Dr. Yılmaz Argüden answered Borsa İstanbul’s questions at the Bell Ceremony for Gender Equality.
Equality is important for economic development
İş’te Gündem CNNTurk
An interview with Dr.ARGUDEN.
ARGE Consulting, celebrates its 15th anniversary.
İSTANBUL- Recognized for improving management quality and helping development of non-governmental organizations in Turkey, ARGE Consulting, has been the choice of more than 200 leading institutions in hundreds of projects as the management consulting firm to work with. The Chairman of ARGE Consulting, Dr. Yılmaz Argüden who is also a columnist at Dünya said “Improving the quality of management, improves the quality of life.”
During its first fifteen years,
- ARGE, has helped numerous leading companies in their industries with new strategic initiatives to improve their profitability and market values.
- Numerous ARGE clients have been recipients of National and European Quality Awards. Turkey has become one of the leading countries in Europe in terms of the number of European Quality Award recipients she hosts.
- Governance of many institutions; and careers and performance of thousands of professionals are being managed by the governance and human resources systems established with ARGE’s institutional development projects.
- Companies that work with ARGE are able to utilize competition law and EU norms for strategic advantage.
- ARGE, has been a leader in introducing new management concepts such as ‘balanced scorecard’, ‘intellectual capital’, ‘value management’, ‘change management’, ‘reputation management’ in Turkey.
- A leader in Corporate Social Responsibility ARGE, is the first Turkish firm to sign the Global Compact in Turkey.
- ARGE’s policy of encouraging its employees to donate one day a week for non-profit activities and its achievements in the community has resulted in ARGE being selected as one of the top three companies to Shape the Future with its corporate social responsibility approach by Generation Europe at The European Parliament in 2002.
- ARGE Consulting has been the only Turkish company to be featured in the European Commission publication named, ‘Responsible Entrepreneurship’.
- ARGE’s corporate social responsibility approach has been featured in a case study prepared by the Bosphorus University and made available to other universities by the European Case Clearing House.
ARGE stands out with its ability to implement world-class management methodologies within the local culture. ARGE shares its experience with the public through numerous articles and books, as well as, its web site www.arge.com.
Success of the Turkish Company in Europe
These days, in which we try to get a date for European Union membership, a small Turkish company has left giant European companies behind and was rated among the top three companies “Shaping the Future” in Europe.
ARGE Consulting has become one of the top three finalist companies in terms of “Corporate Social Responsibility” through its efforts for the development of non-governmental organizations. Organized by the Generation Europe, the winner will be awarded at the European Parliament in Brussels on 2 December.
At the press conference, the Chairman of ARGE Consulting, Dr. Yılmaz Argüden stated that this success does not only belong to ARGE but also an important achievement for Turkey, and said: “High quality contributions are recognized and appreciated at the international community. Our success, being among the top three exemplary companies for Europe, is a perfect demonstration of this fact.” ARGE, with its mission for preparing companies for the future, provides strategy, business excellence, and institution building services.
Türkiye
21.11.2002
ARGE Consulting is the first Turkish company taking part in the “Global Compact”.
ARGE Consulting has become the first Turkish company to sign the “Global Compact” among hundreds of companies and non-governmental organizations all around the world.
ARGE Consulting is the first Turkish company taking part in the “Global Compact”.
22 September 2005- ARGE Consulting, a company known for its achievements in value creating strategies, management quality, institutional development, and development of non-governmental organizations in Turkey, was selected as one of the top three companies with its commitment for corporate social responsibility by the European Parliament in 2002. ARGE Consulting has further become the only Turkish company which was recognized in the “Responsible Entrepreneurship” report, prepared by the European Commission to recognize best practices by European SMEs. ARGE’s efforts in corporate social responsibility are also taught as a case study in many universities (The case study, which was prepared by the Bosporus University, is also taught in universities all around the world through the European Case Clearing House.)
ARGE Consulting, one of the best known management consulting companies in Turkey, encourages its employees to engage in voluntary work for NGOs one day a week as a corporate policy.
ARGE employees have made significant contributions in starting KalDer’s National Quality Movement and creating a separate award category for non-governmental organizations; developing a Management Training program for NGO’s in Bosphorus University; supporting the activities of the Private Sector Volunteers Association to promote volunteerism in the society. ARGE Consulting has also supported Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation’s efforts and published a book on corporate social responsibility.
