The Mobility Challenge in a Changing CEE Landscape

As companies expand across Central and Eastern Europe, leadership no longer sits neatly within national borders. Growth strategies increasingly depend on the ability to deploy senior talent across markets—yet moving executives is becoming more complex, less predictable, and harder to justify.

Organisations are navigating a fundamental tension: the need for agile, cross-border leadership versus shifting executive expectations around relocation, family priorities, and quality of life. At the same time, stronger local talent pools and evolving operating models are challenging the traditional reliance on expatriate assignments. As a result, companies are rethinking when—and whether—mobility is the right solution.

Our Approach

To better understand how these dynamics are playing out in practice, Boyden conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 30 local and regional CEOs, General Managers, functional and HR Directors operating across Central and Eastern Europe.

Data was collected through in-person meetings and video interviews, with executives responding to a structured set of questions covering professional background, relocation history, and perspectives on mobility.

Key Findings

• Executive mobility remains critical for leadership development
• Family considerations are the single biggest determinant of relocation success
• CEE is increasingly attractive, but perception gaps still exist
• Companies are becoming more selective with expatriate assignments
• Strong local leadership pipelines are increasingly replacing expat-heavy models
• Post-pandemic working models and digital collaboration tools are reshaping how companies manage leadership and operations across the CEE region

What to Expect

The insights that follow provide a grounded view of executive mobility in CEE today: where it is creating value, where it is constrained, and how organisations are adapting their leadership strategies to reflect a more selective and increasingly complex mobility landscape.

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