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Issue 1
August-2007

Letter From the Dean


Faculty News

   New Faculty
   Visiting Faculty
   Faculty on Sabbatical
   Awards & Accomplishments

Alumni News

Events

Program News

Letter From the Dean

Dear FMAN alumni and friends,
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Greetings from Orhanlı!


We are delighted to present our first FMAN newsletter. Published in English for the benefit of our network of international alumni, faculty and friends, this newsletter aims to provide news of recent developments in our faculty, including information about the achievements of our faculty members, alumni, and events that we feel might be of interest to you.

We hope that as you read this newsletter you feel proud of how we are growing as a school. Over the past three years we have doubled the number of our full time faculty members which has allowed us to greatly expand the number of electives we offer and to start a myriad of other ventures, including a new professional masters program, IT in Management. We have received funds from our wonderful FMAN friend, Hedef Alliance, to support an international student from one of our regional neighbors (in the Middle East, Northern Africa, Eastern Europe, or the Turkic republics). We see initiatives like this as playing a key role in our internationalization efforts.

Some of the most exciting developments at the school have been in the finance area. In order to meet the increasing demand for individuals with strong training in finance we have engaged in a multi-faceted effort involving recruiting new faculty, building a trading room and planning a new program. This past year we recruited two new faculty members in finance, Koray Simsek (PhD, Princeton) and Can Inci (PhD, Michigan). This coming September, Mete Soner, currently Dean at Koc University's College of Administrative and Social Sciences, will be joining us as the Işık İnselbağ Chair in Finance. With support from Sabancı Holding/Exsa A.Ş we are building a Trading Room, the first at a Turkish university. Our trading room will provide students a hands on laboratory with real-time data to enhance their understanding of financial markets. This fall we are sending a proposal to YOK for permission to begin a Masters in Finance program, intended to start in Fall 2008.

While a superb infrastructure and innovative programs are important, the key strength of a school are its people, the students, faculty and supporters in the business community who make it what it is. This past year our faculty members have earned a record number of EU and TUBITAK grants. As the reputation of our programs grow we see our graduates getting multiple job offers from Turkish and international firms. Both the MBA Club and the undergraduate Business and Economics club have had a record number of activities this past year. We take great pride in all of these activities.

I hope you enjoy reading about the accomplishments of our professors, students and alumni. Our current plans are to publish this newsletter twice a year; the next edition being planned for February. So please send us news of your activities (especially your promotions :)) to our career advisor, Ms. Asuman Budak, who is also responsible for this newsletter. And make sure that we have your most recent contact information in the bannerweb system. http://bannerweb.sabanciuniv.edu/

Warmest regards,

Nakiye Avdan Boyacigiller

Faculty News

Professor Mete Soner joins FMAN as Işık İnselbağ Finance Chair

We are proud to announce that Professor Mete Soner has accepted our invitation to be the first Işık İnselbağ Chair in Finance. Named in honor of the late Dr. Işık Inselbağ (1945 - 2004) Professor of Finance at the Wharton School, and one of Sabanci University's founding trustees and long-time friend, the purpose of the chair is commemorate Prof. İnselbağ's many contributions to the university and to facilitate the development of excellence in finance in FMAN.

Prof. Mete Soner received his undergraduate degree from Boğaziçi University and PhD from Brown University. Beginning his career at Carnegie Mellon University as an assistant professor, he became a full professor within six years and was appointed to the Chair of Paul M. Whytes '55, Professor of Finance and Engineering at Princeton University in 1998. Professor Soner returned to Turkey in 2000 and joined Koc University, where he later became the Dean of Faculty of Economics and Administrative Science. He was chosen as a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences in 2001, and was given a TÜBİTAK-TWAS Science Award in 2002. Professor Soner is the only academic in Turkey to be included in the prestigious "Thompson ISI Highly Cited Researchers" list.

Professor Soner works on modelling, measuring and auditing risks in financial markets. As an academic with a background in mathematics, the appointment of Professor Mete Soner as the Işık İnselbağ chair is in support of the interdisciplinary structure of the Sabancı University.

The Işık İnselbağ Finance Chair is a part of Sabancı University's aim to become one of the leading institutions in research and education in finance in the region.

MBA class 2007

Career services of the FMAN has been systematized and improved substantially within the past year

In order to more fully support our MBA and LFI students' professional development and career planning and placement FMAN hired a full time career advisor, Asuman Budak. Working together with our career consultants from UNIDA, Saide Kuzeyli and Zeynep Berberoglu, as well the dean Asuman has greatly expanded the career services we provide our students. More importantly, she worked with UNIDA to organize several informative industry panels in finance, FMCG, telecommunication, automotive and pharmaceuticals. The managers that presented at these panels shared their personal experiences with the students and provide insights into how they see their industry changing. Together with Unida staff, she provided one to one coaching for the students as well as mock interviews and a host of other career related activities (CV preparation, presentation skills etc).

With these activities we aim to encourage our students to make successful and informed decisions regarding their careers. This past year reflecting both a strong economy and the increasing reputation of the Sabanci Management brand virtually all of our 2007 graduates found jobs by mid summer. The majority of our graduates continue to prefer jobs in multinational companies. Amongst the MBA 2007 class, of those who were employed 29% took jobs in the FMCG industry, 24% in consulting, 12% in pharmaceuticals and 23% in other sectors. Some students (12%) chose to pursue doctoral studies.

