About a year ago, we were living an entirely different world. Most probably, we had many predictions and expectations about the near and distant future. However, the sudden occurrence of the pandemic, which rapidly became a global phenomenon, assumed extraordinary dimensions and caused sweeping impact.

Surely, epidemic diseases cause short-, mid- or long-term devastation on the one hand, while transforming societies on the other. Just as we are now experiencing. One of the most important lessons this disaster taught us has perhaps been prompting people to reflect on the kind of world they wish to live in. Even though we are not yet able to foresee the outcomes of Covid-19 in this respect, we are well aware that from now on, nothing will be the way it used to be. But, in my opinion, the effects of the transformation it brought about, especially on our daily lives and technology, give us some important clues about the future.

Maintaining our transformed habits is very important

2020 has been an extraordinary year. Necessities such as observing social distancing rules, using facemasks, washing our hands often and avoiding crowded indoor environments unless necessary, have caused considerable changes and restrictions in our ways and habits of living. However, such restrictions have also made a positive impact. We observed that the protective measures and practices adopted during the pandemic helped reduce the number of not only COVID-19 cases, but also other respiratory diseases. I believe that it is important for us to maintain this pandemic-induced cultural transformation in the future as well. Because, the studies being conducted reveal that the measures taken do help reduce the number of flu cases, but that vaccination is still important. Since the population immunity has been reduced due to the pandemic-induced restrictions and different practices, some comments are being made to point to the likelihood of a sharp increase in the number of flu cases after the pandemic. Thus, maintaining the newly acquired habits regarding acts of close physical contact such as hugging and shaking hands is important to protect ourselves, as well as our loved ones against the risks.

The Brave ‘Digital’ World After the Pandemic

One of the most significant pandemic-related changes has definitely been observed in the area of digitalization. Using digital technologies is now the only way to sustain life, as well as economic activities. We have seen how important it is to work, produce, and communicate remotely, in short, to move everything we can to the digital environment. Most importantly, we have seen that this was possible. We have also witnessed a reduction in the human-related impacts on climate change, as well as its reflections on the nature. Millions of people have been able to recover the time they used to spend in heavy traffic everyday. We have been able to complete tasks more efficiently, in a shorter time, and with less error.

Indeed, at this point, Turkey stands on the threshold of a critical opportunity to be ready to respond to the requirements of the new world. Accelerating investments in digitalization and new technologies is very important on Turkey’s path to becoming an advanced manufacturing economy.

It is very pleasing to see that significant investments and undertakings are taking place in this field in our country. For example, founded by the Turkish Metal Industrialists Union (MESS) to carry Turkey into the next industrial revolution, MEXT represents one of the most substantial investments made in this area. As the world’s largest digital transformation and competence development center, MEXT will surely be an important milestone in Turkey’s digitalization journey.

As Siemens Turkey, we are among the digitalization partners of MEXT, providing support with our innovative technologies. Assuming a powerful position in the new digital world will be enabled by the increase in the number of such centers as MEXT. Therefore, I believe that it is highly important that the leading organized industrial zones (OIZ) of our country should take action and establish similar centers to support digital technologies and innovation for the future of our country. We need to proceed with brave and rapid steps to carry our country to a powerful position in the new digital world and increase the number of investments like MEXT, as well as innovative enterprises. Only then, we can create more value for the society and human life, shaping the required infrastructure to build a future today.

The fifth generation of mobile communication (5G) will certainly trigger a remarkable change in our lives. What first comes to mind is faster mobile communication, but this is only a minor aspect of 5G. Companies will be able to establish much more perfect and uninterrupted connection between machines, while also making production facilities and internal logistics a lot more efficient, autonomous and flexible.

Before discussing what 5G is or how it will affect our daily lives, I would like to indicate the concept of wideband or high-speed networks. The humankind has always attached priority and importance on building roads, constructing bridges even at the first stages of our common civilization in order to bring geographies and cultures closer. This was how we could ensure communication, improve trade, converge and connect people, incidents and ideas. I believe it is important to use the same perspective to evaluate the popular high-speed and network connectivity issues related to 5G.

