Technology increases productivity. But it also brings about other consequences: it creates, removes and modifies the tasks that are supposed to be performed. This in turn affects the demand for workers with new skills.   This is why equipping all young people with the skills to adapt and reinvent themselves is one of the three policy recommendations, alongside promoting technology adoption and adapting technology to meet society’s needs, included in the recent report The Future of Work:...

“I was working in a corporate environment, in a hotel, in the marketing department, and we were seeking professional travellers and family travellers [who could help us] promote our hotel,” Havva Safarova tells Andrew Wrobel.  “Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to find any travelling families who have a blog. One night my husband said to me: ‘You travel, we have kids, and you are a marketer so you can do it best’.”  Now, Havva is an internet personality and a content creator with thousands...

“My mother was my first mentor. I remember her advice when I was a child. Back then, we had grades from one to five. Five was the best mark, four was okay and three was not very good. And one day, I came back and said ‘Mum, I got a four, and that’s really good because the rest of the class got threes.’ And my mother said to me, ‘Darling, you had better look at those who are ahead of you, not those who are behind,” Viktoria Konstantinova, Head of EMEA Talent Marketing at GlobalLogic, tells...

“Our [solution] is an innovative platform for riders of any level to book and fully explore our tour features with the assistance of digital video routes. When you go to our website, you can see all horseback tours around Georgia. The platform's objective is to develop a niche market for equestrian tourism in the region,” Ana Nadiradze, co-founder of Horsetours, tells Andrew Wrobel.  “Ana has created a really interesting business and she can show how to combine ecommerce and equestrian...

“I am a person that loves experimenting and learning by doing. So, it was just this passion that I have for doing something that makes the world better, but by learning from others, by connecting with other cultures, and learning from those who have already done more,” Agnieszka Hryniewicz-Bieniek, Global Director of Google for Startups, tells Andrew Wrobel.  She has created a series of workshops called ‘I Am Remarkable.’  “We just wanted to support women to be more confident and to...

Do we need to say that technology is changing every aspect of human life? No, we don’t—and healthcare and life sciences are no exception. Leading pharmaceutical companies explore data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up the development and production of new and more effective medicines. Healthcare professionals use virtual reality to improve their skills. Patients use virtual tools to access medical services.   Both groups consume far more content than ever before. High...

“I started [the business] on my second maternity leave 10 years ago. Before that, I was engaged in large corporations in high positions in marketing and public relations. [...] I used the pause to rethink my purpose in business and I started testing healthy oatmeal cookies, which was really strange back then,” Milica Ličina Čalija, the founder of Anđeli (Serbian for Angels) tells Andrew Wrobel.  “Now, we do have some kind of awareness of the importance of healthy eating. Back then, online...

Technology has significantly expanded access to education. We saw that firsthand during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has also begun to change the roles of teachers and learners. The teacher’s role is changing as students take more responsibility for their own learning using technology to gather relevant information.   But the impact of technology is even more profound than that. Advances in technology have led to the automation of many tasks, which has led to the creation of new job roles that...

Climate change affects all regions around the world, and the number of risks generated by changing weather conditions and disasters are increasing. Knowledge about potential risks is essential for their reduction, transfer, and adaptation.  Climatig is a Croatian climate fintech start-up that helps banks, insurers, facility managers, and real estate decision-makers mitigate climate risks such as drought, floods, extremely high temperatures, and more through the power of climate...

“Moldova is no longer just a consumer of technologies. We are now a nation that exports and generates technologies,” the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Digitalisation, Dumitru Alaiba, wrote on Linkedin in August. He shared the example of Informbusiness, a domestic company that has just launched the production of dynamically-charged electric buses.  “We have a booming IT industry. Year-on-year growth is 45 per cent, and 95 per cent of the IT services...

It’s no secret that most start-ups don’t succeed. In fact, more than two-thirds never deliver a positive return to investors. According to a recent Skynova study, 47 per cent of start-up failures in 2022 were due to a lack of financing, nearly double the percentage that failed for the same reason in 2021. Running out of cash was behind 44 per cent of failures, while 33 per cent of start-up failures were attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic’s wide-ranging effects on business and the broader...

“Before I started my internship at Visa, I [ran] a small eco-hotel in the mountains of Ukraine. It was a travel co-working space. It was after the first invasion in 2014. A lot of travel agencies were closed and travel managers needed to work somewhere so I decided to open a space where everybody could help each other and develop the travel industry,” Nataliia Ievtushenko, first an intern and now a full-time employee at Visa tells Andrew Wrobel in the eighth episode of Emerging Europe Talks...