Amongst the SLP 2007 graduates the statistics were as follows; 50% took jobs in the manufacturing industry, 34% in the telecommunication and 16% chose to be entrepreneurs.

Amongst the ITM 2006 and ITM 2007 classes, 43% took jobs in IT and consulting sectors, 14% in automotive industry, 7% in FMCG industry, 7% in banking sector and 29% in other sectors.

This next year we intend to further strengthen the career support we give our students. In particular we would like to have an active mentoring program where Sabanci management alumni (MBA, EMBA, SLP and ITM) provide career advice and mentoring to current students. In this regard we hope to increase the number of events where alumni and students can get together in an informal manner, like in the Executive Insights series. Please make sure that you keep us informed of any changes in your contact details.These can be changed by accessing the following link http://bannerweb.sabanciuniv.edu/ . We look forward to an ever increasing network of Sabancı Management graduates which will become even stronger as our alumni support one another.

New Faculty in 2006-2007

Mahmut Bayazıt

Mahmut Bayazıt completed his Ph.D. work at Cornell University specializing in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. He also has an MSc. degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Baruch College, CUNY, and a BA degree in Psychology from Boğaziçi University. He worked as a market research specialist and he continues to work as an ad hoc consultant to the industry on issues related to leadership and human resource management. His previous academic position was at Koc University where he taught undergraduate and master level courses in psychology and organizational behavior. At Sabancı Mahmut is teaching human resource management, and organizational behavior courses in the undergraduate, MBA and EMBA programs. His research interests include the influence of work environment, including team dynamics, leadership and organizational climate, on employees' health, attitudes, motivation and behaviors at work. He is married and has two daughters.

Koray Simsek

Koray Deniz Şimşek holds a PhD in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University and a BSc in Industrial Engineering from Bogazici University. Prior to joining FMAN, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at EDHEC Business School in Nice, France, where he was also a Research Associate with EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre. He has taught courses in Financial Modeling, Derivatives, and Financial Engineering. At Sabanci, Koray is teaching Introduction to Management (undergraduate) and Derivatives (MBA) courses. His research interests lie in the areas of Financial risk management, asset - liability management, financial econometrics/optimization, alternative investments, long-term investment strategies, derivatives pricing.

Burcu Tasoluk
 Burcu Taşoluk received her B.S. in Economics from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. After working as a marketing specialist in the banking industry in Istanbul for three years, she went to Belgium and received an MBA from Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. She earned her Ph.D. in marketing from Michigan State University, USA. She taught courses on Quantitative Business Research Methods, Managerial Marketing, International Business, and Marketing Research while at Michigan State University. Burcu joined FMAN in September 2006. She is currently teaching undergraduate courses on Brand Management and Marketing and giving seminars on Brand Management. Her research interests include brand management, global brand and new product management, headquarters-subsidiary relations in multi-national corporations, and international marketing. She was recently awarded a Marie Curie grant by the European Commission that will support her research on global brand management. She loves traveling, music, and dancing.
Can Inci

Can İnci holds a PhD in Business Administration - Finance from University of Michigan, MBA from Ohio State University, and Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College - University of London and Bogazici University, respectively. He worked as an Assistant Professor of Finance at Florida State University before joining FMAN. Can teaches Financial Management and Investments courses at Sabancı. His research is on International fixed income markets, exchange rate movements, futures markets, and empirical analysis of stochastic term structure models.
Ozgecan Kocak

Özgecan Koçak holds a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and bachelors degrees in Economics and Sociology from Bogazici University. She worked as an Assistant Professor of Management at Columbia Business School before joining Sabancı University Faculty of Management.
At Sabanci, she teaches a doctoral seminar on Economic Theories of Organizations and undergraduate courses on Organization Theory. Ozgecan does research in organization theory and sociology of markets. She recently was granted a Marie Curie fellowship by the European Commission that will support her study on science and technology parks.
 

Visiting Faculty

In the 2006 - 2007 academic year six visiting faculty taught at FMAN.

Visiting Faculty Home Institution Course Taught
Akın Sayrak University of Pittsburg Investments, EMBA
Attila Yaprak Wayne State University International Marketing, EMBA
David M.Goldsman Georgia Institute of Technology Operations Simulation, Statistics, EMBA
Marina Zona University of Western Ontario Strategy, EMBA
Noam Ebner Tachlit Mediation Center Negotiation, EMBA and MBA
Onur Bodur Concordia University Pricing, EMBA and MBA


Visiting Faculty Attila Yaprak describes his FMAN experience: What a Rewarding Experience! Learning with Graduate Students at Sabanci University's Faculty of Management.

When I arrived at Sabanci University in January, 2001, I was asked to teach marketing and international business in the MBA and the Executive MBA programs. I quickly discovered then how blessed I was. Teaching students who were bright, hard working, curious about the world around them, and most importantly, thirsty for knowledge and learning made me feel like I had arrived in Heaven. Since then, I have had the pleasure to teach students in every cohort of the EMBA program and most cohorts in the MBA program. I have also taught in various executive programs conducted by the Executive Development Unit of the university.