It would be appropriate imagining 5G as a global wireless network designed to connect all public / private domains and manufacturing sites – from government offices to residences, plazas and municipalities, from automated shelf systems to robots, etc. Today, many of the machinery and tools in production facilities are still connected via cables. However, with the new 5G communication standard to become operational in 2020, this will definitely change soon. At first, the data rate will be 1 to 5 gigabits per second and eventually increase up to 20 gigabits per second. This is a huge leap to increase the data rate by 10 to 20 times compared to the previous LTE.

While offering us opportunities for faster communication, greater business development and trade, 5G also brings along a security risk, in a very similar way as the roads and bridges do. That is exactly the point where cybersecurity emerges. We need to put new approaches forward to be able to keep the economic traffic secure. Cybersecurity is no longer a matter of hardware and software. Given the recent recent publicly reported global cyberattacks, it is vital to adopt a human-focused approach and to reflect this approach in our corporate culture if we want to prevent any potential risks.

I am one of those who believe that the internet is a great structure for free flow of information. However, we shouldn’t ignore the value of data as we focus on the value of the content. Yes, we sometimes do exactly that. According to BARC independent research company, as the revenues of corporations using Big Data increase by 8 to 10 percent, total costs fall 10 percent as well. Even if we put aside the extra employment to be created by data-focused jobs, time savings alone will result in focusing more on core functions of the business world and producing more creative results. Thus, 5G offers very valuable

No matter our focus is, our true goal is always to seek the new and to search for innovations. 5G will contribute greatly to the quest and support the emergence of the “new”. Therefore, we need to be ready for this development and to take action in terms of finding out how to benefit from the opportunities of 5G and how to adapt to the new world.

As digital transition significantly increases the scale and capacity of our daily capabilities, many tasks performed by human beings for a very long period of history are on the eve of a serious change. All algorithms and code-based systems that we unite under the umbrella of Artificial Intelligence generate a domain consisting not only digital, but also physical, thanks to robots. On the other hand, there is a general concern about this trend: What if we are to lose our jobs due to it?

According to me, we imagine not a single one, but a multitude of alternatives as we talk about the future. Therefore, looking into the future of artificial intelligence, I would like to underline the fact that we are not conversing about a final, absolute or single thing. We should keep in mind that there might be other possibilities for change. Artificial intelligence will not only carry economies forward, but also drive a leap forward. It will also create a large wave of employment.

However, in this blog post I will focus on some of those popular beliefs and people’s fear about unemployment. The same fear had emerged in previous industrial revolutions as well. Yet, with a different perspective, we can foresee that people may thus assume new jobs that require more competence and qualifications, and these jobs may bring rewards that are appropriate for human dignity. In the post-artificial intelligence period, we will not be obliged to do repetitive tasks or those requiring physical strength. We should leave those to robots and artificial intelligence. Such an approach will also eliminate gender discrimination and division of labor, as there will no longer be heavy working conditions. So we need to explore the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence as opportunities and make sure that hindrances against women’s careers are thus removed.

Artificial Intelligence means, a race towards the unknown and an opportunity to discover what is yet undiscovered to me. Today we call it “artificial intelligence” implying its “fabrication” and we continue to discuss the “intelligence” side. One day, the “artificial” part will be totally erased and so we will name it “intelligence” alone. That is why we need to begin to internalize the concept and work hand in hand with it. We have already seen how our smartphones become a limb of ours. On the other hand, quoting artificial intelligence we define a remote, somehow alien concept. In the future, we will see that certain technologies will also become a part of our physical being and identity. We will work as we did when these technologies did not exist at all, but we will be integrated with them and be in harmony. When those days come and we embrace these benefits, I don’t think any one of us would ever look back and remember the old. Otherwise, we would still be carrying sticks in our pockets and drawing lines on the sand to make calculations.

To be successful in today’s world, we need to leave pessimism aside and try to understand and embrace the future. We may have to endure short-term problems for long-term developments, but it is also possible to minimize such problems by focusing on education, the right topics and welfare-oriented efforts.

No matter how concrete are your precautions, the existence of them in any sphere of life does not guarantee you feeling safe. In fact, the world of cybersecurity is full of such mistaken thoughts. For example, the state of believing that hackers or hacks do not target you simply because you have not yet been hacked is called “security delusion”.

