Transform Romania and CEE from an area known for “financial efficiency” into an area known for innovation

For the last 20 years, Romania and the entire CEE region has seen a great increase in international companies building local subsidiaries. This was mostly due to the “financial efficiency” which the region provides – highly skilled workers for a fraction of the cost of the western counterparts. However, as the costs in CEE are increasing, this is decreasing the only competitive advantage – the lower cost. This will result in fewer and fewer developments happening here, and loose of jobs and business.

X by Ascendis wants to create the next competitive advantage of Romania and the CEE region – Innovation. The geo-politics, history and regimes we passed through have made people from this region incredibly creative, but without knowledge of how to transform creativity into impact. With a holistic view on the innovation process this can be changed.

Innovation can’t be resumed to simple events such as hackathons, or a training course on design thinking. It requires a process which stars from inspiration, bringing the experiences required to change the beliefs towards proactiveness that something can be done. It continues with transformation, at the top levels of an organization and continues with ideation – generating ideas, knowledge sharing – learning how to innovate, and matchmaking – find the relevant changemaker agents. Finally, it finishes with incubating ideas into impact, into new products, services and businesses.

Join us into our idealistic purpose of creating the next competitive advantage of Romania and the CEE – Innovation.