Throughout my career, I have taught in graduate and doctoral programs in Asian, North American, and West European countries, China, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States among them, and can say without hesitation that students I have had the pleasure of teaching at Sabanci University have been at least at par with, if not better than, the students I have taught at universities in these countries. Not only are Sabanci students very bright, but they also possess healthy attitudes of discovery, hunger for learning, and fun in the learning environment. They make teaching the joy that it really is!

I am very impressed with the professional accomplishments our students have already achieved, and am confident that they will continue to achieve much more in the years ahead. I am proud to be their teacher and consider it a blessing that I have the opportunity to teach such model students every year. I wish continued success to our students, the Faculty of Management, and Sabanci University in the years ahead.

Faculty on Sabbatical

Dilek Çetindamar
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Dilek Çetindamar will be a visiting scholar to the Center for Technology Management, University of Cambridge, UK during the period of October 2007-July 2008. She will collaboratively work with Prof. David Probert.

Her work will be related to technology management. In the global world, the management of technology is as important as the development of technologies in technical terms. This is particularly crucial for developing countries that import most of their technologies. Considering their limited resources they need to fully utilize the technologies coming from abroad in order to gain a competitive edge. Turkey should excel in technology management if it wants to revitalize its economic growth. That is why the project aims to prepare a technology management handbook for technology managers who will manage different sets of technologies, with a special emphasis to the needs of developing countries.

Dilek Çetindamar is actively involved in the following projects.

1) Project Coordinator & researcher: "Technology Management Handbook"

Financed by: TÜBİTAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological
Research Council of Turkey

2) Project researcher: "The Global Innovation Assessment Project: Understanding the Impact
of the Innovation Infrastructure on Innovation Performance"

Financed by: Northeastern University, US and Sabanci University.
3) Project Coordinator & researcher: "The mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation in the relationship of organizational culture with corporate entrepreneurship"
Financed by: TÜBİTAK

4) Project Coordinator & researcher: Project title: "Technology Management System in Turkey"
Financed by: TÜBİTAK

Meltem Denizel
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Meltem Denizel will spend her sabbatical as a visiting scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Management, Atlanta, Georgia - USA during the period of September 2007-July 2008. She will be collaboratively working with Mark Ferguson and Beril Toktay and David Goldsman. Her visit is partially supported by a research grant awarded by Fulbright Commission of Educational Exchange Between the United States and Turkey.

Her work will be on Product Recovery Systems for Sustainable Development. She explains the importance of the topic as follows:


"Product Recovery is concerned with regaining the remaining value in the end-of-life/use products and returning it to the economy. This is achieved through collecting end-of-life/use products and refurbishing them or disassembling their reusable parts and components to be used in manufacturing completely new products. Also part of the product recovery activities is proper disposal and recycling of unrecoverable parts.

While implementation of product recovery systems has become part of strategic planning in developed countries around the world, Turkish companies have been lacking behind. One reason may be the lack of legislation and enforcement for related initiatives and another reason can be the misconception on the part of the companies that these systems are generators of unnecessary costs. However, researchers suggest that companies realize valuable commercial opportunities through collecting, recycling, and reusing products. Furthermore they argue that product recovery systems can be regarded as the implementation of sustainable development at the firm level since it suggests retaining the value embedded in products and, hence, avoiding any sort of waste of scarce resources. As a matter of fact, a major driver for the increasing emphasis on recovery systems is recent government regulations, especially in the European Union countries, about the disposal of waste materials or used products as part of sustainable development initiatives. Environmental conscious consumers also create pressures on the companies to establish a "green image". The possible economic gains that can be obtained from such recovery systems also provide a motivation for the companies to establish the necessary processes, although their perception as profit centers is rare (most companies especially in developing countries like Turkey still view it as a burden).

Still, based on the facts and discussions documented in the literature, product recovery systems will become more and more important for Turkey and the Turkish companies, especially during and after European Union negotiations no matter how the result turns out. It will increase the international competitiveness of the Turkish companies and in some cases; it will be the only way for exports to European or other countries where legislations for product recovery are strong. Therefore, it is of ultimate importance that efforts in knowledge creation and dissemination in this area increase and awareness expand both in the Turkish academy and industry."
Mine Aksu
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Mine Aksu will be spending part of her sabbatical year at the Univerity of Texas at Dallas and the rest at either Indiana University or Purdue University. Using their financial databases Compustat, CRISP, and WRDS, she will update her samples in order to revise and resubmit two of her working papers on financial distress and debt restructurings. These papers investigate the resolution of firm-specific financial distress through concessions (debt restructurings) allowed by the financially distressed firm's creditors and their favorable effects on the firm's stock price and accounting performance.

One of the papers also examines whether the excess return to shareholders of the debt restructuring firm is due to the high "abandonment option value" of its assets as the firm nears liquidation or due to improved prospects as a result of high "going concern value" of these assets. As a continuation of this research on financial distress, Dr. Aksu, Dr. Can Simga Mugan and Dr. Gülnur Muradoglu, her colleagues from ODTÜ and Cass Business School, London will carry out a comparative study which investigates the firm-specific corporate governance and financial characteristics that enhance successful resolution of and resilience to financial distress in Turkey and Korea. This latter project also makes use of a unique dataset, an index of transparency and dislosure scores of Turkish and Korean firms, developed as a result of a three- year Transparency & Disclosure project carried out by FMAN Corporate Governance Forum researchers and Standard & Poor's of London. The group has already applied for a research grant of $10,000 to support the research required to complete the paper to be presented in June 2008, at the Workshop on Leading issues in Corporate Giovernance in Emerging Markets, organized by the Global Corporate Governance Forum, Asian Institute of Corporate Governance (AICG), and IFC/World Bank Group.