Today, the variety of cyberattacks that an institution might face increases in proportion to the developing technologies. Taking a closer look at such new threats, we see that tiny sensors that can connect to the internet thanks to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) remind us of a new responsibility to pay attention to. Here, it is not only our personal data that is under threat. Our whole way of life can be adversely affected, interrupted, or even life can come to a halt in extreme cases of cyberattacks.

The following figures may give us an opinion on how serious the issue is: Cyberthreats caused more than 500 million Euro loss globally in 2016 alone. When the number of connected devices reached 8 billion in 2017, communication among these devices increased 30 percent in one year only. Considering that the number of such devices is expected to exceed 20 billion next year, we can easily understand why the World Economic Forum’s 2018 report classifies cyberthreats as the biggest problem of the business world in developed regions.

We have all witnessed in the past few years how large-scale cyberattacks like Petya and Wannacry affect the economy, as well as powerplants, digital factories, autonomous cars, or even healthcare institutions, all of which are vital for our daily lives. To avoid becoming a victim to such disasters, we need to establish a safety philosophy, then adopt and absorb this philosophy at every level – from individuals to societies.

It is in the nature of humans to break rules and laws. We can implement regulations and use sophisticated technology to shield us from selfish criminal attacks, however only to a degree. As laws can be broken, so can be security measures and encryptions by those who want to harm the society. For this it is essential to create awareness, collaborate and make the impact of security an essential aspect of education in our society. 

Charter of Trust, a cybersecurity initiative, lays the foundations of our responsibility. This initiative that we announced during the Munich Security Conference a year ago has made great progress with the approval of the 10-article charter by 16-member institutions who agreed to collaborate in the future.

Simultaneously with the announcement of the charter, we established a cybersecurity ecosystem of 1,300 people. On the other hand, we have special practices to increase the security level of our products and develop new solutions for our customers. Since Siemens suppliers are also within this scope, there are binding provisions for them in all new contracts. These provisions define the minimum requirements for cybersecurity. Last October, we took another important step by accepting 17 minimum provisions for digital supply chains as well. While doing these, we adopt an approach to simplifying processes for our company, our customers and our suppliers, rather than making things more complicated.

I would like to once again emphasize that the most important component in cybersecurity is humans. To me, the most valuable contributions of the Charter of Trust are the trainings. We devise trainings to increase employee awareness on issues varying from basic information such as strong passwords to multi-level security measures like access authorizations and encryption. However, cybersecurity should be more than an internal practice for companies. Therefore, we aim to make it a part of high school and university curricula. Thus, we will equip young people with the tools they need in order to design security in the digital world.

In the last 20 years, technology has become a major force that radically changes our lives, beyond its automation-based and task-focused structure. And digitalization shows that technology has the potential to create even larger impact on social life compared to our daily lives.

The “Digitalization for Prosperity” panel to which I also attended as a speaker during the Uludağ Economy Summit in March 2019 summarizes this transformation with a great title. The prosperity mentioned here is an extensive concept. It covers everything from our inner peace to improving corporate efficiency, achieving abundance in a country, and solutions to today’s problems.

As I said during my speech there, digitalization has woven a web around every moment and area of our lives with invisibly thin but robust bonds. To say it in the simplest form, our personal assistants on mobile phones or smart speakers are in fact nothing but applications running on the cloud. Systems such as these evaluate the data we generate almost as frequently as breathing, make predictions based upon these data, and provide the opportunity to transform business processes thoroughly. Next generation applications that we create by using these technologies may even transform an entire industry.

On the other hand, thinking that private companies have the greatest responsibility in digitalization may come to mean missing the holistic scale of the issue. Certainly, education will be one of the architects of a social transformation. Today, as we identify the requirements for the future, we have already taken steps such as coding and digital literacy trainings to raise digital individuals who can meet these foreseen requirements. From now on, we will draw the roadmap for curricula and training models to benefit from Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies.

Another important issue is healthcare. Applications that require individual monitoring can currently be performed via smartwatches and bracelets. Solutions such as remote contact with doctors especially in regions with limited access to healthcare services or storing the data on cloud have already started to be practiced. Now, an important transformation is on the way to predict illnesses that create a burden on healthcare and even social security systems and to rearrange the processes of the healthcare system.

