Institutionalism (3)

In the previous sections of the concept of corporateness, we have mentioned the subjects of “The customer is always right” and “Leaders who create a predictable vision with the phenomenon of corporate traditions” with some anecdotes. In this section, we will include anecdotes related to the subject of "commercial risk and vision to be taken on time and in place".

I was in Oman in the 2000s. The climate is very hot. Normally, it does not fall below 40 degrees. Even in winter, the coldest day is between 25-30 degrees. We also have a 7-8 month old child. The weather suddenly dropped to 18 degrees. We always felt that we were cold because we were used to the heat. It wasn't much of a problem for me and my wife, but since our son is quite active, we were worried about his sudden cold. There was no temperature feature in the air conditioners either. We had to go to the store and buy a device that blows hot air. Oddly enough, I was surprised that such a product was sold in this climate. Anyway, this temporary situation returned to normal after a few days. We bought this electric heater, which we will never use again, even for 3 days, for the health of our child.

I found my surprise about this heater incident in an anecdote about the boss of an electronics company I worked for later. This company I worked for was a very large company in its field. The company was a family business and the boss had come to these levels sarcastically. You see, he had a primary school education. He just had a great commercial entrepreneurship. I was quite surprised to hear how you turned a situation similar to my Oman case into a profit.
Our boss went to Costa Rica for a break. He toured the bazaar. One night, with the bright idea that came to him from the cooling air, he immediately called his company and instructed that they would export emergency electric heaters to Costa Rica. Managers were surprised. Although they did not understand much about what to do with the electric stove in that hot environment, the necessary actions were taken and the export was realized.

Then, as the demand exploded, our boss managed to sell 150 thousand heaters to Costa Rica in a short time. In a similar event I experienced in Oman, I saw that it was not necessary to make a commercial breakthrough or to do an MBA. I do not mean this to belittle the importance of education. Being an entrepreneur and a leader must be something different. I've seen firsthand that trading is a healthy risk-taking business. It is important to take the risk of taking the right steps at the right place and time.

I was working as a manager in a company with about 15,000 employees. There was a famous meatball maker in the Organized Industry we are in. We used to go here for lunch occasionally for a change. Only this meatball maker was very famous. Since time is limited during lunch hours, it was very difficult to find a place if you did not come here early. Therefore, it was commonplace to share the same table with people we didn't know. Again for a lunch one person asked permission to sit at our table.
• He asked if I could sit in that empty place, if you don't mind,
• We're welcome too,
• The subject opened up with greetings and a short introduction,
• The person sitting at our table had a job that used to work as a turner but now imports machinery from Germany,
• He said that he was there that day to install a machine he sold,
• When there was some sincerity, we asked if his job was efficient,
• Are you satisfied with this job? We were asking about general topics such as how well it pays off.
• What this person told was incredible,
• According to what he told, the monthly income of the person could not even be compared with ours,
• He was calling very attractive numbers,
• It was hard to believe,
• I asked if we should do it in our office to make a joke.
• The man said very seriously that "you can't do it", this job is not for you,
• He understood that I was offended by looking at his face to see if he had a little ego,
• Ooo, I'm sorry, I didn't say you can't do it in terms of disrespect,
• You are engineers, I am sarcastic,
• I buy a second hand machine from Germany,
• Less repair and maintenance, some paint and I sell it,
• Since I am sarcastic, I do not know calculations like you engineers,
• You calculate the age of the machine purchased, look at the warranty life,
• As you can see, your engineering prevents you from taking risks in trade,
• Since I can't calculate as much as you do, I do this with ignorant courage, perhaps stemming from not knowing what I need to know.

The man was right, business was something different. The wheels of life were turning differently. In fact, this also applies to institutional structures. How entrepreneurial is it for companies claiming to be corporate to put academic-dominated senior executives just because they have studied a lot in every field? It is difficult to understand!

Aside from the unreasonableness of bringing a very good engineer to an administrative position and making him a manager, if that engineer accepts that job, it is a situation that makes it doubtful that he is actually a good engineer. It is essential to be institutional in practice, not institutional in name.