Dr. Aksu will also be collaborating with Dr. Ümit Gürün and Dr. Volkan Musluoğlu, two colleagues at UT-Dallas who were her former MBA students at Koç University. They will be comparing the value relevance (the association with stock prices) of net income and book value of owner's equity, the two prominent bottom-line numbers on firms' financial reports, in developed and emerging markets, using ISE firms as the emerging market sample. They will also investigate whether the mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2005 and the voluntary adoption of the Corporate Governance Principles of the SPK in 2004 have improved the value relevance of accounting numbers in Turkey. As such, this work is expected to have implications for the impact of regulation on transparency and efficient allocation of resources in financial markets.

Time permitting, she will be working with Dr. Steven Balsam of Temple University to finish up and submit their paper titled ""An Analysis and Value Relevance of Stock-Based Compensation Costs."

Awards&Accomplishments

NB_Fellow

Nakiye Avdan Boyacıgiller Elected Academy of International Business Fellow

 

Nakiye Avdan Boyacıgiller, dean of the Faculty of Management, has been elected an AIB Fellow by the Academy of International Business.

 

The Academy of International Business (AIB) is the leading association of scholars and specialists in the field of international business. Established in 1959, today AIB has 3152 members in 75 different countries around the world. Members include scholars from the leading academic institutions as well consultants and researchers. The AIB transcends the boundaries of single academic disciplines and managerial functions to enhance business education and practice. 

 

The AIB Fellows consist of distinguished AIB members recognized for their contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. Of its more than 3000 members, today only 70 are recognized as AIB Fellows. 

 

Boyacıgiller is only the second Turkish scholar to be recognized as a Fellow, following Prof. Dr. Tamer Çavuşgil of Michigan State University. Professor Boyacıgiller’s scholarly and professional contributions stem from her being one of the first scholars emphasizing the importance of, and problems related to, the study of culture within organizational studies and international business. 

 

Prof. Boyacigiller’s induction ceremony was held at AIB’s annual meeting this summer in Indianapolis. She is pictured above with her fellow inductees.
Mine Aksu received the International Academic Publications Incentive Award

In addition, her working papers titled "Transparency and Disclosure in the Istanbul Stock Exchange: Did IFRS Adoption and Corporate Governance Principles Make a Difference" and "Going ConcernValue versus Abandonment Option Value in Debt Restructuring Firms" were listed in the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN)'s recent top 10 downloads list since May 2007.

SSRN is the biggest and most prestigious electronic library of working papers and accepted papers series encompassing management, law, and economics fields.

Her author's page http://ssrn.com/author=241163 and personal web site at SU http://people.sabanciuniv.edu/~maksu/ contains several of her working and accepted papers.

FMAN Faculty Members Achieve a Record of 15 Research Grants from the EU, TUBITAK, IBB (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality) and the Sabancı University Research Council.

 

Title Sponsoring Agency PI Name Budget
Technology Management Handbook Tübitak Dilek Çetindamar 244.480 YTL
A GIS-Based 3-Dimensional Analysis of Logistics Management Problems Tübitak Burçin Bozkaya 146.076 YTL
EUROSHPERE Diversity & The Euopean Public Sphere: Toward a Citizen's Europe EU FP7 Ahmet Öncü* € 174.000
Sourcing Strategies under Quality of Service Requirements and different Pricing Schemes for Telecommunication Networks Tübitak Nihat Kasap 68.939 YTL
Econometric Modelling of Competitive Markets and Market Response Tübitak Cenk Koçaş 133.922 YTL
Relating Company Efforts to Consumer Perceptions: A Contingency Framework EU FP7 Burcu Taşoluk € 74.814
Nonlinear Three-Country Multi-Factor Stochastic Term Structure Models "NL-TC-MF-TSM" EU FP7 Can İnci € 73.452
European Corporate Governance Training Network EU FP6 Melsa Ararat € 132.500
Organizational and Communal Determinants of Technopark Performance EU FP6 Özgecan Koçak € 80.000
Applicability of mobile phone based e-government services in Turkey: A strategic assessment Tübitak Ronan Jouan De Kervenoael 152.475 YTL
Meta search engine design with SVMs Tübitak Enes Eryarsoy 9.376 YTL
Cross-cultural Model of Organizational Trust: Bases, Foci and Outcomes Sabancı University Research Council S.Arzu Wasti 9.720 USD
An assessment of Fundamental and Critical Data for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality: an Analysis and Design of Enterprise Data Management System IBB Nihat Kasap 15.000YTL
Hazardous Materials Route Planning Using Risk Analysis and Optimization Techniques

IBB Burçin Bozkaya 16.025YTL
GIS Based Districting for the City of Edmonton, Canada Externally funded by Districtwise Inc. of Edmonton Burçin Bozkaya 8016CAD

* PI of this  project is Prof. Dr. Ayşe Öncü from FASS.
PhD Student Öznur Özdemir Awarded Tübitak Study Abroad Research Grant

Our PhD student Öznur Özdemir has been awarded with the Research Grant provided by TUBITAK for abroad studies in spring 2007. Making use of this grant Öznur will continue her thesis studies in Georgia Techonology of Institute in USA on Product Recovery Systems in collobration with the distinguished professors in this field.