Equal opportunities for the increasing population

Euromonitor states that sixty percent of the global population will be living in cities by 2030. As this transformation takes place, smaller settlements will become urbanized, cities will turn into megacities through immigration, and number of cities with population higher than 10 million will increase to 39.

That is where Smart City practices will come to the aid to local authorities and citizens. Sensors placed in every corner of the city and on vehicles will enable much higher standards for the daily life in all areas from traffic to air pollution, natural disaster measures, and town planning.

Thanks to complete digitalization, i.e. building an end-to-end digital structure, equal opportunities will become an attainable target, rather than an ideal. Thanks to this equality we will be able to make sure that not only gender inequality in working conditions will be bridged, but also opportunities will be allocated equally. However, next generation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things, as well as the Digital Transformation that benefits from the progress of these technologies will give us a present that is more important than all: sustainability. And this is what we need the most as we worry about the distribution and lack of natural resources and pursue a possibility of life on other planets…

Today, we frequently discuss the role of new digital technologies in transforming almost all industries and current ways of doing business by creating new areas of practice. Among these, one of the most interesting to me is healthcare, because it’s focus is directly related to improving the quality of human life. Many game-changing new innovations are expected in this area and we have already started to see the first examples of these. Let’s take a look at the benefits that Siemens Digital Twin technology, which we attach great importance to, offers to healthcare.

First of all, let me briefly explain what Digital Twin means. The example of digital twin technology is a paradigm or model of new trends where sophisticated SW and competences in data analytics with AI can improve the quality of our life. Siemens Digital Twin technology ensures building a virtual version of a factory before physical construction and offers a simulation of all production phase. Thus, research, testing and production processes of companies and institutions become a lot faster, more efficient and economical. All the digitalization projects in which we employed Digital Twin technology have so far provided great efficiency and savings in the business processes of our stakeholders. Examples of these are available in Turkey in various sectors. 

In addition to accelerating and facilitating processes, Digital Twin also enables boutique production and customization. Obviously, the concept of “customization” becomes more and more important. Customized solutions are not only about preferences or tastes; they can be of vital importance in areas such as healthcare. Our expertise in digitalization and our Digital Twin technology reinforce our practices in this area and create a base for future applications in healthcare. And future possibilities in healthcare truly thrill us.

Perhaps very soon, we will be able to generate digital twins of “customized” organs such as the heart and lungs, or of tissues and even individual cells. Such simulations will help healthcare professionals to understand how different individuals react to different treatments. Operations will first be performed on digital twins and anything that might go wrong will be identified in advance. Here the gathering and analysis of data with new AI applications plays a crucial role in all aspects of our life. 

We all know that early diagnosis and early monitoring of any precursors that precede healthcare issues is of essence. Digital twin will provide significant benefits in this area as well. Through sensors, we can continuously send data to our digital twin on the condition of our organs and thus ensure early diagnosis of a potential health problem. For instance, metastases that may occur in the post-treatment process of cancer patients can be very rapidly identified with this method. And ultimately, totally customized medical care can be offered through affordable and almost real-time models to help diagnosis and treatment.

An example to the possible transformational impact of digital technologies on the healthcare industry is Siemens Healthineers Digital Heart Twin. Siemens Healthineers developed an artificial intelligence platform to generate a 3D physical structure of the heart by using its electrical and physical data. Aiming to support surgeons in treatment plans, the digital heart twin can serve as a vehicle to use artificial intelligence in diagnosis and treatment. 3D-printed digitally-intelligent heart twin enables simulations so as to help doctors run some tests before surgery. That means a cardiologist, before entering the OR, can simulate and monitor on his computer screen how the patient with congestive heart failure reacts to the treatment; by means of placing the electrodes of a pacemaker on the 3D digital heart twin that simulates the patient’s heart cells as well as its electrical and physical qualities.

Although the Digital Twin technology is in a development stage in the healthcare industry, it has a great potential to offer significant new developments and treatments in a very short time. And, of course, widespread adoption of this technology in the industry means many opportunities for both the patients and the healthcare professionals in terms of improving the quality of life.

The lifecycle of the butterfly is the representation of both the necessity and the magnificence of evolving through transformation and thus targeting perfection. The digital age offers many opportunities for this transformation.

