the Turkish social venture

I spent some of my time during the last two weeks preparing a detailed business plan about a possible internet-based social venture to be launched in Turkey. The business plan is now in the phase of evaluation; however, some facts I learned during my research proved disturbing.

1 – In Turkey there is no legal entity to host a possible social venture. In the regulation, we have either societies (which are forbidden to pay dividend) or companies (whose happy responsibilities include paying the same tax as any other commercial institution, and can’t take donations). To bypass these, truly ambitious social entrepreneurs go about with double legal entities, sister organizations et cetera…

2 – There are no social ventures in Turkey (: Not anything to represent the spirit in any way… The absence of the “concept” and “funding” drive away candidates, hence most of the social work arena is left to part-timer housewives instead of die-hard entrepreneurs.

3 – The threat of substitutes is quite much present. 80% of Turkish people somehow provide significant aid to others, generally to family and relations, schools and mostly religious institutions. Only 18% of this “aid” is relayed by NGOs. And much to my disappointment, the Turkish NGOs are generally giants, backed by either political, religious or corporate forces; and the media/PR support for these are also huge…

Enough entry barriers to discourage any college student, I guess.

Goal-a-Minute

I really like the idea behind Book-a-minute, that’s why I thought I’d give it a try myself. This one’s for The Goal by Eli Goldratt.

Alex: Why are we here?
Jonah: Find out for yourselves.
Alex: [in comprehension] We’re here to make money!
Team: [altogether] Let’s go make money!

Eli Goldratt: Bottlenecks are important, cost accounting is very very faulty, and even the best girl will walk out on you if you work too much.

puppy dogs and turning points

Right in the middle of our back yard is the new blonde puppy Lab we bought earlier today. Not even having thought of a name for the beautiful creature, I conclude that it’s probably the day of a lifetime for him. Being a Retreiver, he was looking at a ten years of honorable service in the Turkish Navy as a narcotics professional, if it hadn’t been for my sister.

We seperated him from his brothers/sisters, and he seemed awfully sad all day. He didn’t even bark, he played around with a tennis ball all alone.

As we brought him home I started thinking how we had impacted his whole life in a manner he would never understand, and we could never explain. Conclusion 1: sometimes  life seems to take a turn for the worse it has a lot better in store.

It sounds so simple and dull when put this way, however seeing it through the eyes of a puppy can be much more revealing. Conclusion 2: sometimes, to understand what is going on, it’s best to play god for a few minutes.

Right in the middle of our back yard is the new blonde puppy Lab we bought earlier today.  Being a Retreiver, he was looking at a ten years of honorable service in the Turkish Navy as a narcotics professional, if it hadn’t been for my sister’s sudden desire for a puppy.

For those of you that didn’t know; narcotics dogs receive intensive military training, living under constant fear. They also might have to be subjected to the narcotics themselves for training.

The poor thing seemed awfully sad all day, partly because he was a little ill, and he had just been seperated from his siblings. He didn’t even bark, he played around with a tennis ball all alone.

As we brought him home I started thinking how we had effected his whole life in a manner he would never understand, and we could never explain. That’s when I had my epiphany: sometimes  life seems to take a turn for the worse it has a lot better in store; and there’s no, absolutely no, chance of you knowing it. The probability of this happening is very high at about every moment… (speaking for the dog, this is unless you’d take a shot of cocaine every day over me as an owner)

It sounds so simple and dull when put this way, however seeing it through the eyes of a puppy can be, well, full of realization. Yes, you hear that a lot but it’s never revealing until you experience it…

on cows

Best part about being a workaholic senior IEM student is the magnitude and variety of the experience life gives you.

Until now I’ve sold computers behind the counter, counted toys in toy shop inventory audits, walked into telcos bearing the title “consultant”, went abroad and presented a project before 20 top managers of a multinational. And, as a very close friend and a devoted reader of this blog mentioned one day, I’ve had to painfully return to “kıymalı poğaça – ayran” duo after having mango and pancakes with caramel in one of Brussels’ best hotels the day before.

But you see, I was recently commissioned by our supply chain professor to look into the Turkish meat market, and under those circumstances I had the opportunity to learn these interesting facts.

- My partner Urun found that the meat consumption in Turkey per capita is way too low compared to developed and developing (!) countries. Although we are very proud with our kebaps, apparently we don’t have the purchasing power to consume half as much as EU average.

- An average kg of meat in Turkey costs about 10€, whereas in Spain a similar amount would be 5€; not counting PPP.

- The cattle population in Turkey is decreasing every day, putting price pressure on retailers. Currently there are about 11m cattle running around in Turkey, about one for every seven citizens.

-and finally, having interviewed Etiler’s most famous butcher I learned that this profession does in fact support the love of animals. My contact had great sympathy for the animals he picked at the slaughterhouse every day before the crack of dawn.

Best part about being a workaholic senior IEM student is the magnitude and variety of the experience life gives you.

Until now I’ve sold computers behind the counter, counted toys in toy shop inventory audits, walked into telcos bearing the title “consultant”, went abroad and presented a project before 20 top managers of a multinational. And, as a very close friend and a devoted reader of this blog mentioned one day, I’ve had to painfully return to “kıymalı poğaça – ayran” duo after having mango and pancakes with caramel in one of Brussels’ best hotels the day before.

But you see, I was recently commissioned by our supply chain professor to look into the Turkish meat market, and under those circumstances I had the opportunity to learn these interesting facts.

- My partner Urun found that the meat consumption in Turkey per capita is way too low compared to developed and developing (!) countries. Although we are very proud with our kebaps, apparently we don’t have the purchasing power to consume half as much as EU average.

- An average kg of meat in Turkey costs about 10€, whereas in Spain a similar amount would be 5€; not counting PPP.

- The cattle population in Turkey is decreasing every day, putting price pressure on retailers. Currently there are about 11m cattle running around in Turkey, about one for every seven citizens.

- In Argentina, there are steak-houses where you go by noon, pick your animal in the ranch using binoculars. The animal is shot down and slaughtered, and served for your dinner.