Special Reports provide in-depth FT coverage of countries around the world, as well as industries from tech to luxury and themes ranging from workplace health to entrepreneurship.

Business Education: EMBA

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 18 October, 2021

We are likely to include the following articles (please note that this list is provisional):

Introduction

Executive MBA participants have traditionally been highly mobile, often travelling the globe as part of their studies. How have EMBA providers and students navigated this and other challenges of the pandemic and how might the degree change?. 

Editor’s Letter: Looking at developments in business education and our coverage. 

Analysis

What does this year’s Financial Times ranking of EMBA courses tell us about trends in the market? 

Management Column

Andrew Hill, the FT’s management editor, explores current thinking around leadership. 

Professor’s Column

A business school professor shares their thoughts and research on challenges facing ethical business today. 

Charting EMBA Data

The FT’s rankings team use graphics to explore trends in the data that went to make up this year’s list.

Interview

An in-depth interview with a graduate or student about their studies and what their EMBA has meant for their career.

Travel

This has traditionally been a key part of the EMBA experience, with trips to experience business abroad and study sessions overseas to ensure an international education. How are schools responding to the restrictions on travel in the pandemic era?    

Student Support

Executive MBA programmes are intense and highly demanding and the pandemic has added an extra layer of difficulty. What are schools doing to support participants on what some call the “divorce course”?

Funding

How UK apprenticeship funding controversially came to be used by companies to support EMBAs for senior staff. This was not the original aim of the schemes and caused embarrassment to the government, which banned the practice - but has it really ceased?    

Entrepreneurship

EMBA programmes have traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to the top of an organisation, but as employer funding dwindles, more students have been turning to entrepreneurship. What are EMBA programmes doing to support this?

Getting Political

Looking at those who have used the EMBA as a gateway - in both directions - between politics or public service and the private sector, and how it helped the transition.

Student Views

EMBA students and graduates share their experiences of study and what came next.

Technology

An FT tech specialist explores developments that will affect business and our working lives. 

In Real Life

A graduate explains what it was like to take an EMBA and how it has affected their career, in their own words.  

Editorial information:

Special Reports are written by FT staff journalists and a small number of selected freelance writers. They will be specialists in the field and already have regular contacts to update them. It is therefore difficult for an unsolicited submission to be so compelling that it forces its way on to a writer’s agenda. However, it does happen occasionally. We ask that all submissions be sent to ftreports@ft.com, from where they are forwarded to the appropriate writer.

Please also note that due to the volume of material received, it is not always possible to acknowledge or reply to every submission.

■ Recently published Surveys and FT Reports, as well as a list of forthcoming FT Reports and their synopses can be downloaded by going to www.ft.com/special-reports and clicking on the link to the Reports library.

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

■ Back issues of printed Survey and FT Reports can be obtained from: Historic Newspapers, Signature Online Limited, No 1 waterside Station Road, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 4US; Tel. no: 0870 165 1470; Fax no: 01582 469 248; or email: info@back-issue-newspapers.co.uk

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Supplements and Special Reports.

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

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 Gemma Taylor +44 (0)20 7873 3698, gemma.taylor@ft.com

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or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

FTfm Special Report: Responsible Investing

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on October 18, 2021.

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

It’s an Emergency

With COP26 happening in October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared this summer that it's code red for planet Earth. Why have so many years of first CSR and now ESG investing done nothing to avert climate change — and what can be done to change that? Is capitalist business-as-usual no longer a credible option? And if the ‘E’ of ESG has tended to dominate the investment agenda, will that become even more the case in years to come? 

Voting for (a) Change

2021 has been a breakthrough year for asset managers to exert ESG pressure on company boards at AGMs — a reflection both of pressure from investors and the need to reduce risk. Will next year see funds exerting further pressure on the companies they invest in, and will companies raise their ESG game, or dig in their heels? 

What’s in a Name? 

Some asset managers have sought to revive interest in underperforming funds by rebranding them as ESG — and now the SEC is reviewing its rules for naming funds. What criteria are funds going to have to meet in order to carry an ESG-tinged name? What are lawyers advising managers to be mindful of when giving a fund a makeover? 

The Wages of Sin

Historically tobacco, gambling and armaments have been shunned by virtuous investors. Now a new set of villains are emerging, in the form of oil, social media platforms and processed, sugary foods. How should asset managers respond? And will the resulting portfolio shifts change the dynamics of the market? 

