So after our free day in Istanbul, we had to rally the troops for our last day of sessions, a day in which I was the facilitator for the proceedings. Our first stop was a visit to the headquarters of Migros, the largest grocery store chain in Turkey. We left early to battle the infamous Istanbul traffic as travelled across the city, including a trip across the Bosphorus to Asia. The photos below detail our commute.
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| A car ferry not too far from our hotel |
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| A passenger ferry on the Golden Horn as seen from the Galata Bridge |
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| A bridge over the Bosphorus in the distance |
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| On approach to the Bosphorus |
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| Midway across the bridge over the Bosphorus -- I'm half in Asia and Europe while taking this photo :-). |
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| A business center in the Eastern part of Istanbul |
We got to Migros headquarters early enough that we were able to tour one of their stores, a modern grocery store with a wide selection, very similar to what you would see in the U.S including a Krispy Kreme kiosk. The produce section was a little bigger, the meat section had a different feel (less beef, no pork) and the frozen section was much smaller, but overall was very similar.
We were fortunate to have the chairman of Migros, Bulend Ozaydinli as our speaker. He told us how Migros gives all its managers iPads so they can work from the store floor, not back in an office. They use technology for online ordering (far ahead of the U.S.) and self checkout as well, and he also told us some very interesting plans of the government for a bridge across the sea of Marmara, a second channel connecting the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea and a second city given that Istanbul had outgrown itself -- other than the bridge I'm not sure of the liklihood of the other two, but the ambition of the projects ring true. Other than very mixed signals from the Chairman, his handlers and our tour guides as to how much time we had, it was a great visit.
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| Despite the crazed look in my eyes, I meant him no harm and was actually about to thank him for speaking to our group with our traditional speaker gift, Cornell maple syrup. |
After lunch in the Migros cafeteria (don't think cafeteria food) and receiving a gift (minature Migros shopping carts with evil eyes in them), we travelled West again to the European part of Istanbul to Denizbank's training center. Denizbank was a connection I arranged through CoBank and is the largest private agricultural lender in Turkey. (Ziraatbank, a government entity is the largest).
Another great visit as Denizbank is aggressively pursuing the widespread ag. market and can even do an instantaneous loan approval for a 3,000 TL ($1,800) line of credit by text message. They provided simultaneous translators for us (with ear pieces) so it felt like we were at the U.N. At one point when I was moderating the questions I got myself confused when I forgot to remove the ear piece and was listening to my question being translated to Turkish while I was asking it.
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| En route to Denizbank on the European side, Istanbul is just a massive city. |
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| Reviewing my notes during the presentation of Gokhan SUN (not pictured) head of agribusiness banking at Denizbank |
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| Modelling our spiffy new tam o'shanters (I'm sure they don't call them that), a gift from Denizbank. We also received lime green (the Denizbank ag. group color) ties and scarves |
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| Our group with our Denizbank hosts (the two women front row far left and the three women front row far right) |
Denizbank was also kind enough to let use their facility for our speakers from the U.S. consulate
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| Patrick Harnish, State Dept. |
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| Ibrahim Sirtioglu, USDA Foreign ag. service |
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| As if on cue, passing a Denizbank branch en route back to the hotel |
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| Followed by a Migros location |
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| Cranes along sıde the Golden Horn |
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| At the restaurant that nıght |
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| A random shot of the mırror ın my hotel room whıch had a metal border wıth an outlıne of Istanbul's skylıne |
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| Good bye Istanbul Turkey |
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