Erdal Bahçıvan, Chairman of ICI Board of Directors We Cannot Stand Indifferent Towards New Economy Based on Informatics

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meclis-ocak2019-01

Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) January ordinary Assembly meeting was held on 23 January 2019 in Odakule with the main agenda of “New Production System Brought by Industry and Digitalism”. Yunus Özdemir, the Senior Manager Partner of Gartner Türkiye participated in the Assembly meeting which was chaired by ICI Assembly Chairperson Zeynep Bodur Okyay. Necat Saldanlı, ICI Assembly Member made a detailed presentation on behalf of 48. Group Professional Committee including electricity, electronics, informatics and cable industry on the subject, and told what has been happening in the field and what they have been expecting from the future as sector representatives.

Erdal Bahçıvan, the Chairman of Istanbul Chamber of Industry Board of Directors drew attention that production methods are transforming in all industries because of the digital reformation in his speech on Assembly agenda, and said that: “A new economy based on informatics are being born. Earning money out of money has just headed for the last roundup. Any country cannot survive in global competition without considering the new production model as the most significant parameter of the economy. The increase for 3 percent to be experienced in the production thanks to digitalization is considered to make contribution for 150-200 billion dollars to Turkish economy.”

İSO Başkanı Erdal Bahçıvan
ICI President Erdal Bahçıvan

Drawing attention to the need of human-oriented understanding and collaborative approach in this field, Bahçıvan said: “New industrialization perspective based on the digital revolution should be at the center of our development strategy. We are faced with the obligation of increasing the qualification in the production. There is no country which develop through a technology which was brought by someone else. Multi-stakeholder cooperation is needed for a model which will shape the new industry and production ecosystem in human-oriented way.

ICI January ordinary Assembly meeting was opened by ICI Assembly President Zeynep Bodur Okyay. Okyay talked about Assembly agenda briefly as follows:

İSO Meclis Başkanı Zeynep Bodur Okyay
ICI Assembly President
Zeynep Bodur Okyay

“The main deficiency of Türkiye is in the technology, we know. According to the report drawn by the Ministry of Industry, the digital maturity level of our industry is between Industry 2.0 and Industry 3.0 today.

What is interesting here is that the majority of the ones who are aware of the advantageous of the digital revolution don’t consider as a vital factor for their own business facilities’ future. Therefore, we cannot see successful digitalization examples in Türkiye. However, we should admit that this is not luxury but an obligation; so we should do what we have to do. Because digital transformation is not a temporary project like fashion; on the contrary, it is a long journey and it is a need for not only the big companies but also all the firms in the country. Decisiveness of the bosses and leaders and constant improvement of everyone in every level are of crucial importance for the success of digital transformation. While the world is going through the fourth industry revolution and digital transformation process today, we should ‘achieve the impossible’ to not miss this industrial revolution. We cannot expect to arrive at the different destination by taking the same route. We have to act in a radical way. Our Chairperson of Board of Directors made a suggestion in the November Assembly meeting where we hosted our Minister of Education and wanted the incentives of the most successful students of the country to become teachers. It was a radical suggestion and in place. We have to carry out radical procedures which the digital revolution requires from human resources to financing, from incentives to bureaucracy. There is no another way, we cannot make it.”

Then, Okyay invited ICI President Erdal Bahçıvan to the stage to make his speech about the Assembly’s main agenda item. Stating that all production methods in all industries are going through a transformation because of the digitalization, Bahçıvan said that the increase for 3 percent to be experienced in the production thanks to digitalization is considered to make a contribution for 150-200 billion dollars to Turkish economy. Drawing attention that the production systems are being re-created with the digitalization in the industry, Bahçıvan told that the digitalization is not an activity of the production line but also the digitalization in all operations and processes of a company today. Bahçıvan expressed that this new period promises for autonomous production systems which can regulate themselves on their own.

Reminding the phrases of “The fuel of digital economy is data” and “Data is the new petrol” frequently, Bahçıvan said that data is of actually great importance and a resource which is not used most of the time; and it should be processed to be useful in various situations. Touching upon that while new digital resources named as “Big Data” are showing up in this process, the machines which have artificial intelligence learn to improve themselves on their own, Bahçıvan stated that the industry has increased to a level where the machines can get in communication with other machines. Bahçıvan expressed that smart and connected product and production close up with the customer, seller, producer, supplier much more.

