HEADQUARTERS VISITS

Headquarters visits are of two types: you visit the head office, or you host executives from the head office. The first are usually short visits for day long meetings. Most of the time, if a group dinner is not organized; you are left on your own after the meetings.

Turks love to entertain guests when they come to Turkey, and enjoy taking them out to lunch or dinner. Therefore, getting nothing in return can upset them. The same is applicable for visits to other parts of the country. If you visit your dealer and he takes you out in his home city, he would expect you to do the same when he visits you.

During your visit to headquarters, well-organized group dinners can be great platforms to introduce up and coming stars and to build support platforms for your local activities. Most of the time, the venues for such dinners are arranged by a cost-conscious administrator who does not attending the dinner. The venues do not measure up to the guests’ expectations, and Turks usually come back home unhappy with the hospitality. It is very difficult to host a guest from a country where they try to do everything they possibly can to please their guests. For example, in most Turkish villages, people allocate their two-room homes to their guests and stay with their relatives to make the guests feel more comfortable.

We can categorize visitors from headquarters as first-timers or frequent visitors. On top of being tired from traveling and being exposed to new faces, sounds, tastes, etc., first-timers walk around in Turkey like they are a bit tipsy. The different environment usually makes them very positive and polite. Unfortunately, Western businesspeople come to Turkey with negative expectations about daily life in general. Therefore, noticing the modern way of living, similar to any Western city, shocks them positively. They suddenly become an advocate of Turkey and criticize the misconceptions about Turkey in their home countries. However, it also creates an illusion of a gold mine as they start to picture the rest of the country as the same as the cosmopolitan cities.

For the first-timers, you have to start with your “Introduction to Turkey 101” slides. Going through the basic facts and figures is a crucial task in justifying the status of your business. Then you have to keep up with the same questions that have been asked over and over again. If your company has a matrix organization, it is quite important to let every subordinate describe his or her part in the organization. This can give your staff a good start in building their relationships and help them to integrate with their counterparts. Being tipsy and positively impressed, first-timers make a lot of positive remarks during their visits and sometimes “over-promise”. Please note that most of this might change when they go back home and dive back into their own political environment. Being emotional and relationship-oriented, this might upset the Turks in your team. As a leader, it is important to explain the facts of life within such large organizations and the good intentions of the visitors.

Sight-seeing is an essential part of these trips. Like any other people, Turks love to show foreigners the best parts of their cities; this in turn creates high hopes for revenue. If you take your guests to the low-income suburbs where the living is not so easy, they get a totally different picture. I always believe a combination of the two is proper to give the right impression of the country.

Frequent visitors are not as dazzled as first-timers and are willing to see more, diving into more of the figures than the basics. Therefore, being prepared in detail can pay dividends during these meetings. Often, the most difficult part is explaining the impacts of inflation, devaluation, import regulations and taxes to Westerners. Informing them of these facts in advance can help them understand and support your local business strategies.

I have always believed that visitors, whether first-timer or frequent, connect Turkey to the outside world and integrate the cultures with each visit. The more people that are aware of the facts and of Turkey’s people, the brighter the country’s future.