The digital age brings along advantages for companies with the ability to adapt, while being the beginning of the end for the rest. Today, rules of the game are changing rapidly. Some of the top 100 companies perish, but new companies emerge and quickly take place in the top lists. The new age requires change and transformation. Speed, agility and adaptability are the essentials of success. In the near future, only companies that can quickly adapt to digital transformation will survive.
In the past, companies used to accelerate change and transformation efforts only when they experienced trouble. Today, we do not have the luxury to wait to start the transformation, because change has a different perception of time; you do not realize before it strikes you. Sometimes it progresses slowly and you don’t understand that it approaches before it really starts to affect your life. And sometimes it comes up so quickly that it literally catches you by surprise; you suddenly notice its effect and it forces you to transform. Before change surprises and transforms us by force, we need to be prepared and alert by becoming part of the change processes.
Therefore, as Siemens, we encourage our employees to assess their digital readiness levels through our Digital Maturity Index project and offer training and development plans according to their levels. We also want them to identify their own tasks, so they define their future as well and do not feel surprised at the pace of digitalization.
As Siemens, we have assumed responsibility in the development of new technologies and digital trends throughout our history and we have been among the “earliest adopters”. Thus, we led innovation, change, and transformation. On top of that, we assumed the mission of guiding digital transformation and companies all over the world and in Turkey.
With this perspective, we developed the Vision 2020 strategy four years ago to accelerate our own change and transformation process. We have achieved success with this vision. Today, almost all our businesses are much more profitable than before, our customer satisfaction levels are very high, and our Digital Factory division is the market leader in industrial digitalization. However, change does not stop, it continues. Therefore, we have taken our vision to the next level this year and created Vision 2020+ plan.

Within the scope of Vision 2020+, we are shifting from a “uniform” structure to a target- and market-oriented structure that can easily adapt to the disruptive trends and consolidation in the market. Our aim is to serve the society and create value for all of our stakeholders. In order to maintain our success and create more value in the long term, we implement a simplified and a leaner company structure. Our new and advanced structure will enable us to respond to market trends more rapidly than before and to develop innovative systems even faster.
We are changing because the world makes this change inevitable.
We are changing because the markets we serve experience wide-scope changes.
But is this change enough?
For the Turkish economy to reach the status it deserves and to improve the welfare of the society, all private and public institutions need to change, transform, and benefit from the advantages of the digital age. This can only be possible if the state, the private sector and the academia work in cooperation.
The way to succeed in digitalization passes through innovation and education. We need to develop the latest technologies and innovative solutions in our own country. New R&D factories are crucial. At this point, the support of public institutions and joint projects with the private sector are of great importance.
In order to realize these, we need qualified, well-educated human resources. In this respect, it is critical to develop communication between industry and academia and to reveal the potentials of the youth.
As a company operating in Turkey for 162 years and creating value for the society and national economy, Siemens Turkey will continue to use every means available to us to accelerate the digital transformation of our country. Accordingly, we are looking forward to increasing and improving cooperation with universities and public institutions, strengthening our ties, and implementing new initiatives.

The title might sound a little weird to you at first. It can take quite a long time to define something as “authentic” so yes, you’re right. Electric carriages are new after all, aren’t they?

This year we celebrate the 200th birthday of our founder, Werner von Siemens; a true genius. But that wasn’t his only admirable characteristic: He was also a successful entrepreneur, similar to the start-up founders of today. He was the founder of a company that operates today in more than 200 countries with approximately 350 thousand employees. A visionary approach certainly plays an important role in his success. Pioneers such as Werner von Siemens transformed Berlin into an electric city (‘Electro polis’) in the first years of the 20th century, as early as 1900s. The second industrial revolution (today we are talking about the fourth) was triggered by the advent of electricity and Berlin became the European center of electrical industry. To give an example from our country, Siemens was the brand that introduced the first electric tram to İstanbul in 1914.

Many people don’t know of these facts. Well then, how many of you are aware of modern transportation systems being built not only upon “internal combustion engines”, but also on “electrical vehicles”? Specifically Berlin was a city on the move with electrical power. Egger-Lohner, manufacturer of Porsche P1 (a.k.a. C.2 Phaeton), the first electric vehicle by Porsche, manufactured electric vehicles in Charlottenburg together with various entrepreneurs, while Werner von Siemens lived his dream of “electromotor” in Halensee in 1882 – that was 134 years ago.