Emphasizing that an economy based on informatics is being born, Bahçıvan underlined that growing without producing and being a license to print are no longer easy in the new production ecosystem which the new era created. Bahçıvan stated that: “A new economy based on informatics are being born. Earning money out of money has just headed for the last roundup. Any country cannot survive in global competition without considering the new production model as the most significant parameter of the economy. All these developments show us that production processes and products have transformed into much “smarter” condition with the digitalization.”

Drawing attention to the transformation in the production process, Bahçıvan recorded that he focused on this transformation and factories are getting smart just like the mobile phones. Bahçıvan told that the “Smart Factory” term has taken its place in the literature as a concept which is getting common in the developed countries rapidly. On the other hand, Bahçıvan recorded that artificial intelligence and deep learning are candidates to become the most competition fields of the future’s world.

Bahçıvan continued: “One of the most important factors of realizing the new production ecosystem perspective born by the industry and digitalization is to adopt the new generation industry understanding which is shaping in Türkiye, undoubtedly, and preparing itself for a transformation in this term. Then the actual question which we should raise is that: What are we doing to feel ready towards the new industry era? Which steps are we taking? I want to be clear that: New industrialization perspective based on digital revolution should take place at the center of our development strategy. We should take the position of producer in the technology instead of the position of consumer. Since the countries which could develop their own technologies and own domestic technical capacity have created difference in each field throughout the history. There is no country which developed itself as based on the technology which was brought by someone else. We consider the middle income trap and low growth about which we have complaint most of the time as unacceptable for Türkiye which has major targets and young population. Then Türkiye is faced with the obligation of increasing the qualification in the production in the route of becoming a strong country which goes through the digitalization successfully in industry. A model should be created to shape the new industry and production ecosystem in human-strengthening and human-oriented way. There is a need for cooperations in multi-stakeholder; public, private sector, universities, science environments, etc. As industrialists, we should realizes our duties as much as other government and public institutions do. We should use this opportunity in the best way to transform our country.

Gartner Türkiye Kıdemli Yönetici Ortağı Yunus Özdemir
the Senior Manager Partner
of Gartner Türkiye

Going up to the rostrum following the ICI Chairperson Bahçıvan, Yunus Özdemir, the Senior Manager Partner of Gartner Türkiye who is the guest speaker of the Assembly on the agenda, made this reminder on the transformation which the world is going through: “The transformation speed will not be this slow in the future again.” Stating that computer processor power is multiplying itself in each two years, Özdemir reminded the sentence of “If the outer transformation is faster than the inner transformation, it means that the we are reaching at the end of the horizon.” by Jack Welch, the old CEO of General Electric.

Özdemir said that each company has a shelf life and lives of the companies of which past dates back to 65 years on average will decrease to 15 years if they do not adapt to the digital transformation. Telling that total growth capacity of a country is parallel with its total intelligence capacity, Özdemir expressed that the artificial intelligence will be one of the most important factors in the development and competition capacity of the country. Yunus Özdemir said that: “Artificial intelligence has turned out to be the most crucial factor in the growth and development of a country, company. Who gets the leading position in the artificial intelligence can manage the world.”

Stating that autonomous vehicles will be more active in the following term and the next generations will be shocked when they hear that the old generation used to use vehicles under rain, Özdemir recorded that while the drivers will no longer be needed, the sector which will be affected by this situation will be the insurance sector. Touching upon the singularity concept, Özdemir expressed that they have predictions that they will have transferred to the singularity which explains the condition that robots carry out every activity as effective as humanity does by the time 2045 at the latest. Özdemir said that while 71% of daily tasks were carried out by people in 2018 52% of them will be carried out by the robots in 2025.

Drawing attention that digitalization eliminates the boundaries which separates the industry from the other one traditionally, Özdemir stated that they had asked how they measured the success in the digitalization in a survey which they carried out for CEOs but half of them had not given any answer for that. Also Özdemir expressed that they are in need of significant cultural transformations in various companies in order for digitalization to be realized according to CEOs.

Then Necat Saldanlı, the ICI Assembly Member made a detailed presentation on behalf of 48th Group Profession Committee. Then ICI Assembly Members came to the stage one by one and shared their opinions about the main agenda.