UDEC group president, believing education is a corporate responsibility<\/p>\n

Fifty-year-old Ahmet Azmi Zirh is from the ancient Black Sea coastal city of Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond, in northeastern Turkey. Every summer \u201c\u2026from the age of 10, I used to work on the beaches \u2013 from polishing shoes to selling soft drinks. I didn\u2019t lack money \u2013 my parents were not poor \u2013 it is just that I wanted to have my own spending money.\u201d Ten minutes with Ahmet, in his tastefully furnished office, I felt at ease with his charmingly infectious laughter and his self assurance \u2013 devoid of any arrogance or boasting.<\/p>\n

Ahmet has a Masters degree in architecture and has been in Kyiv now for three years \u2013 as president of the rapidly growing UDEC group. \u201cWe have been a player in the global market for 28 years and moved into the Ukrainian market in 2004. Currently we have 14 companies in Ukraine \u2013 from telecommunications to construction to real estate \u2013 and employ 1500 personnel.\u201d Ahmet and his general manager, who took on the role of translator, did their best to elucidate me on the multi-faceted aspects and activities of UDEC group, but all to no avail, since I have no head for engineering or rocket science. So, sipping on the aromatic cup of tea offered to me, I suggested that we get back to \u2018terra firma\u2019 and talk about simple things like Ahmet\u2019s life in Kyiv; his vision about the company he heads and his appreciation and fears \u2013 if any \u2013 of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Ahmet, leaning back in his chair, gave out another one of his bellowing but endearing laughs and said: \u201cMy children are still at university. So, though I have been here three years, I have not been able to bring my family over to Kyiv. But every opportunity I get <\/p>\n

buy kamagra 100mg<\/a><\/p>\n

, weekends mostly, I fly over to Istanbul and spend it with them. As to my vision about the company I head, I want us to become a national leader in the GSM sphere \u2013 built on customer satisfaction and ever-improving quality. I also want, sooner or later, that we become leaders in the booming real estate sector.\u201d That last statement took our conversation, just for a little while, to investor\u2019s woes \u2013 risks, red tape, lack of transparency, etc. \u2013 when it comes to that unusually reactive sector, but we both agreed that this Word with\u2026 feature is not the right platform for that subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy appreciation of Ukraine is naturally for the country\u2019s immense potential and its great wealth of educated people. Having said that, I must also point out that in certain areas the education tends to be too theory oriented. That is where we can step in and offer practical training. We already have a student program whereby we give out 500 scholarships to talented students from all over Ukraine. We also encourage students to take up part-time jobs with us so that they can not only acquire practical knowledge but also can earn some money. In that sense we are also functioning as a university. I am a strong believer and advocate of corporate responsibility in the education sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahmet is also quite candid about Ukrainian employees attitude toward corporate loyalty. \u201cThey still haven\u2019t assimilated or even understood what that means. There is a long way to go. But slowly the desired and needed professionalism is seeping into existing companies and the newcomers are only too ready to embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing that his group is also involved in the construction of residential as well as office complexes, I raised a pet theme of mine: the abominable lack of any facilities catering to the needs of handicapped people \u2013 especially the ones in wheelchairs. \u201cTrue. I agree with you. We try, all the time, to incorporate those requirements into our projects. But we can\u2019t fight it all by ourselves. Those requirements must become government policies. It is up to the municipal authorities and politicians to pass the required laws and enforce them and implement them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later into our conversation, Ahmet told me that some years back he personally founded a center for handicapped children in Turkey. He also told me that the center now houses 150 children and that all their needs are fully taken care of. Bravo, I thought, and shook his hand with utmost sincerity and warmth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UDEC group president, believing education is a corporate responsibility Fifty-year-old Ahmet Azmi Zirh is from the ancient Black Sea coastal city of Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond, in northeastern Turkey. Every summer \u201c\u2026from the age of 10, I used to work on the beaches \u2013 from polishing shoes to selling soft drinks. I didn\u2019t lack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dekainsaat.com.tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}