Future Leaders Programme

Future Leaders Programme

Overview

Your Path to Leadership Excellence Starts Here:

The Future Leaders Programme is a transformative journey designed for aspiring leaders who seek to navigate the ever-evolving media industry. This programme equips participants with the skills, insights, and strategies needed to thrive in a rapidly changing environment. It offers Public Service Media emerging talents a valuable opportunity to exchange insights, ideas, and network with colleagues from across Europe. 

Join us on this skill-enhancing journey, where you’ll gain the tools and confidence to make a difference at every level. Whether you aspire to lead teams, drive innovation, or shape the future of media, the Future Leaders Programme will empower you to ascend to the top.

Who it is for

  • Functional experts looking to expand their scope in the media industry.
  • Media Professionals with first management experience.
  • Any media professional who is ready to take on greater leadership responsibilities within their organization.

Programme Outcomes

  • Strengthened leadership skills and personal growth as a media industry leader.
  • Deeper understanding of key technological trends affecting the media industry, including AI, and discovering new ways to ensure that Public Media is indispensable to society.
  • Hands-on experience in fostering creativity and innovation in today's fast-paced media landscape.
  • International network with peer media managers from all over Europe.

Mentorship

Throughout the course, you will be paired with a Mentor. These Mentors are distinguished Public Service Media Senior Executives, often hailing from different countries and alumni of the EBU Academy Executive Programme. Their role is to provide guidance, offer assistance, and share constructive feedback on any inquiries or challenges that the programme generates for you. Under their expert guidance, you will gain a deeper understanding of how to apply course content to your professional contexts.

Meeting with industry leaders and media experts

In each module, we will host distinguished leaders from the public service media sector, providing you with the opportunity to learn directly from industry experts. The programme will also include visits to leading media and technology hubs in Europe.

The programme will include the following visits:

  • Berlin: Deutsche Welle, The International German Broadcaster.
  • Bergen: The Norwegian Media Cluster, a center of innovation in media and broadcasting.
  • Ghent: The headquarters of RTBF and VRT, Belgium's public broadcasters.

These visits will provide you with first-hand insights into organizational strategies, technological innovation, and leadership practices within prominent European media houses.

Schedule

  • Berlin: 2-4 June 2026
  • Bergen: 1-3 September 2026
  • Ghent: 3-5 November 2026

Programme Outline

Module 1: Strategy and customer centricity – at ESMT - Berlin

In an era of rapid digital transformation, changing audience behaviors, and increasing competition for attention, public service media organizations must redefine their strategies to remain relevant and impactful. This module teaches you to understand how to design and execute strategies that are both mission-driven and customer-centric — aligning public value with audience needs and expectations.

Through case studies, simulations, and peer exchange, you will explore how strategy, culture, and innovation can work together to create sustainable, audience-first PSM organizations.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand strategic thinking and apply it to real-world PSM challenges.
  • Link organizational mission and audience needs to create purpose-led, customer-centric strategies.
  • Balance public value with competitiveness in digital and platform-based environments.
  • Discover how AI is changing the media industry and how it creates new opportunities and challenges.

Key Themes

  • From Mission to Market: Translating public service mandates into actionable strategy.
  • Customer-Centric Thinking: How to embed audience focus across the organization — from content creation to product design.
  • Strategic Choices: Making trade-offs, prioritizing investments, and navigating uncertainty.
  • Measuring What Matters: KPIs and impact measures for mission-driven organizations.

Module 2: Leadership in Execution: How leaders mobilize teams and sustain momentum for change at BI – Norwegian Business School – Bergen.

Brilliant strategies often fail — not because they are wrong, but because they are never fully executed. In public service media, leaders face the dual challenge of driving transformation while preserving core values of trust, inclusion, and independence.

This module will help you to bridge the gap between strategy and results. It focuses on the leadership behaviors, communication skills, and organizational practices that turn ideas into sustained impact. Through interactive sessions, real case studies, and peer learning, you will explore how to lead people through complexity, resistance, and change — while keeping purpose and motivation alive.

Learning Objectives

  • Translate strategic intent into clear, actionable priorities.
  • Mobilize teams around a shared vision and sustain engagement through uncertainty.
  • Apply practical tools for execution — planning, alignment, and feedback loops.
  • Strengthen your own leadership presence, communication, and influence.