ARGE Consulting, with its mission to prepare companies for the future, provides services in the areas of strategy, business excellence and institution building, and supports the development and implementation of the leading management concepts in Turkey such as Balanced Scorecard, Value Management, Reputation Management, Change Management and Intellectual Capital.
The Global Compact, which was initiated by the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan during the World Economic Forum in 1999, has been signed by hundreds of companies and non-governmental organizations all around the world. The Global Compact is a purely voluntary initiative with no legal implications. It is a roadmap that is formed around 10 basic principles in the areas of human rights, labor rights, environment and anti-corruption. There are many benefits to participating in the Global Compact:
– To demonstrate leadership in sustainable growth, and corporate social responsibility,
– To have a series of guiding principles in terms of risk management in critical situations,
– To create solutions for social problems by leveraging the UN’s global reach and convening power with governments, businesses, and civil society.
– To increase corporate brand value,
– To increase employee motivation and productivity,
– To engage in and adapt easily for global collaboration,
– To gain access to private funds and achieve lower funding rates.
BT İnsan
Balanced Scorecard is in Turkey
With the cooperation between ARGE and Renaissance Worlwide, a new management system, “Balanced Scored”, is now in Turkey. Balanced Scorecard, which has been widely used by successful companies over the five years, enable to implement strategies effectively.
ARGE’s New Area of Specialization
EU candidacy has affected the areas of consultancy. ARGE Danışmanlık, the leading consultancy firm providing consultancy for management strategies, included “EU and Competition Laws” among its areas of specialization.
Owners and partners of ARGE Danışmanlık different areas of specialization. Dr. Yılmaz Argüden, Murat Yalnızoğlu, Dr. Ergin Sağdıç, Dr. Metin Kanmaz are specialists in the areas of strategy, transformation management for high performance, Total Quality Management Practices, European Union and Competition Laws respectively.
After Turkey’s becoming a candidate for EU, consultancy services have got subtitles like, Competition Laws, Economic Analysis, European Union and International Laws for Commerce. Competition Laws are new for Turkey, and economic life is closely related with it. Especially in the develeoped countries, companies are careful to take strategic decisions and run their business in accordance with those laws.
Emphasizing the progress of Turkey towards EU membership ARGE specalists noted that, full membership will bring new rules and regulations to Turkey, thus it is important to forecast how this will affect the sectors and companies. This is especially significant in relation to new opportunities and risks.
Strategy Development, Balanced Scorecard, Total Quality Management, Institutionalization of Family Companies, Management Systems in Organizations and Human Resources are among the speacial areas of consultancy of ARGE Danışmanlık.
Finansal Forum
26.1.2000
Quality, By All Means, Quality
A person who knows what he wants in life is always after something that will bring him closer to his objective. This may be money, academic career or fame, depending on the person. We have always been after better education. We have always wanted education with more productivity and creativity and more of it, not only for our selves but also for Turkey.
Yılmaz Argüden, the chairman of KalDer, Turkish Quality Association, is among those people who knows what he wants in life. He has chosen the word “quality” to describe his mission in life just like we have chosen the word “education” to describe ours.
He has become identified with the word “quality”. His main job is “quality”. Whatever position he takes, in KalDer, in Education Volunteers Foundation, in TESEV (First Independent Turkish Think Tank), in Turkish-American Business Council, or in the activities of the other volunteer organizations he is always representing “quality”. He is always insisting on for more quality. He is giving lectures in the universities. He is writing articles in the newspapers and in the magazines. He is giving conferences throughout Turkey. In KalDer he is doing what Hayrettin Karaca is doing in TEMA…
He has added the Ministry of Education among the areas of interest for KalDer. Bener Cordan, the Under-secretary of the Ministry has become a member of the management in KalDer. Even though starting as a small movement, a movement of a search for quality in education has began.
The main difference between Turkey and the west is about the quality of life. In order to catch up with the west in the sense of life quality, there must be quality in the world views about production, sharing, education, thinking, criticism.
Even though we are making the first moves regarding “quality” in these fields, it is certain that, with the efforts of Argüden and his colleagues, we will make a significant progress…
In spite of his young age Argüden is an enterpreneur in various fields. Before KalDer he was the chairman of BÜMED (Bosphorus University Alumni Organization). He had the chance to learn more about the University from the aspect of administration. He learned that it was very difficult to carry on things in a university where the financial support provided only by the State is insufficient, as the number of universities supported by foundations were increasing. He had concluded that universities like Bosphorus University needed strong economic flow from sources other than the sources of the State.
