OneMBA European Residency: Days Four/Five
Hello from Istanbul, Turkey!
The past 24 hours have been an incredible whirlwind! Yesterday afternoon, the OneMBA class traveled via Turkish Airlines from Amsterdam to Istanbul to complete the European Residency. This portion of the residency is focused on learning about the challenges that business leaders face in an emerging economy. Istanbul, in particular, is a fascinating subject because it’s the only city in the world that resides on two continents: Europe and Asia. To make matters even more interesting, this is a country that is governed by an Islamic government, but is very much a capitalist society interested in becoming part of the European Union.
Our first speaker this morning, Professor Soli Ozel of Istanbul Bilgi University, focused on that topic of, “Islamic Issues and its Impact on Business & Social Life.” He was fascinating! I literally took pages upon pages of notes. A few key points that stood out for me:
- Islam and Capitalism can coexist, and Turkey is proof. The trend in the Muslim world is for Capitalism to be further integrated.
- “Nobody creates something without making mistakes.” Turkey has been on a path toward becoming “Western” for 200 years now, and it’s made its share of mistakes (and will continue to do so). But, it’s made incredibly great strides toward democracy and Capitalism.
- One reason (perhaps the chief reason) the Islamic government won the people’s vote is because they are “committed to delivering services.”
- Turkey’s foreign policy is driven by its economic interests. According to Professor Ozel, it’s in the best interest of Turkey and the rest of Europe for Turkey to become part of the European Union, but it’s unclear whether that will ever happen. In the meantime, they will continue to foster open relations with their Muslim neighbors (i.e. Syria, Iran, Jordan, etc.)
- One of the next big challenges for Turkey: ”How do we define our Secularism?”
I could go on; like I said, he was thought-provoking and informative.
The next speaker was equally impressive. Professor Nakiye Boyacigiller, Dean of the Faculty of Management at Sabanci University, spoke about “Cross Cultural Communications” and specifically shared some information about Turkish culture. During her talk, I wrote down a few statements that gave me pause:
- Turkey is the 17th largest economy in the world.
- 60 percent of Turkey’s population is younger than 30 years old.
- 38 percent of University professors in Turkey are women.
- While gender remains an issue in this part of the world, education, class and family trump gender.
I’m sure you can imagine that the Q&A session after each of these speakers was lively!
In addition to the speakers, the students spent the afternoon on company visits, ranging from large (CNN Turk) to medium-sized organizations (Kahmi Roc Museum), and they have this evening free to meet with their teams and/or socialize. Istanbul is a beautiful city, and I look forward myself to visiting some of the historic sites. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a short video of a OneMBA student (from RSM) sharing his thoughts about this part of the residency.
