This book recounts the success story of the development of Megatrend University, which was founded in 1989 as a small business school. Over the past two decades, it grew to become the largest comprehensive private university in Southeast Europe with 28.000 students and 700 faculty. The grounds for a successful capacity-building were leadership of the founder, enthusiastic engagement by renowned foreign scholars, active internationalization and global networking. The detachments in 6 local towns set up be the University are another exceptional achievement that contributed to keeping young people from outward immigration to urban areas. The experiences of Megatrend University show that it is impossible to introduce market economy before market actors and institutional frameworks are created, highlighting the importance of raising actors first when aiming at a gradual system transformation