Doing business in Turkey volume 2: Recruiting

If you’ll be doing business with Turkish people, you should know the following. I know that stereotyping is not a reasonable thing to do, but i will try to base my ideas on facts.

- White collar workers are usually better educated than their American peers. This is partly because the demand for college is higher than the supply, leading to the inevitable solution of a nationwide exam to eliminate candidates who are not good enough. This also leads to a tough competition among high schools, increasing the total quality of higher education.

- The downside is that, once you base the whole system on a test that takes a couple of hours, although students get a lot (and i mean A LOT) of information during their education, what they learn is limited to that information, and that information only. Even the homeworks usually require students to bring together a bunch of information that already exists in some form out there. They are not expected to figure out a new method, or come up with new ideas. I believe that this leads to lack of initiative, which is important especially if you’re trying to fill up an executive position.

- I believe that our way of thinking is usually more practical than that of American people. This is i guess due to the fact that we have less resources for our disposal, compared to a typical American citizen, thus, have to come up with solutions that will allow us to live a better life. So, despite lack of initiative, if you give the sense of trust to an employee, you might be surprised by how he/she comes up with solutions you have never thought of.

- English might be a challenge to deal with, should the position require interaction with foreigners. Somehow, excluding a few, even our best high schools fail to teach English well. Maybe it is the structure of our language… Our brains are so used to the way we form our sentences (lining up all the elements of the sentence differently) they cannot adapt to a different structure. So, you’ll easily notice that, even if the candidate could understand you perfectly, he/she might not speak as well. The best way for us to speak really fluent English is to spend a couple of years abroad.

- Although there are laws against discrimination, it is not a hot issue as it is in USA. I was even asked if i practiced any religious rituals once! Yes, this is apparently an extreme case, but i don’t think the interviewer or the company he represented would suffer from any charges even if i reported them. I’m not suggesting that you should do it, but discrimination is almost a custom in Turkey.

I might turn this subject into a series, i guess i like stereotyping

Size of the market vs competition&saturation

I believe in potential. I will explain this in more detail, later.

Business-wise, in US, there’s potential for virtually everything. See the examples from my own experience, below.

On the contrary, in Turkey, if you expect high volumes in sales, you have to have the right product or service. Niche areas might cause disappointment, as long tail is usually much longer than the regular size

During my stay in USA, i did the following and got pretty successful in each of them:

1- I brought some electronic items and apparel purchased from outlet stores and sold them in Turkey. This is the simplest one, everyone does that. But it paid for my plane tickets, almost every time!

2- I brought some authentic pashmina scarves on my last visit to USA. And sold them at a 100% profit at a local festival.

3- Paypal did not allow Turkish users to withdraw money from their accounts back then. I posted an ad, and announced that i would get 3% flat commission (plus Paypal fee) to transfer funds from Turkish paypal accounts. Users sent me money in USD’s, and i sent them back via wire transfer from my Turkish bank account. Not only i made money, but also avoided transfer fees to wire money from Turkey.

4- (This is the best one) I rented a van, collected free couches and sofas i found on Craigslist “free stuff” category, and sold them at prices ranging from $50 to $100 on Craigslist again. This could be the best business idea i’ve ever had. My dream was to setup a team of drivers, locate them via GPS, and following Craigslist ads all day, build them a route, redirecting them from my house.

I can’t imagine doing any of these in Turkey and making a significant amount of money. I’m aware of the fact that it all comes down to the size of the market. The upside is that you don’t face as tough competition as there’s in the United States, and you can still find a lot of unsaturated markets.

Doing business in Turkey volume 1: Dealing with consumers

I believe that, if there is such a thing as “common business practices” of a country, it solely represents that nation’s approach to free market.

From the foundation of Turkish Republic, until the Ozal administration (that began in early 1980′s), the economic regime in Turkey has often been referred to as “mixed economy”. Neither capitalism, nor socialism!

This is common in countries where there’s a lack of capital, so, the market should be supported by public resources.

Despite all the liberalisation and privatization process that took place in the last three decades, if you ever do business in Turkey, you most probably will experience a lot of intervention, not only from the government, but also from consumers!

