Adding Value to Exports with İnoSuit

Adding Value to Exports with İnoSuit Turkish Exporters Assembly's İnoSuit Program, which has been running since November 2016, continues this year with a focused approach. The İnoSuit Corporate Innovation Management Meeting in Focus held under the scope of the İnoSuit - Innovation-Focused Mentoring Program, conducted by the Turkish Exporters Assembly to increase Turkey's value-added exports through R&D, innovation, design and branding efforts, took place at the Aegean Exporters Associations.

Turkey enters the top 50 most innovative countries for the first time

Birol Celep, Member of the Turkish Exporters Assembly Board and Turkish Exporters Assembly Innovation Committee, who delivered the opening speech, emphasized that Turkey ranked 41st in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, successfully entering the top 50 most innovative countries for the first time. "Of course, 'Innovation Development Programs' have a major role in this success. With the collective intelligence created by all our stakeholders, we are taking stronger steps toward the future. Our İnoSuit Program, which started in 2016 as the Turkish Exporters Assembly, aimed to increase our country's export strength with high value-added production and pursued an original and scientific approach. Universities and academics in our country with expertise in 'innovation management' and university-industry cooperation were matched with exporting companies that aimed to establish 'corporate innovation systems.'"

Total of 612 company applications received from 52 different provinces

Celep stated, "Our program is structured in 4 tracks according to company scale, export potential, value-added product focus and innovation capacity: İnoSuit Preparation, İnoSuit General, Value-Added Focused İnoSuit and İnoSuit Export Champions. With the new program, the support rate of Turkish Exporters Assembly and Exporters Associations was increased from 25% to 50%. Twelve cycles have started since November 2016. Total of 612 company applications were received from 52 different provinces. Since the program's start, 988 mentor applications were received from 144 universities in 63 different provinces."

54 companies from Aegean Exporters Associations submitted applications

Birol Celep, announcing that with 9 completed cycles, a total of 129 companies in 30 different provinces and 60 mentors from 38 universities in 18 different provinces successfully completed the program, continued as follows: "In 9 completed cycles, a total of 25,520 hours of mentoring services were provided. From the program's start to now, 62 company applications were received from İzmir, 48 companies were matched. Looking at the Aegean Exporters Associations; 54 companies submitted applications, 23 companies were matched and 13 companies successfully completed the program. Among Aegean Exporters Associations member companies, the highest number of applications came from the wood and forest products and machinery and components sectors. I also directed my own company to the İnoSuit Program and we successfully completed two cycles. During the program, 75 mentor applications were received from İzmir. 35 mentors were matched."

Participation from Anatolia increased, innovation spending ratio to turnover tripled

Celep stated that the İnoSuit Program enabled the establishment of Turkey's innovation ecosystem, and through experience-sharing meetings, innovation-focused mentors from all around Turkey were brought together. "Additionally, innovation ecosystems were created in some Anatolian provinces such as Tokat. Thanks to this system, participation from Anatolia increased. Through the program, one company tripled the ratio of innovation spending to turnover. One company increased the ratio of budget provided from grants to total innovation spending to 50%. One company doubled the number of employees actively participating in innovation projects, raising it to 300. The number of product development projects conducted jointly with external stakeholders doubled in one company." Birol Celep stated, "We can clearly say that companies completing the program achieved high momentum in the number of innovative ideas, the number of ideas transformed from innovative ideas to projects, the number of successfully completed innovation projects, the number of company employees showing high participation in innovation events and idea generation processes, the number of employees actively participating in innovation projects, the number of product development projects conducted jointly with external stakeholders, the number of grant-supported innovation projects, the ratio of budget from grants to total innovation spending, the ratio of innovation spending to turnover, the ratio of new product sales to turnover, the ratio of innovation revenue to innovation spending, and in the number of patents."

We expect intensive participation from our companies

Celep stated, "We can increase our export's per-kilogram price from an average level of 1.5 dollars to 3 dollars and above through Innovation, R&D and Design. The share of value-added product exports in Turkey's total exports is at the 4% level. We need to rapidly increase this ratio to 25%. Innovation is not limited to innovation engineers, scientists or new product development departments. Innovation can also be done through processes. The difference and change we refer to can be breakthrough-level or everyday development. In the new cycle, we expect intensive participation from our companies in the 'İnoSuit - Innovation-Focused Mentoring Project.'" Dr. Merih Pasin, Academic Coordinator of the Focused İnoSuit Program, who made a presentation on corporate innovation management and İnoSuit, stated that innovation and R&D are different concepts, and said: "In the İnoSuit Program, we conduct six-dimensional corporate innovation management; we can list it as the strategic infrastructure of innovation, the governance infrastructure of innovation, the cultural infrastructure of innovation, designing from idea to application, open innovation and collaborations, the financing of innovation and evaluation. As a result, sustainable innovation performance emerges." Gülçin Yetkin from the Turkish Exporters Assembly Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department also made a presentation on the Focused İnoSuit Program's Administrative and Financial Processes. Yalçın Yür, Operations Manager of Jantsa participating in the Focused İnoSuit Program, and İlknur Tok, Quality Assurance and Management Systems Manager at Jantsa, shared their company experience. Yür stated that Jantsa is currently in the Export Champions track and has been in the İnoSuit Program for 11 months, noting that their innovation strategies include four main areas: technology management, open innovation management, corporate innovation system, business culture and human capital management. İlknur Tok, Quality Assurance and Management Systems Manager at Jantsa, explaining that they established an Inoex working group with the İnoSuit Program, described that with the İnoSuit Program they divided all projects operationally and innovatively into two, and conducted departmental workshops, critical problem pool, post-action presentations, solution workshops and focused studies with 7 Projects, 7 Project Leaders and 50 team members. Dilek Çetin Tulazoğlu, R&D and Innovation Department Manager at Kent Kart continuing work in the Value-Added Focused İnoSuit track and in its second cycle, and Sezai Çam, Technical Deputy General Manager at Kent Kart, were among the other companies in the experience-sharing section. Sezai Çam, Technical Deputy General Manager at Kent Kart, described their company's brand, strategy, innovation, quality and safety standards, processes, human resources, capacity and financing procedures. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Gençer from İzmir University of Economics, a mentor in the İnoSuit Program, who made a presentation on Digital Transformation and Innovation Interaction, listed the dimensions of İzmir University of Economics's digital transformation scale as customer relations and marketing operations, cybersecurity, data management tools, external environment, human resources, investment and finance operations, logistics and supply chain operations, organizational, partnerships and stakeholders, product development process, production operations, strategy, technological resources and top management.