Who gets Hurt?

Asset managers have come under the spotlight for buying the bonds of countries with poor human rights records. Yet such countries are often in dire need of the money if they are ever to develop — so what should managers do, and what do activists advise? 

A Green Old Age

More and more pension providers are offering an ESG option to those who are about to retire. What is driving this, what is the take-up like and what effect will this have on tomorrow’s portfolios? 

Money for Old Wood

What is the best practice for fund managers wanting to move into forestry? 

No-go for Crypto? 

Tech bros love to evangelise about the virtues of cryptocurrencies and other assets, but their carbon footprint can be substantial and their separateness from the conventional finance systems allows them to fund all sorts of nasty black market activities. Do they have a place in a responsible portfolio?

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Chris Holt chris.holt@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Investing in Italy

The Financial Times proposes to publish this Special Report on October 28, 2021

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

This FT special report, to be published by the end of October 2021, comes as Italy is presented with the opportunity to turn round its debt-laden, stagnant economy as it emerges from the pandemic. Investors will play a key role in that recovery, if favourable conditions facilitate that.

The FT’s Rome bureau chief examines the opportunities and challenges offered to Italy by the EU recovery fund of which it will be the biggest beneficiary. 

Big Interview with a leading policymaker

Trading Between the UK and Italy after Brexit

What light does this shed on Italy’s all-important exporters?

Italian Startups

We chart progress and obstacles in supporting Italian startups compared to more successful efforts elsewhere in the EU. We also consider the effects of, and remedies to, the brain drain of talented young Italians moving abroad for lack of opportunity at home.

Spotlight 

On the privately-held northern companies that are crucial to automotive supply networks

Environment for Foreign Investors

We examine prospects for reform of legal system needed to improve environment for foreign investors

FDI in Italy

A data-led look at who is investing in which sectors and how investment will be critical to rebalancing an economy which combines a trade surplus with chronic budget deficits and high levels of debt.

Football Investment

We look at foreign investors buying Italian football teams as this trend takes hold in Italy after appearing in other markets.

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Giulia Pepe +44 (0)20 7873 3225, giulia.pepe@ft.com

Rebecca Clifton +44 (0)20 7775 6966, rebecca.clifton@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

FTfm Special Report: Smart Beta

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 1 November 2021

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

Has Smart Beta Been a Smart Investment in the Post Financial Crisis Bull Market Rally?

Equity markets have enjoyed the longest bull run in history with the US stock market up per cent since its post financial crisis low in March 2009 while the MSCI ACWI index has gained – how have the most popular smart beta strategies – value, size, quality, momentum and low volatility – performed against these benchmarks – what does this tell us about the attractions of smart beta as an investment strategy. 

The Race for Investors Cash

Assets in smart beta ETFs stood at an all-time high of $1.24tn at the end of June. Which managers are winning the business and what are their competitors doing to increase their market share. 

Smart Beta and ESG – A Heavenly Marriage or a Hellish Partnership?

Can smart beta and ESG considerations really be married together successfully? What are the challenges and compromises that must be made to combine these two approaches.

Smart Beta in Fixed Income Markets in an Era of Ultra-low Interest Rates

Can smart beta deliver better returns for fixed income investors with interest rates at rock bottom levels.  

A Comeback for Value Investing

Value stocks have rallied strongly since the announcement in November 2020 of successful trials for coronavirus vaccines. Can the comeback for value stocks continue or will the Delta variant derail the rally. 

Are Investors Being Short-changed by Smart Beta Managers?

Academic studies show that factor based investments work best when they combine both long and short positions. But virtually all smart beta ETFs are long only products. Why have ETF providers chosen to structure smart beta products in this way? Are investors being short changed? 

Mix and Match

Not all smart beta strategies can outperform in all market conditions. So is a mix and match multi-factor approach better than making allocations to individual smart beta strategies.

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Chris Holt,  +44 (0)7415136450, chris.holt@ft.com

Tom Da Costa on +44 (0)20 7873 4569, tom.dacosta@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised, Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Managing Climate Change

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 1 November 2021

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

Overview of COP26

A focus on what the hot topics are likely to be. 

