Emerging Europe Talks Emerging Europe

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: Implications for Equity and Growth in Europe, released by the World Bank. 

“I'm talking about numeracy, literacy, problem-solving, and in particular social skills; the ability to work in teams, the ability to project a future and be consistent...the ability to listen to others. These types of skills, these foundational skills are the perfect complement of new technologies,” Rafael E. de Hoyos, programme leader in human development for EU member states at the World Bank and one of the report’s authors, tells Andrew Wrobel. 

“These are precisely the things that we should provide to our students because this is what will allow them to re-invent themselves,” he adds. “[These skills] will allow them to benefit from technology, not compete with it.”

They also talk about the future of education and about how to prepare educational systems in Europe and the emerging Europe region for future challenges. 

“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 of followers. She also educates others. She is the author of seminars and marathons that empower women and emphasise that, “the limit of women is only in their brains.” 

Like many mothers, she struggled with dividing her time between family and work. 

“I couldn't work and manage, taking the kids to the kindergarten and then taking care of them. As a freelancer it was very hard; when you are in a corporate environment, you are working from nine to six. But when you are a freelancer, you are working 24/7. 

“And I was sitting in coffee shops aware that people were watching...I was bringing my kids to the coffee shop and people were saying that they disrupted them.” 

So, Havva came up with yet another idea: Ninja Kids Club.  

“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 Andrew Wrobel. 

With over 20 years in marketing across various sectors, Konstantinova now works for an international software company with 30,000 engineers worldwide and leads marketing efforts in 20 countries. Now she encourages other women to look for mentors. 

"We are literally sitting and waiting for you to reach out and ask questions. This is a two-way street. This is not a monologue. This is a dialogue. While giving, we are receiving; and communicating with inspiring people, especially women who want to start a business or who want to change their lives. This is inspirational for us.” 

“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 tourism together,” says Diana Kiguradze, regional manager, Caucasus, CISSEE at Visa. 

Not only that, she has introduced digitalisation to a sector that was analogue for too long. 

“We are going to digitise the potential of equestrian tourists in Western Georgia and create a digital video road,” Ana adds. 

“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 acknowledge their strengths, to acknowledge how great they are. Because very often we see female founders don't have that confidence. This is a very popular workshop right now, not only among female entrepreneurs but also any female audiences from students through regular individual contributors.” 

Agnieszka comes from Poland and she cherishes the fact that she comes from Central and Eastern Europe. 

“I come from this region. This region is diverse, with a lot of different countries, and a lot of different connections and languages. Somehow it's easy when you come from this region to actually manage a global team because you already know that there are differences, you already know that you have to listen and you understand the context of the other person from another country…because it all matters in communication.” 

Today she manages Google for Startups initiatives carried out in over 125 countries including joint activities with over 60 incubators, accelerators, and co-working spaces.  

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 demand for personalised customer experiences forces companies to invest more in tailored content production.  

“We are all about storytelling, about content” says https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreychuk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreychuk/, one of the founders and CEO of Viseven, a MarTech services provider. “We are a digital content agency, a digital content factory for pharmaceutical clients. We create digital content, digital narratives. We create a content strategy, end-to-end marketing services, omni-channel campaigns. We build the entire architecture and infrastructure for marketing content.” 

She speaks with Andrew Wrobel about leadership, entrepreneurship and disruption. One of the biggest disruptions for her was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She turned it into an opportunity and her company’s team has since grown by some 50 per cent, now exceeding 700 people.