As TÜSİAD, we do not regard the fourth industrial revolution only as the digitalization of production processes. Industry 4.0 leads to great changes in many areas ranging from production models to organizational structures and from the way we do business to our social lives. The digital transformation of industry brings about a paradigm shift. The ability of digital technologies to produce accurate and thorough results in many fields and platforms also enables a faster and high-quality growth for countries. As TÜSİAD, we place the digital transformation of industry at the core of Turkey’s new story of development.
The fourth industrial revolution brought about the concept of ‘re-training’. ‘Re-training’ means that the existing workforce acquires new qualifications in order to adapt to this revolution and to follow the developments. As TÜSİAD, we attach great importance to the concept of ‘re-training’, which will enable human resources, one of the cornerstones of digital transformation of industry, to keep up with continuous transformation. For this reason, we started a collaboration in 2016 with the Berlin-based European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) on digital transformation of industry.[1]
The initial module of TÜSİAD-ESMT Industry 4.0 Activities was held on May 4-5, 2017 in executive training format. In this module, we focused on the importance of Industry 4.0 in global competitiveness and the adaptation of companies to the digital world.
The second module of this series of events was held in executive program format enriched with workshops on May 2-3, 2018 in Istanbul. The second module, designed by Dr. Oliver Krause and Karl Michael Henning, took place with the participation of representatives from TÜSİAD member companies. TÜSİAD member of the Alternate Board and Industrial Policies Roundtable Mr. Levent Akgerman and ESMT Program Coordinator Mr. Bülent Gögdün gave the opening speeches of the two-day program focused on topics such as leadership in the digital world, requirements for digital transformation strategies of companies and relevant roadmaps, and the changing corporate culture. In various workshops, participants evaluated their digital transformation strategies in terms of their companies and sectors. The program ended with a panel, where the participants presented the output of their workshops.
The preparations for the upcoming module of the cooperation between TÜSİAD and ESMT are running at full speed.
[1] The cooperation with the ESMT is part of TÜSİAD’s wider communication strategy towards Germany. In this context, a cooperation agreement encompassing a period of three years and focusing on the Industry 4.0 topic was concluded between the Turkey Culture of Change Initiative (www.tcci-de.org) founded in Berlin in 2013 and the ESMT.
