Evaluation Note / Selin Arslanhan Memiş

1. The World has changed with the arrival of new technologies. New technologies have not only changed the way in which manufacturing and R&D is carried out, but also policy design processes, administrative structures, corporate behaviors and business models. Whether we accept it or not in Turkey, this is a reality. In contrast to sustaining the old ways, the ‘new’ brings with it hardships as it encapsulates learning and adapting. I believe, this is behind our insistence on keeping the old ways. My purpose in writing this note is to point out the changing world once more, and this time, doing it through ensampling the transformation in traditional companies are going through and then draw attention to the impropriety of being stuck in the past as is the case in Turkey.

2. Looking at the Fortune 500 list, we see that 52 percent of the companies in the list have disappeared in the last 15 years. Furthermore, in the past, in 1955 to be exact, while the average life span of these companies in the list was 61 years, this number has fallen to an average of 17 years in 2015. There has been a rapid transformation witnessed in companies in this list in the last years. The ones that cannot adapt to the new either disappear or change shape. So, adaptation is an extremely crucial issue for survival, even when it comes to traditional companies that have been doing business for many years.

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