Alumni News

Sabancı Student and Alumni Reception was held at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum
AB
The event, organised by MBA Career Consultant Asuman Budak and the MBA Club and held at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum Winter Garden, took place in a warm and casual atmosphere.  One of the leading motives for this gathering was the desire to follow in the footsteps of acclaimed MBA programmes and create a strong network among Sabancı MBA. All graduates and current students of the Sabancı MBA and EMBA were invited to this event. The gathering took place on February 25th, 2007, and was attended by around 100 people.

News About Alumni Activities - Promotions / Career moves

Oğuzhan Silivrili, EMBA 2003 has moved to Reckitt Benckiser as Marketing Manager.
Ayhan Dayoğlu, EMBA 2006 has been promoted to Director of Mid-size vehicle Sales/Marketing and After Sales Services Department in TEMSA.
Alper Tokalp EMBA 2002 moved from Beksa to Temsa as Director of Organisational Development Unit.
Murat Allaf MBA 2006 has joined Helix Management Consulting Company.

 

We wish these alumni continued success in their new jobs. Please send news about your job transfers and promotions to Asuman Budak at asumanb@sabanciuniv.edu or (216) 483-9671
Selen Kars

MBA Graduate Selen Kars' Success
Our MBA Graduate, Selen Kars, has won a  35000 USD scholarship from Tübitak’s Study Abroad Program which aims to support students in their doctoral programs.  Selen will use this fellowship to pursue a doctorate at  Lancaster University in the area of Management Learning and Innovation Management in SME's. We congratulate Selen Kars and wish her continued success in her studies.

Events

Executive Insights Series 2006-2007


This past year the MBA Club and the Faculty of Management co-hosted three gatherings as part of the Executive Insigths series.  The first guest speaker was Mr. Yoshio Ishizaka, Senior Advisor to the Board of Toyota Motor Corporation. Ishizaka gave a talk titled "The Secret of Toyota's Strength and its Challenges".  Given Mr. Ishizaka’s stature in Toyota, the event was sponsored by ToyotaSA and held at the Sabancı Centre.  In addition to FMAN alumni and students  prominent figures from the Istanbul business circles were also invited to this unique event.  

The second event in the series took place on March 21st, 2007, and the guest speaker was Ethem Sancak, founder and CEO of Hedef Alliance. Mr. Sancak's presentation was titled "Institutionalisation and the Hedef Alliance Experience". Awarded the "Business Person of the Year" prize by Istanbul University and Dünya newspaper in 2001 and chosen the "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Ekonomist magazine in 2005, Sancak shared his many experiences and his vision about leadership in a very open and personal manner.

The final event of the series was held on May 23rd, 2007. The event was hosted by the MBA Club and Akdenet (Association of Akbank Audit Council Members), and the guest speaker was Cemalettin Sarar, CEO of Sarar Europe GmbH in Germany, Sarar USA Inc. in the United States, Sarar-Gusto International Fashion in Israel, and Sarar (Shangai) Trading Co. in China. A prominent entrepreneur, Mr. Sarar shared his thoughts on life as a manager, and provided many recommendations to the audience.

 

Please note that we hope future events will continue to take place in the city with sponsorship from our alumni.  If you are interested in hosting a future event please contact Dean Boyacıgiller’s Office.

MBA_Club

The Association of Young Managers and Businessmen (GYIAD) Meets with
Sabancı MBA

With emphasis on continuous development, representation of the business world and support of creative entrepreneurship projects, the Association of Young Managers and Businessmen (GYİAD) shared their experiences with our MBA students under the concept of "A Young Look at the Business World" at the Faculty of Management on March 19th, 2007.
Participants were Pınar Eczacıbaşı, Necip Uludağ, Menend Esemenli and Sinan Ergin.

The GYİAD is a non-governmental organisation focused on providing solutions to the needs and problems of young managers and businessmen, representing them on common platforms in accordance with shared expectations, and increasing the influence of young managers and businessmen on the society in general.

The executive board members of the GYİAD talked to our MBA students, the young entrepreneurs and potential managers of the future, and emphasised how well educated people with a vision can make an active contribution to the economic, social and political growth of Turkey.

Following the meeting, 22 MBA students went to the headquarters of the GYİAD at 4. Levent, and have received their "Candidate Member" certificates. The cooperation initiated between Sabancı MBA and GYİAD will enable students to attend certain events hosted by the GYİAD. For example, "Candidate Member" students may attend the executive board assemblies and meetings held with Party Leaders, and can upload their CVs to the GYİAD website to enable member companies to browse through the available database.
MBA_Forum

MBA Forum 2007
Sabancı MBA Club and Bilkent MBA Club jointly organized MBA Forum 2007 on April 27-29, 2007 at Kervansaray Hotel, Antalya. The MBA Forum 2007, which will be repeated every year, is designed to support the development of future business leaders.
Almost 200 students from different universities attended the forum, in which students had the chance not only to develop strong networks among themselves but also to meet successful executives, who were invited as speakers to the Forum.
The executive speakers from Turkish and multinational companies shared their personal and professional experiences, their global vision, and their suggestions for personal development.