Policy

Calls for a Global Carbon Price

Pressure is growing for governments to adopt a global carbon price. By some estimates, this could help market forces to lower the cost of the emissions reductions needed to meet the Paris agreement by 79 per cent. How could such a price help companies and investors design better climate change strategies? And if arguments for it are so compelling, what are the barriers to introducing such a mechanism?

Prospects for US Climate Action

The Biden administration has put climate firmly back on the agenda. However, with a slim majority in Congress, the president’s plans depend largely on support from Joe Manchin, a conservative Democratic senator from West Virginia, a state heavily dependent on coal. Given the political realities, what are prospects for the US being able to tackle its greenhouse gas emissions, and what are the global implications of the world’s largest economy failing to do so?  

Evolving Accounting Standards  

With sustainability measurement highly fragmented and inconsistent, all eyes are on the development of a global Sustainability Standards Board, initially focused on climate change. How likely are governments to adopt the global standard and what role could it play in achieving the accounting rigour needed to increase the flow of private sector funds into climate change?  

The Corporate Sector

The Road to Net Zero

While companies have set ambitious goals on emissions reduction, record amounts of carbon dioxide are still being pumped into the atmosphere. Obstacles to achieving net zero range from skills gaps to pressure to meet short-term profits goals. Can ambitious corporate pledges translate into global emissions reductions and what more is needed to enable companies to do so?

Managing the Supply Chain 

To meet their climate goals, companies must look outside their own walls to the emissions generated along their supply chains. However, large global corporations often have thousands of suppliers in dozens of countries, making managing and reducing their value-chain greenhouse gas emissions challenging. This article will look at innovative strategies companies are taking to measure, manage and reduce the indirect emissions related to their business operations. 

The Promise of New Technologies

From solar roofs to energy efficient buildings, companies already have access to much of the technology needed to reduce their carbon footprint. However, innovation in green technologies is also a priority. Which technologies could make the biggest carbon reduction gains while also promising healthy returns on the investment companies make in them?

Investors

Managing Climate Investments

Asset managers and institutional investors are pushing companies to put carbon reduction at the heart of their strategies. Yet building climate-focused portfolios is hampered by the plethora of metrics for measuring a company’s carbon footprint, which means relying heavily on hands-on engagement. This article will examine what asset managers and investors are doing to ensure their climate-focused portfolios have genuine impact.

Shifts in Funding Flows

Managing climate-focused portfolios once meant divesting from dirty industries. However, many now recognise that while a divestment strategy might create a greener portfolio, it cannot create a greener world. As investors look to use their funding to fuel climate action, what sectors, companies and technologies do they see as having most potential?

The Greening of Private Equity

Once seen as corporate raiders with a slash-and-burn approach to costs, the fact that private equity investors make money by improving their portfolio companies means that their model is well suited to promoting corporate carbon reduction. This article will look at the appetite for climate-centric investing by PE firms and the impact this could make on reducing global carbon emissions.

Other

The Culture of Climate Change 

In any country, underlying social, cultural and political conditions – from education levels and political ideology to the tone of media debates on the environment – can help or hinder a country’s ability to manage climate change. This article will look at how these conditions are playing out in different countries and regions of the world.

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Rebecca Nolimaio on +44 (0)7935 202240, rebecca.nolimaio@ft.com

Nick Eyles on +44 (0)20 7873 3613, nick.eyles@ft.com

Tom Eaton on +44 (0)20 7873 3680, tom.eaton@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Fixed Income 2

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report

in 2 online bursts on 8 November 2021 and 29 November 2021

and in print on 29 November 2021

We plan to include the following 6 articles and 3 pieces of rich media content:

(please note that this list is provisional):

BURST 3, 8 NOVEMBER & Burst 4, 29 November

Article 1: Bond ETFs  

After passing the March 2020 liquidity crisis test with flying colours many analysts forecast that 2021 would be a bumper year for bond ETFs. However, inflation fears, the threat of Fed tapering and continued uncertainties have made the market so complex that, with the threat of 10-year Treasury yields rising, even Bill Gross said bonds are 'trash'. Despite the concerns, many segments of the bond ETF market have performed well and, in the first half, active managers across nearly all fixed income segments (EM bonds excluded) beat benchmarks.  

