We announced Siemens Turkey’s first “Siemens Innovation Contest” on March 11, 2015. With this contest that we plan to organize every year from now on, we aim to encourage the young generation to think innovatively. I think the most distinctive feature of this contest is our aim to share Siemens’ innovation know-how directly with university students and to include these talented young people in Siemens innovation network. The young generation obviously needs to meet with the know-how and become a part of the global networks in this area. But before that, we should offer them certain conditions. The first of these is an unconstrained environment.
Turkey needs to take revolutionary steps in innovation and that’s why I write about this topic so often. We all know our potential, our young population, and the increasing level of education. But for the sake of progress, we should be “innovative” and do it in a “revolutionary” way. In order for the development of Turkey to be completed, we need to make progress in the field of innovation and this should be in “revolutionary innovation”, rather than “evolutionary innovation”. The first requirement to realize this is to encourage innovative thinking by offering the necessary conditions and creating an unconstrained environment. I think the greatest advantage I had in my 12 years in the United States was this unconstrained environment. No wonder that America is known as the ’starting point of innovations”. There is a reason for this: No one is criticized for coming up with an innovative, different idea; on the contrary, it is encouraged. They are always open to different ways of thinking and particularly encourage young people to do so. That’s what we need basically.
As Siemens, we will celebrate our 160th year in Turkey next year. A 160-year history in a country would be bestowed on very few institutions. We are aware of this and we are committed to ensuring the sustainability of our long history in Turkey. This can only be possible by transforming the advantages that Turkey has into values and our greatest advantage is the youth. We will continue to carry out many other initiatives like “Innovation Contest” to reveal their innovative aspects. We will provide young talents with an environment in which they can do more “research” than “development”; we will provide them with our knowledge and encourage them to think freely. I believe that the most significant step to be taken by Turkey towards development will emerge at this point. I will continue to write about innovation. I hope I will have the opportunity to share information about our young talents who participate in the Siemens Innovation Contest and whose ideas have been implemented. I believe in the youth. The future of our country will be designed by young generations who are open to development.
For detailed information about the contest: www.siemens.com.tr/innovationcontest

I was in Germany recently. I was invited as a speaker to a meeting where the leaders of the largest SMEs all over the world would gather. They asked me questions about Turkey and the current situation. I told them about Turkey. Since the theme of the meeting did not cover political content, I tried to answer questions in an economic sense. I must say that Turkey is a great focus of attention. At this meeting, I witnessed it once more.

While assessing the situation in Turkey, rather than telling about the difficult times or existing problems, I wanted to put my thoughts on paper in a forward-looking, future-oriented manner. Actually, as a business person, I think that we should assess our country in this context and globalize out of this perspective. Of course, I am not saying we have no problems; we have challenges and problems, but we must focus on solving them. We owe a lot to Turkey and the future of Turkey and we have a responsibility. I think we should reflect our trust in our country to the outside world.

Life is a continuous exercise of problem solving

It would not be wrong to describe our present time as a “difficult period” for our country. In the short term, we may face some economic problems, but this does not change the fact that Turkey’s future in the medium-long term is bright.

Considering the future of countries in the medium and long term is a much more accurate approach. Turkey is a strong country. We have a young population that is open to innovative thinking and has a relatively high level of education. Our average age is 29. Again, we have a robust financial system built upon the lessons learned from a crisis. And the growth or potential of a country cannot be measured by its performance in one year only. Fluctuations may occur from time to time, not only in Turkey, but anywhere in the world. The important thing is to confront the problems and overcome them without ever being pessimistic about our future, and without forgetting “what we actually are and what we are capable of” or “who we are” as the old saying goes.