Ahmet Avgan, Çağla Karaaslan and Mert Baki from MBA Class of 2008 were the core team of Sabancı MBA Club members who worked very hard for this successful organization.

MBA Forum 2007's Speakers:

-Aclan Acar, Doğuş Automotive
-Ali Sabancı, Pegasus Airlines
-Erdal Karamercan, Eczacıbaşı Group
-Sinan Ergin, Asemble
-İzzet Karaca, Unilever
-Filiz Demirayak, WWF Turkey
-Akin Öngör, Former CEO of Garanti Bank
-Marco Protano, Bilkent University


Marketing_meeting

The Third Marketing Meeting Achieves Success

The third "Marketing Meeting" held by the MBA Club provided opportunities for the managers of the future to learn from marketing professionals.

The meeting was open to the students from Sabancı University as well as other universities, and professionals of the business world.

Meetings were held as panel discussions, attended by general managers, marketing directors and marketing managers of leading and distinguished companies of different sectors. Held at the Sabancı University campus in Tuzla on May 7th, 2007, the meeting aimed to introduce students to the realities of the business world, and help them gain a different vision with regard to marketing.

A warm and interactive session was created between the speakers and students who wish to build a career in marketing or to know this sector more closely.

The third Marketing Meeting included contributions on topics such as "The Importance and Benefits of Market Research", "Brand-Advertising Relations and Advertising Performance", "Brand Management in Consumer Goods", and "The Importance and Benefits of Marketing Sponsorships".


Commencement_Day

Commencement Day


"Change happens through unprejudiced, free-thinking, courageous, and socially responsible individuals."   Güler Sabancı, Commencement Speech, 30 June, 2007

This year’s graduation ceremony was held on Saturday, June 30th, where 328 undergraduate, 71 graduate students received their diplomas.

The ceremony started at the amphitheatre with the "Academic Parade" accompanied by the music of Ayhan Sicimoğlu & Latin All Stars. The speakers of the ceremony were Sabancı University Board of Trustees Chairwoman Güler Sabancı, President Professor Tosun Terzioğlu, Hüseyin Ergün from the Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences Programme on behalf of graduate students, and Firuze Okyay from the Materials Science and Engineering Programme on behalf of undergraduate students. Following the diploma ceremony, Mert Özsöz a 2004 Graduate and member of the Alumni Association spoke on behalf of the alumni.

Sabancı University President Professor Tosun Terzioğlu said, "There is a general conception that a university is a school one is enrolled in after a three-hour exam where those who mark the highest number of 'correct' answers win, and that makes its students acquire a profession.That is precisely not what a university is. A university is an institution where all knowledge, theories and opinions are under continuous scrutiny and critical investigation." Terzioğlu also noted, "In this light, a university is not a school. University is an environment made up of concentric circles. Constituents of these circles are students, academics, employees, industrialists, artists, politicians, NGOs and many others, comprising 'social stakeholders'." Click here for the entire speechmore

Sabancı University Board of Trustees Chairwoman Güler Sabancı reminded that the Sabancı University has an aim of "pioneering change", and noted that enabling change requires dreaming, believing in free thought, making courageous moves, and having an entrepreneurial spirit.

Güler Sabancı also noted that one needs to be liberated from prejudices and believe in free thought to be able to dream, and continued, "You have learnt the freedom of thought, refraining from assumptions, and exploring different alternatives. These should be your guiding principles throughout life. While you prepare yourselves for life, armed with knowledge, courage, dreams and plans, life will throw surprises at you. You will have to make choices. You choices must take you a step closer to your core values. You can be a "success oriented" but "humane" person, "busy" but "caring" parents, an individual who values their personal growth as well as their social responsibilities. This is a matter of choice." Click here for the entire speechmore
Upcoming Events

FMAN hosts 15th Annual CEEMAN Conference


CEEMAN (Central and East European Management Development Association, www.ceeman.org), a non-profit organization aiming to foster the development of management education in Central and East Europe, holds annual conferences with different themes every year. The 15th Annual meeting will be held at The Marmara Hotel and Sabanci University with the support of FMAN and our Dean, Prof. Nakiye Boyacigiller who will act as Conference Chairperson. The theme of this year's conference is "Globalization and its Implications for Management Development." Several noted management scholars will be attending and the opening keynote presentation will be given by Prof. Izhak Adizes.   Mr. Muhtar Kent, COO of Coca-Cola Company, will give the closing speech. Additionally on the first day of the conference there will be a presentation by Prof. Chan Kim, of Insead of his renowed book, "Blue Ocean Strategies."

The conference is of utmost importance for this region. By bringing academics who share the same culture and face similar problems in management education, 15th CEEMAN Annual Conference will foster the development of solutions to problems by providing a platform in which knowledge and experiences can be exchanged and networks can be created.  For more information on the conference and to register please check the conference web page at http://www.ceeman.org/?nSel=events&nSub=annconf&eID=15

Program News

New Curriculum for the EMBA Program

 

A committee worked on the evaluation and re-design of the EMBA curriculum during the 2006-2007 academic year and the new curriculum suggested by the committee was approved by the university administration. The new curriculum will be effective starting with the 2007-2008 academic year. A significant change was made in the schedule of the program, and several changes were made in the courses required in the curriculum. We believe these changes will strengthen Sabancı EMBA's high quality position not just in Turkey but also globally.

