Nostalgia does not bring prosperity
Güven Sak, PhD
12 February 2013
In 2013, what does a physicist do in Turkey, other than go abroad or tutor high school students studying for the university exam? Who deliberates on the future only can design its future. Those who waste their time on an obsession with the past eventually will realize that the ship has passed. I believe that Turkey’s main problem lately is that is it oriented toward the past rather than the future. A recent article in Nature journal has reignited the issue in my mind. According to the article, there are two types of countries: past-oriented and future-oriented. The study defines a future-orientation index. Turkey is still in the first group, which is yet another reason to be worried about the future. Anyway, the study, using the Google Trends dataset, defines two categories of countries an
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Terror financing bill not exactly in line with FATF recommendations
Güven Sak, PhD
09 February 2013
The Turkish Parliament has just passed a law for the prevention of terrorism financing. It is not exactly the law that the infamous Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has requested of Turkey. Not enough, why? There won’t be an automatic freeze in the Turkish case - as asked for by the U.S. and the FATF - as there is a cumbersome domestic decision-making process to freeze assets. Turkey wants to evaluate the FATF claims thoroughly, by scrutinizing the hard evidence. In other words, if an organization is claimed to have ties with terrorism, Turkey wants to see the hard evidence. Turks seem to be “cautious on harming civil liberties by extensive judiciary activism”! Good news? Yes, especially coming after the rather heavy handed treatment of the accused generals in the Ergenekon a
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‘Is there a place named Samsung?'
Güven Sak, PhD
08 February 2013
Why is Vestel not able to become like Samsung although Turkey smothers it companies with incentives? My nephew Sarp just turned 8 years old. He can read now and he likes reading everything he sees. The other day we were driving in Ankara, K on the Konya-Samsun road, when he asked me a question about the sign. In a confused tone, he asked “is there a place called Samsung?” Such is the world today. An eight year old child living in Turkey learns about Samsung before he learns about the Turkish province Samsun. Playing Sugar Rush on a Galaxy S3, children learn about Korea’s Samsung, but they do not know Turkey’s Samsun. Turkey’s electronics giant Vestel, for instance, does not have a prominent place in their lives, but Samsung’s products come into their lives before you know it. Product dive
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More LC Waikiki Stores
Güven Sak, PhD
05 February 2013
A country that has and maintains global brands is one that has global organizational skills If you don’t have organizational skills, you cannot create a brand. And without global organization skills, you cannot create a global demand. LC Waikiki, a Turkish brand on this course, has 370 stores in Turkey and 45 stores abroad. And when I say abroad, I don’t mean Northern Cyprus or something. The company opened its first store abroad in Romania. This was followed by Egypt, Albania, Iraq, Kazakhstan, and Poland. LC Waikiki has developed organizational skills. It has been taking firm steps to becoming the Zara or Mango of children’s wear. Does Turkey support the company in becoming a global brand? Not really. On the contrary, it directly sabotages the process of brandization. The latest example
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Doing business in Greece and Kurdistan
Güven Sak, PhD
02 February 2013
Turkey’s Doğuş Holding, a conglomerate active in several businesses including media and banking, has moved into the Greek maritime business. Its “D-Marine” group acquired a 50 percent stake in Flisvos Marina, one of the largest in Athens. The Hürriyet Daily News carried the news just at the end of last year. Early 2013 brought more investments by D-Marine in Greece. After investments in Turkey’s Aegean coast and on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, D-Marine has also become active on the other side of Greece as well. Having heard the good news, I decided to have a look at the figures. They appear rather good at first. The level of economic connectivity between Greece and Turkey is doubling. The trouble starts when you start making comparisons. Compare, for example, the rising connectivi
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Will CNC operators go extinct like cotton fluffers?
Güven Sak, PhD
01 February 2013
Just like that: technological advancement changes even the structure of institutions. It is hard to accept at first, but that’s the reality. When I was a kid in Bursa, cotton fluffers used to make the rounds through the neighborhoods. They don’t anymore. Have you ever seen one? Back then, mattresses had a different technology content. Mattresses, blankets, and pillows were made of cotton or wool. It flattened as you slept on it, so fluffers would come to fluff the cotton or wool in the street alleys. This way, the mattresses would become soft again and regain their shape. Then, the technology changed and the use of innerspring mattresses started to spread. The cotton-filled mattresses gradually disappeared, as did the cotton fluffers. The change in technology doomed the fluffers to the ant
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3D printers will directly link Konya to global value chains
Güven Sak, PhD
29 January 2013
3D printing has brought us the opportunity of making Konya a province through which a global value chain passes. The hottest development in 2012 for me was that I touched a 3D printout for the first time. Last year I learned what a 3D printer looked like. And I have to admit that I am still having a hard time believing what I saw. It felt like a science fiction movie, yet it is not. The first 3D printing museum was opened in China on the 15th. Visitors can have their bodies scanned and have miniature 3D sculptures of themselves. Such is the world now. We are on the eve of a new era during which the meaning of production in the sense we know it will change radically. Globalization will deepen even further, and directly and deeply affect Turkey’s Konya, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş’ı, Diyarbakır
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Why Amgen chose Singapore over Istanbul
Güven Sak, PhD
26 January 2013
Amgen is a U.S.-based multinational biotechnology company known for its clinical and commercial manufacturing of biotechnology-based medicines. The company started its Turkish operation in 2010. Last April it bought 95.6 percent of a rare research-oriented Turkish pharmaceutical company, Mustafa Nevzat, for $700 million.
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Are Turkey’s engineers Dilberts or Da Vincis?
Güven Sak, PhD
25 January 2013
To improve the sophistication in production, Turkey has to educate dynamic engineers. It has to increase the number of Da Vincis against that of Dilberts. Turkey needs more engineers. Turkey was a sleepy agricultural country before the 1980s. It has now become a dynamic, mid-tech industrial country. Now, we will either hop on the high-technology train or spend the next century in regret. High-technology requires more research and development (R&D). In the US, 53 percent of R&D staff overall have studied basic sciences and engineering. Turkey, too, needs more engineers from this perspective.
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If you cannot create a new world, you have to bear with the old one
Güven Sak, PhD
22 January 2013
Turkey is asking people’s help in combating terrorism in its territories, yet it is reluctant to take steps itself. As of the end of February 2013, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will suspend Turkey’s membership for not introducing a legal framework to eradicate terrorist financing networks. Turkey is asking people’s help in combating terrorism in its territories, yet it is reluctant to take steps itself. The related legislation has yet to be enacted. It will be negotiated by the Justice Commission soon. If the legislation is not enacted and the FATF suspends our membership, Turkey for the first time will be left out of the international community. It will join the black list with North Korea and Iran. It will be mentioned together with the outcasts. Please note that there is no ot
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