He had developed a project by looking at the applications practised throughout the world. He presented this project to administration of the University. But apparently it was forgotten on the shelf. It has never become a subject on the agenda of the university.
Yesterday he explained the project to us in detail. Since we have always put forward similar arguments regarding the same issues, on the basis of rationality, during the discussions we came to an agreement on many points…
Summary: In order to stop professors’ leaving for other universities and thus, the quality of the education going down, he wants an economic flow from new resources for the university. His project allows an increase up to approximately 5000 dollars in the salaries of professors as the size of the budget may become 3 or 4 times bigger. Naturally, at this point the question comes to mind, “From where the new resources will flow?” This question might start a hot debate, but after examining the project in detail, there isn’t any reason not to support it. Argüden proposes four different practices. First, to form a board of trustees . Secondly, to increase tuitions to colllege tuitions level and take it only from the students who can afford it, providing every kind of scholarship to the students who cannot afford it. Thirdly, to give start to academic evaluation. Fourthly, to encourage more donations.
In fact, the project has more details. But he admits he was not able to put it in practice yet.
In conclusion, even the best projects cannot find support if it doesn’t have the chance to be introduced well. Seeing the state universities become weaker and weaker next to the private universities, we know that something has to be done about it, but we still do not hesitate to refuse the projects offering solutions, even without discussing them. This is our greatest problem …
Milliyet
18.4.2000
Someone has undertaken the challenge to bring “quality” to our lives
At times national leaders are very important. They motivate people, even when they do not get sufficient support they continue with their struggle, sometimes they fail, but generally they succeed…
Atatürk is such a leader. And his achievements are far beyond what many other leaders have accomplished.
Despite certain justified criticisms, Turgut Özal is also such a leader. One could perhaps come up with other examples. However, unquestionable leaders such as Atatürk are hard to come by.
People who try to bring “quality” to Turkey may also be considered among such leaders. Among them, one in particular, named Yılmaz Argüden has been continually striving to bring quality to all aspects of life.
When he has started this mission, some have even suggested that this was a self satisfying endeavor. However, he has demonstrated persistence and and brought the concept of quality to the agenda in all dimensions of our lives.
Argüden and his colleagues have brought the subject of quality in public life, politics, and business world into the national agenda. Lately, this issue is turning into a national issue.
Particularly this year, the establishment of a new category for quality awards for the SMEs will extend the reach of this concept throughout the country.
It is imperative to support the “National Quality Movement” initiatied by Argüden and his colleagues, if are to improve the quality of our future.
GÖZLEM
21.12.1998
Anxiety Over a Life Free of Inflation
ISO’s survey for the biggest 500 companies, shows that 80% of companies were getting their income from other resources than their activities. Although the bussiness world is giving support to the government fight with the high inflation rate, possible difficulties coming along with the low inflation program urge them to develope new strategies for their bussiness.
As the companies will be losing their main resources of income with the low level of inflation, they are also seeking support from the government and the banks in return.
INTERVIEW WITH MURAT YALNIZOĞLU
Murat Yalnızoğlu, President of Management Consultants’ Association, and one of the partners of ARGE Danışmanlık, answered our questions about the difficulties of bussiness life as the economic situation is changing and the solutions they are offering to their clients.
Who is coming for consultancy to you ?
Various people, like bankers, tobacco producers, executives from public or private institutions and from national or international companies, managers of family companies of Turkey are coming to us.
What kind of services are you offering?
It changes depending on the structure of company. Recently our favourite area of service is strategy. Strategy for building grounds to make a company distinguishable among its rivals, to make it leave its rivals behind and adapt it self to changing conditions with a master plan. The master plan includes answers to some essential questions like; “Which products will be offered to which customer?”, “What must be done or must not be done for the best presentation ?”
What are the demands of companies for consultancy recently?
There has been significant changes in Turkey for the last 2-3 years. The decrease in inflation is the most significant of all for companies and consumers. Turkey has been living with a very high level of inflation for 20-25 years. Companies have built up their structures upon an inflationist order. A sudden attempt to change this, results in an enormous imbalance for the companies. We’ve already started to move away from the inflation. When we examine ISO’s survey for the biggest 500 companies, we see that %80 of companies were getting their income from other resources than their activities. In the new economic situation, companies are losing their main resources of income. What will they do now? How are they overcome the stagnation ? Are they going to have crisis? Asking all these questions, the necessity for new visions is obvious.