Our EMBA Program has been enjoying a steady growth in demand, especially in the last four years. The number of applications in 2006 was 83% above that of 2004, while the general characteristics of the intake remained as good as ever. Specifically, the average work experience of the intake remained around 10 years (the highest in Turkey by a significant margin) and we kept on attracting students who were in managerial positions in the leading companies of Turkey. The growth in demand led us to increase the class-size to the 35-40 range in 2006, which we believe is ideal.

While we were enjoying this growth, we kept on getting feedback regularly from all the stakeholders of the program: students, alumni, companies, and professors. Although this feedback suggested overall satisfaction with the program, a general concern was its intensity. The students, alumni and professors all agreed that students can learn more and digest the material better with a less intense program. Everyone also agreed that this change would also facilitate better teamwork, since student teams would have more time to meet and work together.

With the new design, approximately the same amount of contact hours will be covered in four semesters rather than three. In the first three semesters the total contact hours per week is reduced from 9 to 6, whereas in the fourth semester there will be no Friday classes and total contact hours on Saturdays will be 7.5. This reduced intensity, along with fewer courses being taken in a semester will allow students to spend more time on each course outside class hours.

In terms of courses, the following changes were made. Some of the core courses (such as marketing, finance, operations) that were taught in two separate courses were streamlined into single courses while keeping total contact hours about the same. The total contact hours allocated to economics and globalization were increased, and the information systems course was made an elective. For more information on the new structure of our program go to

http://www.sabanciuniv.edu/ybf/eng/?PrgEmba/Program_Structure.html


We strongly believe these changes will strengthen Sabancı EMBA's leadership position in Turkey.

Sabancı University and HP are training CIO's of the Future

 

Sabancı University and HP have agreed to join their forces for the graduate program "MSc. in Information Technologies in Management" (ITM), a unique program bridging management studies and IT to help train future CIO’s (Chief Information Officers).   The program was designed with industry participation to meet the needs of the IT Sector.

 

The collaboration has many elements including, perhaps most importantly participation by HP employees in teaching of key courses in the program.  Our inaugural HP faculty member will be HP General Manager, Mr. Şahin Tulga. Mr. Tulga will be teaching the course, "IT Investment and Strategies."  In addition an HP Consultant on IT Service Management is teaching "Foundations of IT Service Management" as part of our 2006-2007 academic offering.

Through the ITM program, CIO's and IT Managers of the future as well as students seeking careers in the IT sector are trained in such areas as information systems management, e-application development, and creating new business opportunities and investment strategies. The main goal of the program is the improvement of business processes and creation of cost-effective business models with utilization of IT based management policies and technologies.

The contents of the course taught by S. Şahin Tulga, who also taught previously at METU, Koç, Yeditepe and Başkent Universites, resembles a mini-MBA. In this course, Mr. Tulga, focuses on management of information technologies and the added values created in organizations by IT.

ITM program is also open to professionals interested in a particular course, who may be registered as a special student with approval from program coordinators.

Nakiye Avdan Boyacıgiller, Dean of Faculty of Management, points out that this cooperation is a very good example of industry-university relationship a fundamental part of the mission of Sabancı University.  It provides additional value by combining academics who are equipped with the latest theoretical knowledge with part-time instructors from the business world. Prof. Boyacıgiller emphasizes that through this cooperation, IT sector will be closely followed and skills and abilities required by the IT world will be reflected on the ITM program curriculum.

Nur Yolcu Nakiboğlu, Director of HP Turkey Services states that the industy is in a tremendous era of change and every technological innovation causes dramatic transformations in economic, social and political life. Ms. Nakiboğlu also adds that IT managers have to cope with this change and through this program, HP has a chance to make IT managers recognise the change and the interaction cycle.

The ITM program aims to improve the business processes of organizations and create cost-effective business models with the utilization of IT based management policies and technologies. Successful students will be awarded the MSc degree after completing the 1-year non-thesis graduate program. Students who apply to the program through HP Turkey will be offered a tuition discount. The course "Foundations of IT Service Management", which covers fundamentals of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), is to be completed in 7 weeks with a total of 21 hours of lecture time. Upon completion of the course, students have a chance to get a certification of their expertise by taking the ITIL examination.

The aspiration of the ITM graduate program, which is offered only by Sabancı University in Turkey, is to fill a major gap in the IT education domain. The main goal of the program is to have graduates that are equipped with the know-how on web services, network and communication infrastructure, database design and management, and information security as well as IT-based decision support systems, IT investment policies and strategies.

All candidates who have a 4-year undergraduate degree may apply to the program. The class schedule is arranged such that those working on a full-time basis can also attend. Lectures are offered on Monday and Wednesday evenings at Karaköy Communication Center and on Saturdays at SU campus.

 

MBA CAP Projects

This year, the graduating MBA Class of 2007 has successfully completed eight Company Action Projects. The project companies were Borusan Otomotive, İş Yatırım, Pınar Meat Division, Coca Cola İçecek A.Ş (two projects), 3M, AirTies, and Pfizer.  You can  find the names of projects on our Faculty's web page or in the table given below.

http://www.sabanciuniv.edu/ybf/eng/?PrgMba/Company_Action_Projects.html

Although marketing projects continue to be the most popular amongst students, this year there was interest in a new product development in the finance sector, a Supply Chain Management project, and new product launch projects in two different sectors.

