We, White Goods Suppliers Industry Association (BEYSAD), held the first Search Conference in 2012 and collectively created the first “White Goods Suppliers’ Industry Strategy Document” as a part of the project that was set off in 2011. With the Search Conferences held in 2013 and 2015 December, new revisions were prepared and shared with the sector. In line with the direction and actions set out in these Documents, activities were carried out by associations and committees.
 
As you know, the first Search Conference was held in Bolu Abant Palace Hotel on May 4-6, 2012 with the attendance of 37 people, the second in Bolu Gazelle Hotel on December 13-15, 2013 with the attendance of 47 people, and the third in Bolu Gazelle Hotel on December 11-13, 2015 with the attendance of again 47 people as a part of the White Goods Suppliers’ Industry Strategy Document project carried out by the leadership of BEYSAD and support of KOSGEB, white goods main and suppliers’ industry.

As the activities continued without losing any momentum, about 80 prominent shareholders of the sector came together in Bolu Gazelle Hotel on December 15-17, 2017 for the fourth Search Conference.

On the subject,BEYSAD Chairman Mr. Ş. Burak Özaydemir stated: “We believe in shaping the future of our sector together by determining opportunities and threats by common mind in the road to global leadership. In this regard, Search Conferences are our most important platform and their output, that is our Strategy Documents shed light on the improvement of our Association and our sector. We think that this Search Conference was successful to enable the Industry 4.0 transformation of our sector, to set the key agenda of the suppliers in terms of globalization and human resources as strategic competitive power, and to develop solution propositions with projects with a wide and effective participant profile. We would like to thank all the participants for realizing this organization.”

This Search Conference was organized to create a new document to update targets and actions since the project activities started, as the strategy document of the sector is designed as a living document, which will then direct the sector and the actions of our Association, we plan to release our 2018-2020 Strategy Document.
 
Search Conference is a working order that enables to create a common viewpoint, to find solutions to common problems, to determine what to do to be better and to improve and to set common targets. In most conferences, one or several individuals take the floor and present topics and the rest listen, whereas in a Search Conference, all the participants talk in an order and reach a solution together.

The Search Conference moderated for the fourth time by Milar Business Advisory Services’ executive Kerim Han Milar was attended by white goods suppliers’ industry representatives, white goods main industry representatives (Arçelik, BSH, Termikel, Vestel) and the public and bureaucracy (Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Customs) the media (SubconTurkey), the NGOs who are our sector shareholders (TÜSİAD, TET), academics (Özyeğin Uni., Anadolu Uni.) and representatives of the world of business close to the white goods sector (ABB, Fanuc, Qualis…), people who can contribute in the Conference with their different points of view for the exact same reason.

Before this Search Conference, “BEYSAD Search Conference White Goods Sector Review Report” prepared by Prof. Dr. Ümit Özlale, Özyeğin University, School of Business Administration, Head of Department of Economics, was shared with the participants. The presentation of the details of the report was given by Prof. Dr. Özlale during the Friday evening session. The presentation that contains impressive information and data received much interest and took a long time with the question and answer section. This presentation created an important infrastructure for the other sessions of the organization.

The sessions were in 5 stages plus an overall result evaluation.

* Stage 1 Movements in the world and Turkey
* Stage 2 White Goods Suppliers’ Industry SWOT-PERT (Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, Technological) Matrix
* Stage 3 – Evolution of BEYSAD (2012-2017)
* Stage 4 – Future design/strategy activities
* Stage 5 – Main project topics for the upcoming term
* Overall result evaluation

The topics listed above were discussed sometimes as the entire group and sometimes in small groups in sessions from Friday, December 15 09.00 PM to December 17 01.30 PM in order to come up with a common mind. In meetings that proceeded from entirety to parts, desires and threats for the sector’s future were laid down. Actions to take to eliminate threats and to realize desires were recorded.

Various points of views were opened to discussion to take the sector to the future in this extremely productive and efficient conference. The results of these activities will become activity plans and the periodic follow-up will continue as with the previous projects. Ouractivities continue to share a new workbook with the sector very soon.

We would like to thank everyone who made this meeting happen and all the participants who contributed.

We would like to thank TET (Union of Electric, Electronic and Service Exporters) executives and employees who gave all the support for this Search Conference as for the previous ones and we wish to continue our cooperation.