Article 2: China Bond Default Fallout

Deepening worries over Chinese property group Evergrande ignited selling in the Asian debt market, showing how the crisis at one company can spreading to other bonds and assets. Could the crisis of confidence in the bonds of leveraged companies spread? Should investors be looking out for the next company to hit trouble? Or is this confined to just one sector? 

Article 3: Junk Bonds - Risk Unrewarded?  

Even high-yield debt, often disparagingly known as “junk”, now trades with a yield well below the annual inflation rate in the eurozone. Investors are perfectly happy to take a real-terms loss on lending to the continent’s riskiest issuers. So, are some some investors are taking on outsized risks? 

Article 4: Post-pandemic Bond Markets

The electronification of bond markets has really picked up during the pandemic and doesn't seem to be slowing. But trading conditions in Treasury and other fixed income markets have been poor, as banks have stepped back from trading post Dodd-Frank reforms. 

Article 5: ESG and Bonds Funds  

Investors focused on environmental, social and governance standards are having to think carefully about the bond funds they back - as well as the equity funds they hold. Emerging markets bonds funds can buy debt issued by regimes that ESG investors cannot support - such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Similarly, corporate bond funds can back controversial companies - JPMorgan funds were recently found to have invested in the debt of private prison operator CoreCivic despite vowing to stop financing these operations. So what can bond fund managers and investors do to uphold ESG principles?

Article 6: Are Cryptocurrency “Yield Farming” Facilities Fixed-Income Investments?  

Cryptocurrency trading platforms are offering investors another way to make money: by lending out their coins in return for an interest payment or yield. This year, yields  on crypto balances have been rising, with annual rates ranging about 7 to 12 per cent for various coins such as bitcoin and “stablecoins” including tether. But are these legitimate fixed income investments? Regulators do not think so: the US Securities and Exchange Commission has warned that it will sue crypto exchange Coinbase if it launches a new digital asset lending product.

Rich Media 1: LIVE Online Q&A on Bonds and Fixed Income 

Reader questions answered live by FT capital markets correspondent Tommy Stubbington and FT US capital markets correspondent Kate Duguid 

Call for questions 1 November, live answers 3 November, edited highlights published 11 November   

Rich Media 2: In Charts: Bond Fund Inflows/ Outflows

Which types of bond fund have seen the highest inflows and outflows in the past12 months?  

Rich Media 3: Charticle: Green Bonds and the Sustainable Debt Market

Charts updated to November 2022

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Chris Holt,  +44 (0)7415136450, chris.holt@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Fixed Income 2

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report

in 2 online bursts on 8 November 2021 and 29 November 2021

and in print on 29 November 2021

We plan to include the following 6 articles and 3 pieces of rich media content:

(please note that this list is provisional):

BURST 3, 8 NOVEMBER & Burst 4, 29 November

Article 1: Bond ETFs  

After passing the March 2020 liquidity crisis test with flying colours many analysts forecast that 2021 would be a bumper year for bond ETFs. However, inflation fears, the threat of Fed tapering and continued uncertainties have made the market so complex that, with the threat of 10-year Treasury yields rising, even Bill Gross said bonds are 'trash'. Despite the concerns, many segments of the bond ETF market have performed well and, in the first half, active managers across nearly all fixed income segments (EM bonds excluded) beat benchmarks.  

Article 2: China Bond Default Fallout

Deepening worries over Chinese property group Evergrande ignited selling in the Asian debt market, showing how the crisis at one company can spreading to other bonds and assets. Could the crisis of confidence in the bonds of leveraged companies spread? Should investors be looking out for the next company to hit trouble? Or is this confined to just one sector? 

Article 3: Junk Bonds - Risk Unrewarded?  

Even high-yield debt, often disparagingly known as “junk”, now trades with a yield well below the annual inflation rate in the eurozone. Investors are perfectly happy to take a real-terms loss on lending to the continent’s riskiest issuers. So, are some some investors are taking on outsized risks? 

Article 4: Post-pandemic Bond Markets

The electronification of bond markets has really picked up during the pandemic and doesn't seem to be slowing. But trading conditions in Treasury and other fixed income markets have been poor, as banks have stepped back from trading post Dodd-Frank reforms. 

