ICI Strategic Transformation Center

In recent years, one of the topics we have been thinking and working on the most for the future of our industry is to catch up with the change and transformation trends in the world in every field from education to human resources, to production and to financing.

It is because our world and our country are trying to find their way in the midst of great changes and uncertainties, and not being able to foresee the trends of change in such periods, not being prepared for them, and even determining the strategies to guide the change early and delaying their implementation will certainly cause us to fall far behind in competition.

In this respect, as the Istanbul Chamber of Industry, we closely follow the global trends concerning our industry, especially technological developments, digital transformation, talent management and sustainability. With the steps we have taken in recent years in this direction, we work with a vision that can regularly measure the needs of our members, prioritize them, and we try to implement projects that will meet these needs. This was our main purpose in establishing the “ICI Strategic Transformation Center” within our Chamber last year.

We planted the first seeds of the Center with a workshop we held last year with the participation of our esteemed Assembly members, and discussed the current problems and solution proposals of our industry together. Later, we focused on the global trends that shape our industry and the business world in our “Strategic Transformation Center” in the light of the topics that came to the fore in this workshop. We also reached important findings during these searches and studies. Based on these, we set the main agenda of our September Assembly meeting as “Strategic Transformation in our Industry for Increasing Competitiveness and the Studies Carried Out in Our Chamber” and shared our findings.

As you can read on the following pages, Mr. İdil Özdoğan, co-founder of Future Ally, our consultant, made a detailed presentation on this subject. I believe that the results will make a significant contribution not only to the individual transformation and development of our companies, but also to the shaping of our country's industrial policy.

Here, I would also like to briefly mention our study “Horizon Scanning for the Industry of the Future”, implemented within our Strategic Transformation Center. I would like to emphasize that this study aims to define the “new waves of transformation” affecting the industry and to shed light on the breaking points and opportunities of production and consumption in the fields of “green, digital, human, experience economies and geopolitical transformation”. It will form the main framework for the future activities of our “Strategic Transformation Center”.

Another important issue I would like to mention is our ICI Venture Capital Investment Fund, which is closely related to the activities of our Strategic Transformation Center. This is because innovative ideas and initiatives that will support the strategic transformation of our industry and its adaptation to global developments are only possible with financial support. This fund is designed to serve the transformation areas that our Strategic Transformation Center has targeted for tomorrow. With our Venture Capital Investment Fund, we will also incorporate the technologies and business models of the future into the processes of the industry, and we will not only finance their initiatives, but also give them the opportunity to learn and produce together. We will make the industrial transformation together with new generation initiatives.

I wish you a peaceful and healthy October.

Erdal Bahçıvan
Istanbul Chamber of Industry 
Chairman of the Board of Directors