Brain Drain

“Brain drain is an urban myth that is talked about a lot and is treated as if it is an issue that can be solved as long as we close our borders and do not issue passports. So, are we dealing with a big problem here?

Or let’s look at from another perspective. Is it really tempting to leave this beautiful nature, your friends, your family, and hundreds of opportunities to do business and begin an adventure?

I think physical migration is not a big problem.”

In 2018, I made these exact comments in my article in Digital Age.

We have reached the end of 2020, I wanted to review this subject. My opinions have not changed; they have become even clearer. “It is not a big problem” has been a slight interpretation. On the contrary, brain drain has a great benefit.

Here is another quote from my 2018 article:

“We do not see any foreign employees at the senior management level of many giant companies in Turkey. On the other hand, the rate is slightly better in technology companies; however, it is not sufficient. Instead of saying ‘no one should go’, we need to focus on who we can bring from abroad, what we can do not only within the company but also as a society, and urbanism for them to live happily. “

Our biggest problem in Turkey is that we are very Turkish. We have very successful, talented companies and entrepreneurs; however, they have difficulty in opening up to international markets. The main reason is that the organizational culture is not multinational. Companies have difficulty in designing products, communicating, and understanding their business partners according to different geographies, and they do not have a team to understand them.

What has changed in the last 2 years? Talented people prefer to work more individually. They do not want to connect to a single company; they prefer to do business through various platforms. With the depreciation of the Turkish Lira, the culture of doing business abroad from Turkey has developed. It is both possible to earn significant income and different experiences are gained.

In short, the Turkish labor market has globalized and now it is time for the Turkish companies to do the same.