“I changed companies for the first three roles that I had and then I came to Microsoft,” Michelle Simmons, General Manager Central Europe at Microsoft, tells Andrew Wrobel in the seventh episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa.  “And what I found was that I've been able to take on new challenges and really work for many different companies inside Microsoft by changing functions, changing geographies and expanding my scope of responsibility. And so that's how I've ended...

“There's been a lot of positive discussion and some positive progress when it comes to gender equality around the world, […] but I think clearly there's much more to be done to truly ensure the level of equality that we all aspire to and I think men have to play a vital role in that,” said Dan Baxter, Vice President, Corporate Communications for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa, in conversation with Emerging Europe’s Andrew Wrobel.  This is why halfway through the...

"When we started in 2018, […] it was really to try something new in the region and in our country [of Czechia],” Silke Horáková tells Andrew Wrobel in the fifth episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa.  “It was about convincing investors that impact investing is something valid and has a future. That it's worthwhile to invest for financial returns, and doing something good for society at the same time.”  Silke is one of the founders and a partner at Tilia Impact...

The global ICT market is bound to grow. Digitalisation, cloud computing, Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) are only a few drivers of that growth. Global ICT spending reached about 4.9 trillion US dollars in 2020 and is expected to reach 5.8 trillion US dollars by 2023. That growth encourages entrepreneurs to set up new companies offering IT services.  MIhai Filip, the founder and CEO of Romania-based Oves Enterprise, and also a serial entrepreneur, speaks with Andrew Wrobel about why...

“I was born into a century and a family that went through every kind of disruption imaginable. I come from […] Central Asia, which has gone through tremendous turbulence: two brutal world wars, multiple civil wars in between every kind of disruption possible, and then that finished with the collapse of our government,“ Nadya Zhexembayeva tells Andrew Wrobel in the fourth episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa.   Her first job was in an insurance business selling life...

“I was born and raised in a family of engineers. All around me were gadgets and software, and I wasn't really excited about them. My father taught me how to programme. It was basic, and it was more than 30 years ago, and did not excite me that much,” Elena Marinova tells Andrew Wrobel in the third episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by VISA.  Elena is president and chair of the board of directors at Musala Soft, a software service company, founded in 2000 and currently with...

“My background is the tourism industry, but when my son was born, he came with a bonus. [This is how] autism came into our lives,” Turkan Ismayilli, the founder of the YouTube channel Cin Bala with animations and fairy tales addressed to special children, tells Andrew Wrobel in the second episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa.  Turkan started the channel during the Covid-19 pandemic, after her family had come to Germany and attending therapy sessions was close to...

The world of social media is changing. In 2023, Elon Musk’s Twitter has 353.9 million users, almost four per cent fewer than in 2022, and is expected to lose another five per cent next year, according to BankMyCell.  Previously, it built its network thanks to three communities: politicians, celebrities, and journalists, who could broadcast directly to a large audience without any gatekeepers, build personal brands and promote stories that they believe are newsworthy. Trolls use Twitter...

“I'm a growth guide which means I support leaders and managers and start-up founders and some public figures in sorting out their businesses and lives,” Dragana ‘Gaga’ Djermanović tells Andrew Wrobel in the first episode of Emerging Europe Talks She’s Next empowered by Visa.  Gaga is a recognised and awarded personal and professional growth advisor. Through her extensive career, she has mentored more than 1,000 managers, leaders, public figures, and founders.  “I'm very passionate about...

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a staggering 99 per cent of the global population breathes air that exceeds WHO air quality limits and threatens people’s health. More than 6,000 cities across the globe are now monitoring air quality, but the people living in them are still breathing unhealthy levels of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, with people in low and middle-income countries suffering the highest exposures.   In Europe alone, air pollution kills more than...

Tourism is one of the one of the largest and fastest-growing industries globally. In 2022, the entire market was worth over 10.5 trillion US dollars and it is expected grow by some five per cent per annum over the next five years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the industry took a strong hit. It is certain that the future of sector will depend on digital and technological discoveries such as the use of chatbots to make reservations, mobility patterns to manage visitor flows, artificial...

The coming years will be decisive for a sustainable future. The foundations will be laid for unleashing the potential of digital technology and the cloud as the innovation platform for green transformation. This applies to the corporate sector as well as to the public sector and society as a whole.   Petra Čiček, Sustainability Lead at Microsoft Central Europe, speaks with Andrew Wrobel about how digitalisation, sustainability, and growth are interconnected and about how the digital skills...