Today, we have items such as “the future of energy” and “autonomous vehicles” on our agenda. Although it took electric carriages more than a century to become commercially available, they are now becoming more and more widespread. The main motive is essentially “environmental sensitivity”. Should we really spend another 100 years waiting for a similar motive so that another visionary innovation such as “autonomous vehicles” can become widespread? It’s worth giving a thought.

In my opinion, the best thing about the social media is that it allows feedback and exchange of ideas. I have recently had an experience that supports my belief. In my Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ accounts, I posted an interview from the Siemens Customer Magazine and asked for my followers’ views on “smart cities.”
While some comments identified the “smart city” concept as cities and infrastructures that make peoples’ lives easier, some of them claimed that “smart cities” would bring more chaos. Of course, it is natural to have disagreements on any subject. But I think what we should focus on now is what people expect from technology companies to transform technology into benefits for the daily life.
As far as I can see, the biggest expectation is improvements in transportation, safety, and environmental initiatives. Therefore, it is necessary to focus not only on building technologies, but also on transportation technologies. Among the comments on transportation, I was mostly affected by the loss of lives due to delays of ambulances in heavy city traffic.
There is a very important article on this subject in the November issue of Siemens’ Future and Trends magazine. The article is about an EU project by Siemens and its partners. This project aims to ease city traffic by connecting the traffic lights and the drivers. During the tests, 12 ambulances, 2 electric vehicles, and 20 signaling systems were equipped with various communication units. Every 10 seconds, these communication units send information to certain points on the road via a dedicated WLAN network. For example, when the information on an approaching ambulance arrives, the traffic light turns green as long as it won’t cause a serious effect on traffic. I believe that such technological developments can increase the chance of survival in cases where even seconds are critical. In short, as in everything else, life should be the priority when it comes to smart cities.

In my previous post, I had mentioned the developments in communication methods over the centuries and underlined the fact that we live in the age of information.
The impacts of this age on consumers, business world and individuals should in fact be handled in detail. Nevertheless, let me try to address the main issues here.
Media has been one of the first industries to change with the new digital technology. Thanks to the efficiency of the internet and other targeted media channels, many newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters have made significant income and profit. For instance, as the largest media company in the world, Google generates a very limited amount of original content, but still defines itself as an “engineering company”.
We have several new options to access news, information and entertainment. As the number of professional journalists continues to decline, technology now makes it possible for everyone to write articles and generate their own readers. New forms of online journalism have already started to close the existing gaps.
On the other hand, we face difficult questions. For example, does easy access to information also mean increased knowledge and wisdom? Massive flow of information from many sources may not be as reliable as the information that reaches us through the analog era processes – such as by the choice of well-educated editors, assessment of academic experts, or independent assessments through financial tools. Websites such as Wikipedia, which allow sharing information and documents all over the world, can truly enable sharing the information in general, but we occasionally discuss the reliability of the tools that bring us the “OBSCURE” information that needs to be researched and understood in more detail.
The good thing about all these developments is that almost all public information is just a click away from us. However, the downside is that excessive flow of unfiltered information causes confusion. Telecommunication, intellectual property, and even migration laws should now be updated according to today’s technologies and improved for future technologies. Likewise, the basis of national defense is now determined by how well the information pieces about threats are gathered and associated. This requires an advanced mechanism for gathering and associating information through open but secure systems, which often contradicts the culture of hierarchy within the bureaucracy of the state. Still, technology experts are optimistic, and they have every reason to be so.
I personally think that as the accessibility of information increases, individuals get more options, authority, and freedom to choose. When information and know-how become widespread, financial and human capital become more global and more competitive. Uncertainties in new technologies and keeping distance from technology can be distressing; but the die is already cast.
According to the First Law of Technology, we tend to “exaggerate the short-term impact and then take all long-term impacts lightly in every technological change that affects consumer behavior”. Ten years ago, the “dot-com” era was exaggerated, but the web has become a tool that is accessible everywhere and used for all purposes.
In brief, we live in the age of information, but we have recently started acquiring the knowledge and understanding to learn how this age will affect our lives.