”I attended the opening panel of Uludag Ekonomi Zirvesi, the top summit for decision makers in Turkey. The summit takes place at the top of Uludag, a favorite ski destination in Turkey. It was snowing outside; but inside a really heated discussion took place how Turkey could take place in the transforming and ever changing world economy. The discussion topics revolved around digitization; a smart future and how enterprises will survive in the NEW ECONOMY.
My guidance to the industry was to stay ahead of everyone else through constant innovation. 1-build up your innovation centers and R&D not close to your manufacturing divisions or where your HQ are; rather in cities and countries where you intend to leapfrog to, in order to protect the new and genius ideas. 2-invest in start up relevant for yoru industry but leave them alone so they can thrive. 3-develop walls around new divisions you form and give them measurable other than just profit so they can thrive and make mistakes and they take risks. One of my comments made it to a bunch of headlines in next day’s newspapers: ‘promote people who take risks and fail businesses; because they learn the fastest.”