Article 5: ESG and Bonds Funds  

Investors focused on environmental, social and governance standards are having to think carefully about the bond funds they back - as well as the equity funds they hold. Emerging markets bonds funds can buy debt issued by regimes that ESG investors cannot support - such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Similarly, corporate bond funds can back controversial companies - JPMorgan funds were recently found to have invested in the debt of private prison operator CoreCivic despite vowing to stop financing these operations. So what can bond fund managers and investors do to uphold ESG principles?

Article 6: Are Cryptocurrency “Yield Farming” Facilities Fixed-Income Investments?  

Cryptocurrency trading platforms are offering investors another way to make money: by lending out their coins in return for an interest payment or yield. This year, yields  on crypto balances have been rising, with annual rates ranging about 7 to 12 per cent for various coins such as bitcoin and “stablecoins” including tether. But are these legitimate fixed income investments? Regulators do not think so: the US Securities and Exchange Commission has warned that it will sue crypto exchange Coinbase if it launches a new digital asset lending product.

Rich Media 1: LIVE Online Q&A on Bonds and Fixed Income 

Reader questions answered live by FT capital markets correspondent Tommy Stubbington and FT US capital markets correspondent Kate Duguid 

Call for questions 1 November, live answers 3 November, edited highlights published 11 November   

Rich Media 2: In Charts: Bond Fund Inflows/ Outflows

Which types of bond fund have seen the highest inflows and outflows in the past12 months?  

Rich Media 3: Charticle: Green Bonds and the Sustainable Debt Market

Charts updated to November 2022

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Chris Holt,  +44 (0)7415136450, chris.holt@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Investing in Austria

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 29 November 2021

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

Interview: Dynatrace Founder Bernd Greifender

How an Austrian tech startup became a top five performer on the NYSE and one of the best performing tech stocks worldwide during the pandemic. 

Austria's Hidden Business Champions

Austria has an estimated 175-200 'hidden champions': mid-size and often highly specialist and highly profitable businesses that are the powerhouses of the Austrian economy. They are typically key parts of global manufacturing supply chains - but they are also unknown names to most investors and consumers outside of Austria. Who are some of them and how has Austria been so successful in fostering them? 

Profile: Female Founders

Europe's biggest and fastest growing network for female entrepreneurs is based in Vienna. What is their mission, and what is it like to be a woman in business in Austria. 

Tax and Corporation Law Reforms: Where are we Now? 

Making Austria a better place to do business was a key plank of the 2020 Austrian government's manifesto. But Corona has thrown everything into doubt. An ambitious plan to lower corporation tax this autumn has already floundered. What is the government's current plans and what are some of the legal and tax peculiarities about setting up and running a business in Austria compared to other European countries. 

Austria's Startup Scene 

Vienna and Linz have emerged as significant European start-up hubs. What has made the two so successful, and what are the advantages for startups in Austria?

Austria's Green Deal 

When the Green Party entered a coalition government with the Austrian Conservatives in 2020, reforming tax and benefits to the advantage of green, sustainable businesses was a centrepiece of the government agenda. What has happened so far, and can Austria realise its ambition of becoming a European hub for Green enterprise? 

Interview: Austrian Chamber of Commerce President

Chamber of commerce president Harald Mahrer has been very keen to speak with us in the past. A former senior politician.

Living outside Vienna

Austria's capital typically tops global rankings of the world's most liveable cities, but what is life like for expats or business visitors in Austria's other major urban centres - and commercial and startup hubs - Linz, Graz, Salzburg.

[Possible] 

Opinion Column

It's still not what you know but who Austria has great ambitions to be an outward looking and modern tech-driven economy. But society - and the business world - is still dominated by networks of patronage and political influence in a way that very few outside of Austria appreciate. 

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

Advertisement and Sponsorship Information

For details of the advertising and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Gerd Rozler +43 664 326 5326, office@financialtimes.at 

Robert Grange +44 (0)20 7873 4418, robert.grange@ft.com

or your usual Financial Times representative.

Please note the advertising representatives cannot assist with editorial approaches or other editorial matters. Please be advised, Financial Times advertisers and sponsors have no influence on editorial content.

Business Education: European Business Schools

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 06 December, 2021

We are likely to include the following articles (please note that this list is provisional):

Introduction

How are European business schools faring after an extraordinary period of disruption in the pandemic. We look at the ways schools have responded to changes in demand for different programmes - and how Covid has affected the way they are taught. 

