An Organized Industrial Zone shared wisdom meeting where I acted as moderator last week was attended by the leading industrialists of Istanbul. Here are some of the featured topics of the meeting:
First of all, industrialists expect the government to serve as a helping hand and a solution provider. They believe that some of the bureaucrats in several ministries lack adequate amount of knowledge in terms of their approach to Turkish industry. Industrialists also seemed really upset by these bureaucrats’ undermining approach towards numerous procedures including export and customs transactions, and FX regulations.
Seemed particularly annoyed by some private banks’ approach towards these matters as well, they say that these banks can’t manage to focus on value-generating companies due to the clumsy decisions of bank executives, yet constantly bothering the companies that are nothing but loyal debtors. These men do not complain about the way public banks are managed but they believe there is something definitely wrong about the administration of private banks. The essence of their reaction mainly involves shareholder representatives and executive boards interfering with bank CEO’s decisions. As they were talking, it suddenly occurred to me: “They must be noticing this absolutely unfair system but how well do they know about the cryptocurrencies?”
Almost all of the participants emphasized the fact that industrialists are treated unfairly in Turkey while expressing their heartache about the way these hardworking, value-creating, employment-generating people are regarded with disdain and disrespect. Considering the fact that Istanbul is the stronghold of production and exports, I hope their hurt feelings will not go unnoticed.
I really wish I could tell them, in a future world of cryptocurrencies and block chain where even the social duties will turn into values, those who make real efforts and those who generate value will not need appreciation from those who do not work as hard as them; because office holders who are not capable of generating value won’t get to create a self-sufficient ecosystem while all activities will slowly and transparently turn into a value.
“Conflict between Old and New Generation”
I’ve witnessed so many times that generation born in 1945 to 1965 remained incapable of understanding young people’s expectations while abandoning themselves to despair because of the way the youth behaves. The fact that old generation thinks innovation means merely technology, pushing young people to learn “coding” instead of art and design helped me once again understand that Turkey will fail at creating high value added products for a while longer. Employers will continue to want to hire “trouble-free people with intermediate skills” unless the obsession for controlling the “employee”, not the “work or result” disappears.
As a matter of fact, most of the employers in Turkey are perfectly aware of this reality but they are not visionaries. They sadly don’t possess the ability and perspective to take groundbreaking steps. They are constantly crushed under the competitive price pressure as they do what everyone else does. On the other hand, those who have enough political power convince Ankara to impose high tariffs or other regulations on imported goods so they can live safely in their ivory towers.
In short, it’s hard to provide a solution for everyone when everyone thinks they’re right. Industrials complain about the government while the government complains about industrialists who complain about the banks while banks complain about the industrialists. In the meantime, people and industrialists complain about each other while government and people complain about each other as well. Everybody is right by their own perspective, which means there is no justice. If everyone is treated equally, most of these problems will be solved. Then, no one will think they’re treated unfairly.
Whether we want it or not, block chain and cryptocurrencies will eventually bring justice to all. Maybe this is the reason why certain organizations and institutions that feed on injustice are trying to delay the inevitable.
