Üsküdar University Young Brains Academy Application and Research Center organized the “Branded Courses Entrepreneurship Seminars-1” event. Ufuk Batum, Consultant for Gebze Organized Industrial Zone Technopark, participated in the event as a speaker.
The seminar titled “Seeing Entrepreneurship Opportunities and Developing Ideas” was coordinated by Dr. Nebiye Yaşar, Director of the Young Brains Academy Application and Research Center, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dinçer Atlı from the Department of Advertising, Faculty of Communication.
“All institutions learned innovation and intrapreneurship, albeit late”
Ufuk Batum, addressing the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Turkey, said: “Turkey has been trying to build its entrepreneurship ecosystem for about 15 years. We have tried many things. We also made mistakes. Even though large institutions entered the game late, they learned innovation and intrapreneurship. Our reason for pursuing entrepreneurship and innovation is our desire to close the gap with Western and developed countries.”
“We must both work and be hopeful”
Batum, stating that public employment is more limited compared to the past, said: “Large companies are being established, small companies are growing. There are some employment opportunities there. But when we look at the USA, despite dozens of giant companies in every state and every city, we see that while the total turnover, exports, and market value of large companies increased over 20 years, their total employment remained the same. Being hopeful is a good thing, but we also need to substantiate this hope. We must both work and be hopeful. Especially last year, as Turkey was slowly emerging from financial difficulties and experiencing economic growth, we started receiving good signals. We said the light was visible at the end of the tunnel. The economic outlook in the first quarter of 2020 was not bad. We had predicted that Turkey would experience growth of around 5%. However, by the end of March, we faced the pandemic. There was an exit in June. Despite the ongoing pandemic, there were also positive developments.”