Key Themes

  • Mobilizing People: How to build commitment, trust, and accountability.
  • Leading Through Complexity: Adaptive leadership in politically and culturally nuanced organizations.
  • Feedback and Learning: Building agile systems for reflection and improvement.
  • Leadership Presence: Communicating purpose and embodying credibility

Module 3: Unleashing innovation: change management and unleashing innovation.

Change is constant — but leading it effectively is an art. In public service media, transformation often happens amid political scrutiny, legacy systems, and deeply rooted cultures of public mission. This module on change management helps you understand the dynamics of change and develop the skills to lead your teams through uncertainty, complexity, and resistance.

You will learn frameworks and tools to plan, communicate, and embed change in ways that build trust and ownership. Through real PSM case studies and interactive exercises, you will strengthen your capacity to act as credible, confident change leaders — balancing innovation with the core values of public service.

In the innovation challenge, you will collaborate in groups of four to tackle your innovation challenge. In this project, you will delve into uncharted avenues for growth, formulate a fresh business model, create a prototype for a novel service or product, and present your ideas persuasively.

This module will equip you:

  • To explore change management principles, emphasizing a modernized approach to audience engagement. 
  • To understand the digital news landscape and how to consider leveraging technology for organizational alignment, and integrating AI, while also addressing its ethical considerations and risks.
  • Integrating finance into building a strong business case
  • Pitching and selling to top management

Academic partners

Vlerick Business School

Vlerick Business School, a Triple Accredited institution (AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB), stands as a premier international business school consistently ranked among Europe’s finest. Our campuses in Brussels, Ghent and Leuven serve as a dynamic hub where individuals and organisations converge to challenge norms and explore the ever-evolving business landscape. Renowned for our world-class learning journeys, our faculty blends relevance and rigor, delivering fresh insights with an energetic approach. Through immersive, hands-on experiences, we ignite innovative thinking and foster courageous behaviour. With a global network of over 25,000 alumni spanning 99 countries, Vlerick offers cutting-edge programmes, including MBA, Masters, and Executive Education. Notably, our Executive Education Department has crafted more than 120 customized programmes, engaging over 6,000 participants.

BI: Norwegian Business School

BI Norwegian Business School is a Norwegian specialized university that provides education and conducts research primarily in the fields of business and economics, marketing, strategy, management, and administration. BI is organized as a self-owned foundation whose sole purpose is teaching and research. As of 2024, with over 21,000 students, BI is the largest business school and the fourth-largest university in Norway. BI's main campus is located in Nydalen, Oslo, with regional campuses in Bergen, Trondheim, and Stavanger.  

For several years, BI has been ranked as Norway's top business school by the Financial Times European Business School Ranking. BI also participates in several of Financial Times' sub-rankings, including Executive MBA, Executive Education, and Master's in management.

Host partners

ESMT: The European School of Management and Technology

The first module of the Future Leaders Programme will be delivered at ESMT in Berlin. 

The European School of Management and Technology, also known as ESMT Berlin, is a private non-profit business school based in Berlin, Germany. The business school was founded in 2002 by 25 companies and institutions and offers a range of MBAs, master's degrees, and other degree and executive education programmes.

The owner of the business school is the ESMT European School of Management and Technology GmbH (ESMT GmbH), which is recognized as a non-profit organization.ESMT Berlin is regarded as one of the most prestigious business schools in Europe. It is one of four business schools in Germany with triple accreditation from EQUIS, AACSB, and AMBA.

NEW FOR 2026 – EBU Academy Future Leaders Programme Scholarships, funded by EBU Partnership Programme.

We are excited to offer x2 scholarships subsidizing the total fee to participate in the EBU Academy Future Leaders Programme 2026.

The scholarships, funded by the EBU Partnership Programme, mean the cost would be heavily reduced from 9,800 EUR per person to 3,300 EUR per person, including accommodation expenses.

An EBU panel (Academy, Member Relations, Sport and T&I) will assess applications; please carefully read the terms below, including eligibility criteria.

Candidates from groups underrepresented in leadership within public service media will be prioritised; for example, women in sports and technology and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Good luck!

Terms:

  • Staff working for EBU Members who are eligible for support via the EBU Partnership Programme, Eastern Europe and the MENA region, are eligible to apply.
  • Applicants should have at least 3 years of experience working at their organization.
  • Please include a letter of 400-600 words explaining your reasons for wanting to take the Future Leaders Programme and a letter of approval signed by your line manager and Director General.
  • Email your application to Frederic Frantz at EBU Academy.

Closing date February 27, 2026