 

Each project contributed to its company with a well appreciated Value Added. The employment statistics of the new graduates show that multinational companies have been very generous in providing employment opportunities for MBA Class of 2007. This is of course an indicator of the success of the students and the MBA program in general and CAP Process in particular. One of the students who worked on the Coca Cola İçecek's project impressed the company sponsors so much that they employed him directly as an assistant brand manager immediately upon his graduation.

 

2006-2007
Air Ties Developing a Marketing Plan for a New Product
Borusan
Establishing Car Rental Business as an Alternative Sales Channels
Coca-Cola
Developing an On-line Data Ordering System for Point of Purchase Materials
İş Investment
Creating a New Product Using Derivatives for Turkish Market
Pınar
Determining a Marketing and Growth Strategy
Pfizer Developing a Marketing Strategy for a New Product
3M
Developing a New Product Launch Plan

The "Project Seeking" period for next year started early in June, if not earlier. Examining the expectations of the MBA-1s from their "Life Career Project Vision Statement - LCPVs, we understood that the most popular sectors of interest for them are Automotive, Pharmaceutical and FMCG, followed by the IT and Banking sectors.

Our 31 students want projects on such subjects as brand management, marketing and sales, strategy and finance. It has never been difficult to convince companies to offer us projects which satisfy CAP'S goals: a project with critical importance to the company, and promising lots of learning opportunities to the students. Thanks to our large network of CAP Partners, which developed over the years, and even the wider FMAN network, it is relatively easier now to prepare a prospective projects portfolio for the MBA classes.

This summer, we have made contacts with more than a dozen companies with initially promising results. FMAN welcomes proactive offers from interested companies, especially from the companies where our MBA and EMBA alumni work.   If interested please contact the CAP Coordinator Yıldız Arıkan.

İpek Kağıt -  New Partner Company of the Leaders for Industry Program

LFI (Leaders for Industry) Program is becoming more enhanced through adding new partner companies to its activities. We are extremely happy to announce that İpek Kağıt, of  Eczacıbaşı Holding, has just joined the LFI Program as a new partner company and looking forward to establishing excellent partnership with them as we have already done with other partner companies. With İpek Kağıt joining us, we have the joy and privilege of working with the following family of partner companies:



Alcatel Alcatel - Teletas Telekomünikasyon Endüstri Ticaret A.S. Kale Kale Group
Beksa Beksa Celik Kord Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. kordsa Kordsa Kordbezi Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.
Borusan Borusan Holding A.S. Logo LOGOMOTIF Multimedya ve Elektronik Yayincilik San. ve Tic. A.S.
Brisa Brisa Bridgestone Sabancı Lastik San. ve Tic. A.S. Siemens Siemens Medical A.S.
Festo Festo A.S. Tofas Tofas Türk Otomobil Fabrikasi A.S.
IBM IBM Turk Ltd. Sti. ECZACIBASI İpek Kağıt Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.

It is our hope and goal to increase the number of partner companies representing a wide range of industrial world so that the LFI Program becomes a reference point for a truly industry - university partnership in terms of graduating most competent engineer-managers for business community while creating value for the partner companies through a series of engineering-management projects realized at the premises of the partners.

The New LFI Students for the Academic Year 2007- 2008

After a careful and in-depth evaluation process, 7 participants have been accepted to the LFI Program for the academic year 2007-2008. As in the case of previous years, this year again excellent candidates have applied to the program, but we could accept only 7 of them. The table below includes the new participants and their engineering project areas:

Participant

Engineering Project Area

Previous University

Işıl Petek Işık

Industrial Engineering

Bilkent University

Murat Çeliksoydan

Industrial Engineering

Middle East Technical Univ

Buket Şahin

Mechatronics

İstanbul Technical University

Yiğit Dağdelen

Mechatronics

Sabancı University

Can Kartoğlu

Material Sciences

Middle East Technical Univ

Koray Aras

Material Sciences

Boğaziçi University 

Murat Karalar

Material Sciences

Sabancı University 

We are confident that the new group of participants will be as successfull as their predecessors and we wish them the best of all in their this new professional journey.

LFI under New Management

The LFI Program is under the new management as June 2007 and this team is the third generation of administrators. The LFI Program had been initiated and designed by Professor Gündüz Ulusoy in collaboration with the Deans of FMAN and FENS. The LFI Program is now under the administration of the following individuals:

FENS Coordinator

Yuda Yürüm

FMAN Coordinator
Muhittin Oral


LFI Administrator
Esen Çetinkaya

Our best wishes to the new management team of Yuda Yürüm, Muhittin Oral, and Esen Çetinkaya.
Undegraduate_Prg
The First Graduates of Our Undergraduate Program

Faculty of Management’s first intake of undergraduate students in Fall 2003 have graduated in June. In addition to these 24 students about 10 more students are expected to graduate at the end of the summer term. Some of our first undergraduate alumni are going to pursue graduate degrees in prestigious schools abroad, such as Cranfield School of Management (UK), London School of Economics (UK), ESADE (Spain) and Universidad de las Islas Baleares (Spain). Others have accepted jobs offers from leading companies in Turkey, such as, Ernst&Young, Finansbank, Garanti Bank and Vodafone.