Europe’s competitiveness challenge is usually discussed in terms of regulation, fragmented markets, capital, energy and the widening innovation gap with the United States and China. Mario Draghi’s The Future of European Competitivenessprovides one of the clearest diagnoses of these structural challenges. Yet competitiveness is also shaped much closer to home: through thousands of decisions made inside European companies about investment, innovation, technology, capabilities and risk.
What if European boards saw themselves not only as stewards of today’s companies, but as active contributors to Europe’s renewal?
This question is also at the heart of a recent Beyond the Old Playbook podcast conversation with Fernanda Torre, leader of Boards Impact Forum, and Sylvia Robben, leader of Chapter Zero Netherlands, both organisations part of the Chapter Zero Alliance.
It provides a useful starting point for considering how boards might shift from predominantly protecting existing value towards creating future value.
From Protecting Value to Creating It
The painting opening the conversation was Umberto Boccioni’s The City Rises (1910).
Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises, 1910. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The painting captures a city in the process of becoming — full of energy, construction and movement. It feels strikingly contemporary as Europe navigates AI, sustainability, geopolitics and changing global competition. Yet movement is not the same as renewal.
As complexity grows, boards risk responding by adding more oversight. Research on board overload shows how expanding responsibilities can crowd out the strategic attention needed to consider where the company should go next. Most boards have sophisticated risk maps, but how many have an equally developed opportunity map?
Draghi’s competitiveness report adds urgency. While many of Europe’s challenges require political action, companies cannot simply wait for better conditions. Boards need to govern both the risk of moving and the risk of standing still. Moving early brings uncertainty, but moving too late can mean lost capabilities and competitive position.
The boardroom question is therefore not only “Can we justify investing now?” but also “What might it cost us if we wait?”
Governing Renewal Before We Have All the Answers
This challenge is particularly visible with AI, where technology is moving faster than traditional governance cycles. Research suggests that implementation is also a process of organisational learning: experimentation builds capabilities, reveals new applications and can lead to further innovation. Boards therefore need to ask not only about immediate returns, but what the organisation is learning and becoming capable of doing.
INSEAD’s work on winning intelligence reinforces this shift: competitive advantage increasingly depends on how organisations combine AI, information and human judgement. At the same time, the Global Board Survey 2026 from InterSearch points to boards evolving from governance stewards towards more active business shapers. This requires directors themselves to keep learning. And this research identifies that 44% of board members haven’t had any training the last ten years…
Renewal also requires commitment. Research on social tipping points suggests that change can begin with a relatively small committed group, while long-term investments in AI, sustainability and resilience require alignment between boards, management and owners around value creation and time horizons.
This brings us back to Boccioni’s The City Rises: the city is being created before anyone can see the finished result. Boards face the same challenge. They cannot wait for AI, sustainability or geopolitics to become certain before deciding which capabilities to build.
Europe’s competitiveness will depend partly on these boardroom choices: what to protect, what to challenge, what to invest in and what to create.
These questions are explored further in the Beyond the Old Playbook episode “Can European Boards Help Europe Compete Again?”, with Fernanda Torre and Sylvia Robben.
One question to carry into the next board meeting: How much of your board’s attention is devoted to protecting today’s business — and how much to creating tomorrow’s?
Listen to the conversation
In this episode of Beyond the Old Playbook, Liselotte Engstam speaks with Fernanda Torre and Sylvia Robben about how European boards can strengthen competitiveness and resilience—and what it takes to shift from protecting today’s business to governing opportunity, renewal and the creation of tomorrow’s.
Fernanda Torre & Sylvia Robben, share how boards can strengthen competitiveness, and resilience.
Fernanda Torre and Sylvia Robben, board leaders working with Boards Impact Forum and Chapter Zero Neterlands, explore how European boards can contribute to competitiveness and resilience in a world of accelerating change.
Fernanda Torre and Sylvia Robben, board leaders, share how boards can strengthen competitiveness, resilience and corporate renewal.