Are there people coming to you in panic asking for immediate help?
Yes. Not in panic maybe, but they are coming in confusion. They feel the urgent need to change and improve things but they do not know where to begin. For instance if you say, “Lets begin with clarifying our expenses.” It won’t take less than 6 months. If you decide “to improve your production process” or “learn more about your customer”, those will take more than 6 months, too. Everybody knows that they do not have that much time. You cannot do all those things with priority at the same time. You have to seek a solution for this situation.
How will low inflation rate affect structures of companies?
In order to adapt to new economic situation companies need healthier structures. Where expenditure, profit rate, customer profile of the company are very clear and quality of products, sales activities are high. This is the rule for competition not only in Turkey but in every country of the world. Thus, sooner or later companies will be re-structuring themselves in this direction.
21 Shining Stars of the 21st Century
These 21 men have become the high-profiles of 21st century with their confidence in themselves. They have built up their self-confidence upon their knowledge in their occupations and upon thought, technology and a flexible approach.
With the industrial revolution and all the technological develeopments, last century was really a brilliant period. With the inventions following one another other we’ve come to the point of cloning sheep. But two world wars in the same century have shed shadows upon all the brightness. In fact we need to be careful with the 21st century, too. We have to believe that Information Revolution will help us recover the side-effects of the Industrial Revolution forcing man to become a part of the machine and lose his human character. We are in the Information Age now, and its impossible to hinder information. Thus, borders have began dissappearing. We had imagined the sky of the 21st century with flying cars when we were children. It was an unattainable dream. But then suddenly we found ourselves in the middle of it. The people of the 21st century are not super-heros flying from one star to the other, they are us ; they are among us! They all have hopes. Some of them are just starting the journey, some of them are willing to share what they have got till now with those stepping into the journey. That is the most important of all: the human creativity…
Here are a few comments about some of Turkey’s shining stars of the 21st century:
Fahir Atakoglu, Musician: He has proved to be an international professional with his awarded works. He is working on his new album which will be released in America.
Çetin Altan, Journalist: Writing for 50 years. He has 4 novels, 1 story, 1 alphabet, 8 plays, 8 essays, 1 satire, 2 travel books, 2 memoirs, 3 research books, 4 books of political essays, 4 portraits, interviews and lots of articles.
Atil Kutoglu, Fashion Designer: Making dresses for the women of European aristocracy. His creations are displayed in Düsseldorf, Milano, Paris, New York.
Ugur Polat, Actor: He has a theater background. He have performed in various Turkish movies. His performance in the Turkish movie, “Salkim Hanimin Taneleri” has been awarded with “Golden Apple” in Antalya Film Festival.
Ugur Polat, Actor: He has a theater background. He have performed in various Turkish movies. His performance in the Turkish movie, “Salkim Hanimin Taneleri” has been awarded with “Golden Apple” in Antalya Film Festival.
Serdar Erener, Advertiser: The naughty boy of the advertising world. He affects people with his awarded works which convey messages through local and global values combined together. He is a member of the brain-team in the advertising company, Young and Rubicam.
Yilmaz Argüden, Businessman: He is a representative of the young Turkish businessman generation, supporting innovation through global thinking and contemprory visions, interacting with the international circles of businessmen and intellectuals. Dr. Yilmaz Argüden is the Chairman of Board in Turkish Society for Quality (KalDer), and he is among the 100 Global Leaders For Tomorrow chosen by World Economic Forum in 1999.
Eser Taskiran, Mehmet Y. Yilmaz, Erkan Mumcu, Okan Bayülgen, Volkan Isik, Ali Middili, Ozan Korkut, Cengiz Ultav,Akdogan Özkan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Emir Uras, Hasan Hüseyin, Ali Zirh, Babur Özden are the rest of the names among the 21 shining stars of the 21st century.
Amica
01.04.2000
Global Leaders for Tomorrow
World Economic Forum (WEF) has brought the leaders of today and the leaders of future together in Davos. There are artists, politicians, executives, members of non-governmental organizations, journalists among the 100 young people chosen for the Global Leaders for Tomorrow (GLT) Program. Turkish people are also among those.
Cansen Başaran, Meltem Kurtsan, Yılmaz Argüden, Mehmet Öz… These are some of the names of the Global Leaders for Tomorrow. They were not chosen by us. They were nominees of other “leaders” and they were chosen among hundreds to participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings.