I would like to give an anecdote that I remember from the years I was in America, from the automobile company "Chrysler". I think it was in the 1980s. Chrysler is awesome had fallen into crisis. They almost declared bankruptcy. Actually, they had. A large government-backed loan was made so that the company would not go bankrupt and people would not lose their jobs. Lee Lacoca was appointed as the head of the company during that crisis period. Lee announced his salary as 1 USD (annual).
• Lee wanted everyone to take responsibility to get out of the crisis,
• It started with a strong message,
• His message was very strong,
• Everyone's earnings were proportional to the company's earnings and required ownership from the lowest to the highest,
• This would be achieved by giving company shares instead of salary,
• So everyone would feel and know that they are in the same boat,
• The job was so serious,
• It was the new rule that the unprofitable company did not make heavy salary payments,
• Of course, in the meantime, creative ideas were being dealt with,
• The work was about to start to pay off,
• Chrysler managed to launch the Cherokee, the first SUV in the world, in this turmoil,
• The famous Cherokee jeep we all know was on the market,
• The firm was flat within a few years,
• To put it this way,
• Lee's annual official salary of $1 was $13 million due to his share of the annual income.

It is symbolic that his salary has grown from $1 to $13 million. We can attribute this to innovations in the firm's overall operating capability. The essence of the work was the success achieved with the effort and perseverance. If the company wins, I win. Otherwise, it would be a relative responsibility to seek help from a failing company. What was done was a complete win-win practice.

In the 1960s-70s, many US companies were in crisis due to the recession. The companies had cut the training budgets allocated to the employees as the first thing. Despite the cuts made in education, a positive contribution to their development has not been achieved. General Electric (GE) has taken a different approach. Instead of making cuts from education, it has trained idle workers. Instead of dismissing the personnel who did not produce due to the decrease in demand, they took an intensive training program in order to consolidate and improve their experiences. He developed the competencies of those who are weak in his field. Certification programs were opened in line with the developed competencies.

With this approach, which at first seemed like a meaningless investment, after the country came out of the recession, GE outperformed its competitors thanks to its self-improving employees.
Again, I would like to give an example from GE. GE has an interesting education policy. It offers free training opportunities to the companies it sells products to. I attended 2 of these trainings at the aviation company I work for. These were the trainings that I found really unusual and very useful. For one thing, the trainings were given by very competent people who had worked in different positions in the company for many years.

First of all, the planning was done very well. The program flow and all the requirements were specified.
• The first training was 3 days. It was determined as Friday-Sunday,
• The instructor's presentation tactics were excellent,
• We started the lesson on the first day. The trainer was explaining the program,
• Everything was fine. The definition of the program flow was finished.
• Just as the lesson was about to begin, a notification came from the instructor with a rather tactical attitude,
• What he said back to the class was very meaningful,
• I wanted to remind my friends without forgetting:
• “Please do not forget to turn on your mobile phones at the end of the day class.”
• “There may be people who want to reach you all day.”
• He didn't say anything else,
• If I have to say based on my previous experience,
• In all the trainings or meetings I attend, people play with their phones indifferently,
• They would never turn it off in the face of this kind of gentleman approach of this trainer, but they turned off their mobile phones out of respect,
• The tactic was very constructive and striking.

The way the training was conducted was also very different. Of course, there should have been a recycling in his free education. If it is paid in groups of 30 people, the price per person is 1575 USD. It amounts to 45-50 thousand USD.

The first 2 days of the 3-day training are spent with hands-on work on 2 projects chosen by the participants, who are divided into groups of two. On the last day, the feasibility of these projects is discussed. No problems so far. But I can't help but ask a question that comes to my mind.

The participants of this 3-day training are managers and presidents, and many of us may have discussed some of the projects we have been working on here. If you pay attention, doesn't the company providing the training receive feedback on about 30 needed issues related to this sensitive sector? Of course, he can have access to the most needed topics first hand for free. If he does this training in at least 30 companies in a year, the potential project issues that are being dealt with almost over a thousand have emerged spontaneously.

I thought that although education may not have been designed for this purpose, it was a cleverly designed approach. A global foresight of the company that provides this kind of fiction training is that you yourself is presented from. While the companies that received the training were dealing with the issues they needed, the company that had global knowledge had the chance to have prepared and put on the market exactly the topic you were considering. It should be appreciated that it is a good approach and tactic. For this reason, it continues to be a company where the production wins, not the consumer. Being a leader and a brand company must be like this.

If we summarize the issue from a perspective of the difficult economic conditions we are going through, I would like to share a determination that I feel. I don't want to go into an overly ambitious comment because I don't have a field. Interest, inflation, hike, production, foreign exchange, exchange rate, import, export, current account deficit, etc. we hear every day. Concepts fly in the air. The accuracy and falsity of their impact on the subject is the business of experts in the economic field.

My humble determination is this: All the concepts mentioned are indispensable for the free trade approach that we are all in. Whether we want it or not, these concepts somehow directly or indirectly affect our lives. What I see is the only right thing to do: Increasing people's purchasing power based on production is the only solution.

I hope to meet you on the next Institutional issue, believing that this issue will be evaluated by experts.