Listen to this episode from Exploring Leaders by Digoshen on Spotify. Fernanda Torre and Sylvia Robben, board leaders working with Boards Impact Forum and Chapter Zero Neterlands, explore how European boards can contribute to competitiveness and resilience in a world of accelerating change.
A conversation with Fernanda Torre and Sylvia Robben
Fernanda Torre works at the intersection of innovation, sustainability and corporate governance, engaging boards across Europe on AI, long-term value creation and sustainability-driven transformation. She is COO and co-founder of Boards Impact Forum, the Nordic chapter of the Chapter Zero Alliance, and co-author of AI Leadership for Boards – Leading Responsible AI for Value Creation. Her work focuses on helping boards strengthen their capacity to govern innovation and renewal in an increasingly complex environment.
Connect with Fernanda Torre on LinkedIn
Explore Boards Impact Forum on LinkedIn
Sylvia Robben leads Chapter Zero Netherlands, part of the international Chapter Zero network supporting non-executive directors in bringing climate, sustainability and long-term value creation into boardroom discussions. Her work focuses on bringing directors together for peer exchange and practical dialogue on how boards can translate complex transitions into strategic action.
Connect with Sylvia Robben on LinkedIn
Chapter Zero Netherlands on LinkedIn
Explore Chapter Zero Alliance
From exploring to experiencing
European Boards Growth & Resilience Forum
On 7 October 2026 in Amsterdam, the European Boards Growth & Resilience Forum brings together non-executive and supervisory directors from across Europe to explore how boards can strengthen European competitiveness, resilience and long-term value creation.
Through confidential peer exchange and working sessions, directors will connect geopolitical shifts, sustainability, AI and technology with the strategic choices facing their companies. Insights from the Forum will also contribute to the European Boards Growth & Resilience Roadmap, planned for publication in early 2027.
Explore the European Boards Growth & Resilience Forum
Boards Oversight of Responsible AI for Value Creation
The Boards Oversight of Responsible AI for Value Creation programme, with a new cohort starting in October 2026, supports directors in moving from AI awareness towards effective oversight of its opportunities, risks and implications for value creation.
The programme helps directors strengthen their ability to ask better questions, challenge assumptions and engage management on responsible AI adoption, innovation and strategic value.
Explore Boards Oversight of Responsible AI for Value Creation
Webinar: The China Factor in Europe’s Competitiveness and Net Zero Transition
On 18 September 2026, Boards Impact Forum and Climate Governance Initiative Hong Kong Chapter host a webinar exploring how China’s position in green technologies, supply chains and industrial development is shaping European competitiveness, strategic dependencies and the net-zero transition — and what this means for boards.
Explore Further
The Future of European Competitiveness — The Draghi Report — Mario Draghi / European Commission, 2024
Board Overload — Asaf Eckstein, Roy Shapira and Ariel Shillo, 2026
Full research paper on SSRN
Valuing Companies in Transition — Dirk Schoenmaker and Willem Schramade, 2022
Experimental Evidence for Tipping Points in Social Convention — Damon Centola, Joshua Becker, Devon Brackbill and Andrea Baronchelli, Science, 2018
Global Board Survey 2026: From Governance Stewards to Business Shapers — InterSearch / REEF, 2026
How Organizations Use AI: Evidence from ChatGPT — 2026
Building Winning Intelligence: Designing for Strategic Advantage — Yves Doz and Soumitra Dutta, INSEAD, 2026
Getting Shareholders on Board With Your Sustainability Vision — Kevin Keusch, INSEAD, 2025
A Cross Section of Company Statements Supporting Climate Action — Lasdon and Smith, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 2026
Umberto Boccioni — The City Rises, 1910 — The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Watch MoMA’s video about The City Rises
This blog post was originally published on the Digoshen blog and the personal blog of Digoshen founder Liselotte Engstam.
At Digoshen, we help leaders and boards navigate an increasingly complex world shaped by AI, digital transformation, sustainability, geopolitical change, and evolving workforce dynamics.
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