Editor’s Letter:  Looking at developments in business education and our coverage. 

Analysis

What does this year’s Financial Times ranking of European Business Schools tell us about trends in the market? 

Management Column

Andrew Hill, the FT’s management editor, explores current thinking around leadership. 

Professor’s Column

A business school professor shares thoughts and research on challenges facing business today. 

Charting European Schools

The FT’s rankings team use graphics to explore trends in the data that went to make up this year’s ranking.

Health

Covid has highlighted the urgent need to address fundamental weaknesses in health systems worldwide and European business schools are responding with the launch of healthcare management programmes.   

How I Did It

An in-depth interview with a graduate, exploring why they studied at business school and what it has meant for their career.   

Arts

The pandemic hit arts and culture particularly hard, with audiences and revenues disappearing. The situation has underscored the importance of management and business skills and schools are responding with new programmes. 

Alliances

This year a group of leading business schools launched the European Common Online Learning (ECOL) alliance, to provide “an international experience at home” for students who couldn’t travel because of Covid. How significant are such alliances and how important is it to establish a common European curriculum? 

Technology

An FT tech specialist explores developments that will affect business and our working lives. 

Student Views

EMBA students and graduates share their experiences of study and what came next.

In Real Life

A graduate explains in their own words what it was like to study and how it has affected their life and work.  

Editorial information:

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African Banking and Finance

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 17 December 2021

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

Introduction

Banks in Africa are seeking to recover from the worst recession in decades and its inevitable impact on non-performing loans. Nor has the continent, which has the lowest vaccination rates in the world, properly emerged from the pandemic. The impact of the pandemic has been more structural too, by accelerating the trend towards online banking and forcing some banks to speed up their IT plans. There is also more demand for regional banking as companies respond to continental trade integration, still in its nascent phase. Finally, competition with fintech is hotting up. Money, some from Silicon Valley, is pouring into fintech companies, challenger banks and other start-ups, from Cairo and Lagos to Nairobi and Johannesburg. How are established banks adapting to this shifting environment? 

South African Banks

Standard Bank, FirstRand, Absa, Nedbank and Investec, the five biggest lenders in Africa's most industrialised nation, are emerging from the pandemic as dominant as ever, with about 90 per cent of South Africa's banking assets. How will they navigate the post-pandemic economy, at home and in Africa as a whole? In a country where most people have a bank account but few ordinary South Africans turn to bank loans, what is the scope for improving access to finance? And what of government plans to foster a state bank? 

Kenya

Three of Kenya’s largest banks have been aggressively expanding across east and central Africa in recent years, in a push to become regional financial players. Nairobi is also trying to position itself as an international financial centre to match others on the continent, from Casablanca to Cape Town. Meanwhile, one leading Kenyan bank is providing services to refugees in camps in Kenya in a push for financial inclusion.

Plus: one leading Kenyan bank is providing services to some of the 500,000 refugees living in camps in Kenya in a push for financial inclusion

Morocco 

Two of Africa’s top 10 biggest banks by tier-one capital are Moroccan, with two more just outside that ranking. The biggest banks have continental aspirations and play a role in financing Morocco’s concerted investment push into sub-Saharan Africa. We look at the changing role of some of the most dynamic banks on the continent. 

Nigerian banks and the currency conundrum

How banks in Africa's biggest economy are navigating a central bank that has a focus on maintaining a strong naira. How are the quasi-capital controls, which have left investors waiting months to repatriate profits and many local companies unable to source foreign exchange, impacting the banks themselves? Nigeria has some of the most sophisticated banks on the continent, the biggest of which have a strong regional footprint. 

Somaliland

How remittance companies, founded and run by businesspeople from the unrecognised state of Somaliland, are competing globally. 

Mortgage Finance and Leasing

These two products, relatively new in Africa, are an area of strategic focus for several banks in a sign that institutions are responding to the needs of an emerging urban middle class. This article will examine the prospects for these two areas of finance and their impact in fostering economic activity. 

Interview

The FT sits down with the new head of the International Finance Corporation, to discuss the bank's priorities in Africa - from funding small and medium enterprises to promoting green finance and women's economic participation.

