Can European Business Still Compete? | Peru Dharani on Innovation, Capital & Europe’s Future

Can European business still compete with the mighty United States and China? Europe has world-class engineering talent, industrial companies, research institutions, and capital, yet European startups and businesses continue to face challenges around scaling, investment, bureaucracy, innovation, and global competitiveness. In this episode of Dranaissance, Brecht Seifi, Founder & CEO DraghiAI draghi.ai, sits down with Peru Dharani, Senior Vice President Research & Innovation at Barco, to explore the future of European industry, entrepreneurship, innovation, and business competitiveness. Peru brings the perspective of a technology and innovation leader working inside one of Europe’s established global technology companies. He is also an alumnus of Belgium’s 40 Under 40 and the author of Bloemen voor Boeddha. The conversation moves beyond the usual “Europe is falling behind” narrative and asks a more important question: what would it actually take for European businesses to build, scale, and compete globally? Together, they explore: Why Europe has enormous economic and technological potential but struggles to convert it into global scale The biggest barriers facing European entrepreneurs, startups, and industrial companies Why access to capital remains a challenge for ambitious European businesses The cultural differences between entrepreneurship in Europe and the United States Whether European risk aversion is holding innovation back Why talented founders and companies often look toward the US when they want to scale What Europe can learn from the speed and ambition of American business How established European companies can continue reinventing themselves through innovation The role of engineering, technology, and industrial expertise in Europe’s economic future Why the next generation of European founders may be sitting on a much bigger opportunity than they realize Whether Europe can remain competitive against the United States and China What needs to change for Europe to create more globally dominant companies Beyond simply a conversation about what Europe is doing wrong, this is a discussion about European competitiveness, industrial innovation, entrepreneurship, capital, technology, and the untapped advantages Europe already possesses. The question is no longer whether Europe has…