The Departure Lounge
With a blank boarding pass in hand - where will you go?
Imagine: you’re in an international departure lounge with a blank boarding pass in hand.
Where do you want to go?
Not on holiday. This is a study tour - one designed to stretch your thinking, challenge your defaults, and open your eyes to where the future is being created today.
Your flight options?
Flights are not departing to the usual suspects. Not Silicon Valley. Not Shenzhen. This time, you’re choosing places where the future is unfolding off the radar.
Your decision is shaped by three questions:
Where in the world is a blind spot to me?
The places I rarely read about, think about, or learn from.Where are people solving problems, gaining market share, or building business models differently?
The places doing things I’ve not seen before - or not seen clearly enough.What’s being built that will shape the world next - whether I see it or not?
The overlooked innovations, infrastructure, and ecosystems already shifting the future.
Today, your flight options are:
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
To understand how energy transitions unfold when the stakes are environmental survival. With the Khushig Valley Solar Park, Mongolia is scaling solar in a coal-reliant nation - backed by foreign investment, technology, and regional diplomacy.
Chișinău, Moldova
To witness innovation against the odds. Moldova has outperformed expectations in the Global Innovation Index for over a decade, led by local hubs like Tekwill, which has trained more than 150,000 people in digital skills and entrepreneurship.
Manila, Philippines
To see what leapfrogging looks like in fintech. GCash now serves over 94 million users, radically reshaping banking access in a country where many remain unbanked. Here, study user growth and systems change.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
To understand how a manufacturing economy becomes a tech one. Vietnam’s industrial base is now fuelling a rise in software, AI, and fintech. MoMo has more than 31 million users and the broader ecosystem is scaling fast.
Riga, Latvia
To see how digital infrastructure powers global creativity. Startups like Printify are building globally from Latvia, backed by strong logistics networks and a fast-moving, export-oriented startup scene.
Cape Town, South Africa
To explore renewable energy done differently. Companies like the SOLA Group are deploying solar at scale for businesses and homes, while AI and blockchain are helping modernise agriculture and financial inclusion.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
To rethink what innovation looks like in a resource-rich economy. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is turning oil wealth into digital infrastructure. From NEOM to rising venture capital flows, Riyadh is becoming a serious contender in the global innovation race.
Tallinn, Estonia
To study digital-first governance. Estonia’s e-Residency programme has let more than 117,000 people from 176 countries run companies remotely. It may appear to be bureaucracy made digital, yet it is actually bureaucracy removed.
Sriharikota, India
To learn how cost constraints can become catalysts. From this coastal launch site, India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission reached the Moon with precision - at a fraction of the cost of traditional space programmes. It signals a new model of frugal innovation, shifting global perceptions of where cutting-edge science can come from.
Lâm Đồng Province, Vietnam
To watch clean energy scale at pace. In the Central Highlands, Vietnam is accelerating solar adoption across rural and agricultural regions. Climate tech investment in Vietnam jumped 365% in a single year, with provinces like Lâm Đồng piloting solar-agriculture integration to power farms and processing facilities. Here you see new models being built from the ground up.
Accra, Ghana
To witness how underrepresented regions can reshape global health. In Ghana’s capital, Yemaachi Biotech, in partnerhsip with Roche, is building the African Cancer Atlas by collecting genomic data from 15,000 individuals across the continent. Based in Accra, this work is closing a critical gap in global cancer research and bringing precision medicine to populations long overlooked.
Kermadec Trench, South Pacific
To see what deep ocean exploration really unlocks. Chinese and New Zealand scientists have used the Fendouzhe submersible to explore the Kermadec Trench near New Zealand, revealing new insights into tectonic shifts, carbon storage, and extreme marine life.
Our Focus. Our Fortune. Our Future.
Choosing where to go is choosing what to learn. And what we learn shapes what we see - and what we’re able to do next.
In a world shifting faster than most leaders realise, where influence is decentralising, the smarter move isn’t to replicate what’s worked before. It’s to pick the right departure point.
Not to copy, but to understand.
Not to stay tethered to the known, but to get clear on what’s next.
Final Boarding Call
The future isn’t being built in one place. It’s emerging in deserts, trenches, labs, and local communities. It’s unfolding in unexpected cities solving problems in unexpected ways.
The boarding pass is in your hand. The world is your study tour.
When you know the world, you can build with it, compete in it, and co-create in it.
You get to go further. Faster. Together.
Where will you go?
Shifting Hubs: The Geography of Innovation
“When you change the way you see the world, you change the world you see.” - Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
When we think of innovation, places that typically come to mind are Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, or perhaps Shenzhen. Yet the future isn’t being built in just these well-known innovation hotspots. It’s being forged in cities you might not expect, driven by necessity, local conditions, and a hunger for progress.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2023, produced by the World Intellectual Property Organization, paints a picture of innovation becoming far more distributed than we think. These places may be off our radar - and perhaps they shouldn’t be.