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FT Scoreboard:

The Business of Cricket

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on February 05, 2022 

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

Introduction: The State of English Cricket

Following a tumultuous two years where global cricket was disrupted by the pandemic, 2022 appears in the year that sports bodies hope to return to growth. That will allow Tom Harrison, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, to implement his bold vision for the future of the sport in the UK. He was the driving force behind the creation of The Hundred, a new short form tournament screened on Sky and the BBC this year. But he still needs to safeguard the main moneymaker for English cricket: Test matches. How will he reconcile the rise of short form cricket with maintaining interest in the longer form? What is he doing to revive participation rates in the sport at grassroots level, while maintaining the sports appeal among broadcasters and sponsors? How can the sport compete for eyeballs against football, Formula One and the myriad other sports trying to appeal for the same audiences. We sit down with Harrison to diagnose the state of the English game post-covid.

How the IPL Might get even Richer

The Indian Premier League has become a multi-billion dollar business. The tournament is the highlight of a sporting calendar for a country of 1.4bn, each season attracting record viewership and higher advertising spend despite the pandemic’s disruption. The world’s best players flock to a competition where they are paid more for two-months work, compared to the rest of their earnings across the year. 

What’s next? Its broadcasting contract with Disney’s Star Sports expires soon, with US technology giants such as Amazon and Facebook hinting they could bid for the rights. Franchises have begun to sell stakes to big American investors. The influx of new capital, particularly from the US, may just fund more boom times for the IPL and cement India’s power over the global game.

Is The Hundred a Success?

There were many detractors when English cricket launched “The Hundred”, a new short form tournament delayed a year. But the idea had worthy goals: tackle falling interest in the sport and participation rates in recreational cricket. The ECB insists the effort to reach beyond the sport’s traditionalists has been a success: more than 10m people watched the tournament on television, many of whom will have been newcomers to the game. That was helped by ensuring games could be viewed on free-to-air television on the BBC. 450,000 people attended matches in person, including womens games that were run as double headers alongside men’s matches. Roughly 60 per cent of attendees were under 45, with women making up about a fifth. But can The Hundred establish itself as more than a novelty in its second year? That will require smarter broadcasting, attracting more star players from abroad, and supporters becoming tied to city-based franchises rather than casual viewers looking for a fun night out. 

The Future of Test Cricket

New Zealand became the first World Test champions, beating India in a rain-affected but ultimately thrilling final at Lord’s in 2021. The new trophy was meant to breathe new life into the ancient format, a way of creating a reason to follow the disparate series happening year around between Test match nations. It’s not clear that just creating a World Championship is enough. Outside England and Australia, Test matches rarely fill stadiums and the global viewership is ageing. What can the International Cricket Council, the global governing body, do to arrest these alarming trends? 

The Business of The Ashes 

The one Test series that retains its allure is the Ashes. Australian and English players - each nation’s fans - still consider lifting the urn the pinnacle of the sport. The event continues to attract the world’s biggest broadcasters. Discovery entered the running to screen the 2021 Ashes in the UK, seeking to challenge BT Sport for the rights. The series also underpins the ECB’s more than £1bn rights deal with Sky, with further income from sponsors such as LV=insurance. We analyse the revenues and business behind the world’s greatest Test series.

The Rise of the Women’s Game, and the Barriers to Parity

The 12th Women’s World Cup takes place in New Zealand in 2022, another event that has been postponed a year due to the pandemic. It takes place with the women’s game on the rise, particularly with substantial new money flowing into the game in heavyweight nations such as England, Australia and India - all three being among the favourites for the coveted trophy.  But further investment is required to professionalise the women’s game globally, to ensure it is a spectacle that can entice television companies to screen games. More funding is needed to market matches to new audiences. Only then can female players hope to not just move closer to pay parity with their male counterparts, but earn enough to consider cricket a worthwhile career to pursue.

Merchandising: Why a Startup is Betting on Cricket to Power Sportswear Sales 

Castore is a five-year-old Liverpool-based sportswear business that is seeking to take on global behemoths such as Nike and Adidas. To do so, it has begun to sign endorsement deals with sports teams and athletes, such as tennis star Sir Andy Murray and English Premier League teams Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United. But Castore has also signed new kitwear deals with the bodies that run English and West Indies cricket teams in the past two years. Why? Because the company’s strategy is to associate with sports groups and figures that have escaped the attention of its bigger, wealthier rivals. Castore also wants its brand noticed by cricket-obsessed, affluent men aged 35-50. We interview Tom Beahon, Castore’s 31-year-old chief executive, on why cricket might just power the rise of a new sportswear giant.