The most important leaders of politics, arts, economics and non-governmental organizations were again hosted by WEF in Davos, Switzerland, this year. WEF is bringing the leaders of today and the leaders of the future together under the same roof since 1993. Every year, 100 hundred young people are chosen from the areas of economics, politics, arts and NGOs for the Global Leaders for Tomorrow Program.
To be a nominee, the age limit is 40 and the person’s engagements have to do with something adding value to his/her institution, area of work, and to the society. People having contacts with WEF suggest persons they know with these qualifications. These people are interviewed during long WEF committee meetings. Under the light of these interviews hundreds of people are evaluated and elections are made. Taking male/female rates, countries and occupations into account, 100 hundreds people chosen throughout the world. These people are invited to WEF. They are welcome to attend the Forum meetings for two years and if they do active work, they can go on participating in the Forum for 5 years.
Cem Boyner, Boyner Holding General Manager, Uğur Bayar, Chairman of Privatization, Meltem Kurtsan, President of Kurtsan İlaçları, Cansen Başaran Symes, President of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Turkey, Dr. Yılmaz Argüden, the founder and partner of ARGE Danışmanlık, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öz, Director of Presbyterian Heart Transplantation Center Newyork-Columbia, have been among the Turkish GLTs till now. Till last year GLTs have only been observing the meetings. In 1999 groups have been formed to work on important projects concerning environment, health, technology, economics.
Dr. Yılmaz Argüden has been visiting Davos for 4 years. He has been elected for the GLT Program last year for the first time. He is now leading the group working on a project concerning education. The objective of the group is to make the scaling and comparison of all education systems possible, and to support the improvement of technological use in education.
Hürriyet
13.02.2002
Governance of Family Companies
Excluding State Economic Enterprises, 65-85 % of the companies belong to families throughout the world. It is known that 40% of the companies mentioned in Fortune 500 are family companies.
Family companies are the most common company type worldwide. But while some of the family companies succeed and survive through generations, some of them fall apart and dissappear. A succesful and permanent family company is defined as a company able to make the right projections and plans for the future and built up an institutional structure. ARGE guides family companies through their work to determine the strategies for the continuity of the company’s business and to built up an institutional structure.
Alarming signals both for business and family issues showing the necessity of a transformation for family companies are: recessions in the business areas where the company had been succeeding in competition, negative developments in quality and customer satisfaction, decrease in profits despite unchanged or increasing sales, continuous problems in cash flow, higher employee turnover, declining motivation and increasing tension among the employees. Problems within the family and negligence of their effect upon business, several divorces/re-marriages and health problems like ulcer and depression caused by stress among family members, using money to keep family relations alive, are the occurrences that sometimes take place. A successful and permanent family company is a company that is able to make the right projections and plans for the future through an institutional structure according to the possible outcome in the course of events.
ARGE groups the problems of family companies as follows: management of the company (establishment, development, maturation), relationships within the family (boss-owned company, partner brothers, consorsium of cousins) and partnership/ control structure (entreprenuer, businessman, work partner, handover of responsibilities).
Every family company is on some intersection point of the family and business axis and is moving from there to an other intersection point in time. On every point there are questions waiting for their answers.
It is very difficult and maybe even impossible for a company to go on developing if these questions are not answered. Strengthening of the family relations and the problem solving ability among the family members provide great advantage for family companies. Another method to overcome difficulties that family companies face is to determine policies and strategies that will prevent potential problems.
“Obviously unsuccesful family companies are avoiding problems and conflicts. Closing their eyes to the facts, they are missing the chance to enjoy learning lots of things together.”
These words belong to a leader of a succesful company and they summarize the most apparent characteristic of family companies.
Guiding the family companies through the process to solve their problems systematically and helping them to become companies of the future using the correct management methods, ARGE also provides the family to overcome lots of problems that will affect its unity in a negative way.
Quality Improvement Results
1. Production line loss decreases by 2%
2. 26% improvement is provided in terms of service delays
3. Total stocks decrease 4 times
4. Customer complaints decrease by 32%
5. Efficiency of new product development increase by 78%
6. The bad fate of Family Companies
7. 70 % of the family companies are not able to survive for the next generation
8. 50 % of them are not able to survive for the third generation
9. The average lifetime for a typical family company is 24 years
Milliyet
26.03.2000
Insead Knowledge 50th Year Interviews – Boardroom Secrets
This video is rebroadcast courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge.