopped me on two lines: 'Long before the cash ran out, befo

The shrinking Danube looks like drought. But draining its wetlands and floodplains left the region far less able to weather what comes next. The exceptionally low water levels of the Danube have caused major disruption across the region, dominating headli