Fırat İşbecer
COO, Monitise MEA
In terms of education, we have great integration with Europe, where many students join the Erasmus program and spend six months or a year in Western Europe. I would say that more European companies should look to Turkey, instead of looking at distant countries such as India, China, or Southeast Asia. From a cultural and educational perspective, and considering prospects for EU accession, Turkey is a good place for investment. Many companies have profited from such previous investments, including Ericsson, Microsoft, and Oracle, and they have major regional offices based out of Istanbul. It is a win-win situation for these companies to invest in Turkey. We have a huge market in Turkey, and the B2C area is already consolidated. We have E-Bay, Amazon, and private equity companies already invested in large players in the country. The next waves of investment and growth are going to come from the B2B side.
Ümit Cinali
CEO, Cisco Turkey
In terms of technology, Turkey has to cover quite a bit of ground in internet penetration, improving services, and transitioning into an innovation society. ICT spending is still relatively low at around 3.5% of GDP. The FATİH education project is a good example—smart boards and wireless tablets coupled with content for collaborative learning will transform the way we learn and support innovation. Established in 1997, Cisco in Turkey has been doing well and growing steadily, well in excess of Turkey’s GDP. We address the needs of enterprises, SMBs, the public sector, and service providers through a network of over 600 business partners. They are certified in Cisco technologies, create solutions to address customer challenges, and our top partners undertake the largest ICT projects in the country. Over the years, we have also established 140 plus Cisco Networking Academies in Turkey with close to 10,000 students in attendance today. Cisco expects to invest over $1 billion to build its expanded cloud business over the next two years.
Zhao Gang
General Manager, Zhao Gang
We have been active in Turkey since 1985. The company changed its name to Motorola Solutions, and we are focusing on two areas that depend on our product portfolio: government and enterprise. We did well in both areas in 2013 and achieved all of our goals and targets. For our enterprise portfolio, we have tablets and handheld terminals, and over 185 dealers working with two distributors. The government portfolio primarily involves the radio business, and we have over a 50% market share on both sides, so we are a market leader in Turkey and around the world. Moreover, we are pursuing public safety communication projects for the Ministry of Transport, which is working on a nationwide digital radio system. From a sales and technology perspective, we have 50% more staff than our competitors. As Turkey is one of the largest countries in the region, depending on consumer and government expectations, we may have a local assembly unit in Turkey to serve the region.
Bora Gürçay
Country Manager, Motorola Solutions Turkey
We have been active in Turkey since 1985. The company changed its name to Motorola Solutions, and we are focusing on two areas that depend on our product portfolio: government and enterprise. We did well in both areas in 2013 and achieved all our goals and targets. For our enterprise portfolio, we have tablets and handheld terminals, and over 185 dealers working with two distributors. The government portfolio primarily involves the radio business, and we have over a 50% market share on both sides, so we are a market leader in Turkey and around the world. Moreover, we are pursuing public safety communication projects for the Ministry of Transport, which is working on a nationwide digital radio system. From a sales and technology perspective, we have 50% more staff than our competitors. As Turkey is one of the largest countries in the region, depending on consumer and government expectations, we may have a local assembly unit in Turkey to serve the region.
Mehmet Sezer
General Manager, Distributor Operations, Middle East & Africa (MEA), Xerox Turkey
Turkey has a significant proposition; it is the second or third economy following China in growth terms, and by 2023 aims to rank among the top-10 economies in the world. Xerox has realized this opportunity and decided to increase its focus on the country because these countries, while not necessarily offering a large population or GDP, are nonetheless high-potential markets. When you talk about services in a country like Turkey, which has a large population with an average age of 28 years, and which is highly educated, the services side offers huge potential for the future. Transportation, HR, and IT services are the main areas where we are poised to experience commercial growth. Essentially, when compared to developed markets, the services business remains at the very early stage of development. Xerox’s acquisition of ACS in 2010 with its 75,000 employees at a cost of $6.4 billion was a major step.
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