Column: (Matthew Engel? Simon Hughes? Ed Smith?) 

A star columnist is invited to reflects on the future of the game

Information

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This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

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Brazil in 2022

The Financial Times proposes to publish this FT Report on 23 March 2022

We plan to include the following features (please note that this list is provisional):

Introduction: Brazil in 2022

Latin America's biggest economy faces a crossroads in 2022. What promises to be a highly divisive presidential election will pit incumbent hard-right president Jair Bolsarno against veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as the country struggles to emerge from one of the world's worst coronavirus epidemics and put the economy back on track. After four years of Bolsonaro's Trumpian brand of populism, Brazilians long for a moderate, pragmatic administration but they are highly unlikely to get it. 

Interview with Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro

[An interview has been requested but cannot be guaranteed]

Brazil’s Economy and Reforms 

Brazil's business lobby were enthusiastic supporters of the Bolsonaro government, hoping it would deliver major reforms to overhaul taxation and curb a bloated and costly state. But as the president enters his final year, many of those hopes have been frustrated and most of the structural change awaits the next government. Can Brazil overcome a chronic inability to improve its infrastructure and boost its international competitiveness or is it destined to remain mainly a commodity exporter? 

Brazil, Governance and Social Change

Environmental issues dominate the debate in Brazil, but the social aspect of ESG is hugely important. Despite accounting for almost 60 per cent of the country’s 210m population, black Brazilians occupy less than 5 per cent of executive positions and 5 per cent of seats on company boards. What progress is Brazil making on racial issues? Interview/profile of Edvaldo Vieira, chief executive of healthcare group Amil.

Elections of 2022

Two titans of Brazilian politics are poised to square off in 2022. But where and how will the election be decided? Dispatch from the battleground northeast, where both Lula and Bolsonaro are vying for crucial swing voters. What are the issues that will decide the election?

Brazil’s Droughts - The Climate Challenge

Increasingly severe droughts threaten Brazilian agriculture and industry, while environmental migration looms as a new obstacle for Latin America. What is being done now to stave off the climate crisis in Brazil? Will a potential Lula administration change tack on the environment?

Privatising Brazil 

Brazil is in many ways an outlier in driving ahead with an ambitious privatisation programme. A planned multibillion dollar sale of shares in state-controlled power utility Eletrobras is a pillar of the government’s liberal economic agenda and will test the water ahead of the proposed privatisation of Brazil’s postal service. What are investors being offered and will they buy into it?

Start-up Fundraising

This year has already smashed records for start-up fundraising and the momentum promises to continue in 2022. What accounts for the success of Brazil’s start-up sector and which companies are hitting the big time?

Brazil’s Science Heroes  

The Butantan biomedical institute emerged as one of the heroes of the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to its production of the Chinese CoronaVac jab and the creation of its own vaccine. What is the future for this poster child of Brazilian science post Covid? 

Security in Brazil

Security and violence dominated the election that brought Jair Bolsonaro to power in 2018. Will it loom so large in 2022? In recent years, gang violence has shifted away from cities like Sao Paulo towards the north of Brazil as drug traffickers take advantage of Amazonian riverine arteries.

Brazil’s Wine Industry 

Brazil has long been an agribusiness powerhouse, with much of its agribusiness and food industry centred in the region of Triângulo Mineiro. But there are some less likely food and beverage growth stories in the country also. Several specialist food and beverage industries are taking off unexpectedly in Brazil - including winemakers.

Information

■ Recently published FT Special Reports can be viewed at www.ft.com/specialreports 

A full list of published reports can be viewed at http://www.ft.com/reports/library Forthcoming FT Special Reports and their synopsis can be downloaded via the 

Future Reports link on the www.ft.com/specialreports page. 

For website assistance please call + (0) 20 7775 6297.

This editorial synopsis must not be amended in any way by anyone other than the Editor of Special Reports. 

All submissions or suggestions for editorial features should be sent to reports@ft.com 

This is to ensure all suggestions can be assessed and to enable the editorial team to cope with the huge volume of approaches that would otherwise stop them from doing their work. Due to the volume of approaches the editorial team are unable to confirm receipt or respond to all enquiries. 

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