I’m not suggesting that it is difficult to do business in Turkey, in fact, it is much easier in many industries, even the most regulated ones like finance and telecom, compared to many other countries in Europe. My point is, don’t expect a strong belief from the majority of Turkish people, to the fact that, in a free market, good products with better prices will ultimately prevail. Most of us believe that we, as consumers, have the right to demand anything and everything from companies. Normally, if you find a product or a service overpriced, the worst case scenario is that you say “what a rip off!” and walk away. In Turkey, you might see a consumer arguing with the seller (even if the seller is simply a salesman, not the business owner) on what the “right” price should be. We intervene. We even call the government to duty, asking them to regulate (rather, reduce) the prices!

This is simply a matter of traditions. Erdogan administration has given full speed to privatization, so i don’t think this tradition will last more than another decade.

The right six numbers, the right six words combined.

There’s a certain set of numbers that can make you rich on lottery.

Disregard for a moment, the fact that this is a small probability.

The numbers are out there, you’re pretty familiar with all of them, you’ve seen them everywhere, all of your life. You mark some of them on a small piece of paper, and you’re a millionaire, if not a billionaire, just like that! After seeing the winning numbers, haven’t you ever asked yourself “why couldn’t i come up with those numbers? “

Now moving to the online world: This is just as amazing:

There’s a certain set of words, that can let you reach millions of people.

This is almost as difficult as winning the lottery, but it’s exciting to know that it’s possible.

Just post six words to your Twitter, and if it’s interesting enough, people will retweet. Unlimited potential. Virtually unlimited number of people out there. The same “i could have done it” feeling also applies to this one. Check out the stories of 10 people who got famous through Twitter.

I find this potential very exciting. And i’m happy to be living in this crazy online era.

About this blog

There are millions of blogs out there. What’s the point in opening another one?

Well, this one is valuable to me in many ways. Let me tell you a little bit about myself to explain.

I was born in Istanbul, Turkey as the only child of a middle class, entrepreneur family, working in their own publication business. My parents are well educated, liberal, open minded and they are pretty above the intellectual standards of the society we live in.

My first memory about opening up to the outer world is in high school. I went to a private school with kids from upscale neighborhoods, and this friend of mine, one day came up with some great news: His mother was moving to Philadelphia for a long term duty, and he was going to go after her, as soon as she settles down. As being his best friend, i was invited to go with him, to live with them! Can you imagine how exciting this is for a kid in his adolescence, considering that we’re learning English, seeing United States in great mainstream movies, and envying an American kid in every way possible!

You can also imagine how little my chances are, to convince my parents to be a part of this plan. So, the dreams we had, while looking at the big album with great photos of Philadelphia didn’t last too long. Neither my friend, nor i went to USA that summer.

The first time i’ve been to America is years later, to attend a trade show organised by Siemens, representing the magazine published by my parents, as the best English speaking member of my family. I was really impressed by the Chicago city, and i strongly felt that the love for this beautiful land still existed deep down in my heart.

My second visit was to Orlando, Florida, followed by Miami. As i grew up, i slowly realized that the key element behind my feelings to this country was the size of its economy. The role of government in people’s lives, the concept of “taxpayer rights”, even those skyliners that formed the great view represented the same aspect of typical American lifestyle: “Prosperity”. (I’m aware that this comes at a price, and hope that some day capitalism, which exists in its wildest form in America, manages to find solutions to the problems it causes, mostly addressed by the great director, Michael Moore)

Later on, i got my undergraduate degree, and started thinking about a way to defer my mandatory military service. My GPA sucked, so i had very little chance to enroll in a graduate program in my college, Istanbul Tech. I started searching for private schools, that were more interested in your wallet, than your academic background. They were so expensive that, i found a better option in Virginia, a new college which was not accredited (something i did not care about), thus, was able to offer a very affordable tuition rate, even compared to the ones in Turkey. And there started my US journey, which lasted for one year. I left the Management Information Systems program incomplete, turned back to my country to start my own business.

During my stay in US, i’ve been to New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Maryland and lots of other places. So, now i had a pretty solid perception of American life, and being a foreigner in America.

To cut a long story short, this blog aims to compare Turkey and USA, in terms of business, politics, and life in general, from the eyes of a Turkish citizen, who has spent some time in, and has a love for America.

So, if you’re interested, welcome to my blog, and please keep reading!