Istanbul Block Seminar - Life is Koc!
CULTURE
We arrived few days earlier than the block seminar started to have a quick insight from the city and the lifestyle of Istanbul. The first experiences were already truly amazing. A chaos which still works properly. Many people in almost every main street (you can really feel that you’re in a 15+ million city) doing their job and their daily routine such as selling Turkish street food, water and souvenirs, or just going from somewhere to elsewhere or chatting with each other on the street for hours.
All these vibrating feelings and mood get more intense five times a day when the Imams call for pray with authentic Islamic songs. This is one of the main characteristic of the city and gives it a very special atmosphere which is somewhere between European and Islamic culture. The role of women and the family is also somewhere between these two civilizations. Although this is important and well regulated, in the downtown area only the half of the women wear the chador and hide their body in a traditional way.
BAZAAR AND TURKISH CUISINE
THE UNIVERSITY
On Sunday we moved to Koc dormitories (it took 50 minutes from the city center by car) but before going there we had to make a short visit at the main campus to ask for the directions. The first impressions were pretty much like when Harry Potter first arrives to Hogwarts. Huge buildings surrounded by an enormous garden which you don’t know where ends.
THE BLOCK SEMINAR
The topic of the block seminar was Emerging Market Multinationals and the main questions were:
How have these small, under-resourced businesses come so far so quickly?
What can you learn from their market entry, market expansion, brand building and M&A strategies and tactics?
Also, guest lecturer Mikael Calikusu, former finance director of Kraft Foods and ex-BCG M&A specialist held an amazing all day long class on different emerging market related topics (we were listening through the day despite of hangover).
The workload was appropriate and created a good balance between professional experience, networking and parties. We had to read a book about this topic before our coming here (written by the professor, Ayşegül Özsomer who held the majority of the classes) and pass an exam at the very beginning of the seminar. We also had to solve a case on different Turkish emerging market multinational companies and prepare a presentation for the last day.
Accommodation costs and food were covered by the seminar fee and both were just amazing.
SOCIAL EVENTS
On Monday evening we were invited to a welcome drink at one of Koc University’s office in the city center which place was quite amazing. They served with great food, unlimited drinks and an awesome view from the rooftop:
Teşekkür ederim!
Special Thanks for Francesco Aghemio for some of the beautiful photos!
Experienced by: Flóra Cselényi, Dóra Misnyovszki, Zsófia Molnár, Stefánia Vág, András Hering and Bence Horváth