Interview with Melek Malkoç, General Manager of Anamed & Analitik Grup

We conducted an interview with Melek Malkoç, General Director of Anamed & Analitik Grup, which has been bringing quality control and R&D equipment to life for over 40 years, on the development process of R&D in Turkey from the past to the present, awareness, and Anamed & Analitik Grup's R&D investments. In this interview, which we prepared with great pleasure, we have once again understood how important a role R&D plays, developing in parallel with technology, for human life.

Could you provide information about Anamed & Analitik Grup's establishment process and its current structure?

Anamed & Analitik Grup has been serving in the sector for over 40 years with pre-sales, after-sales services and sales of quality control and R&D equipment of manufacturers whose Turkish representative it is. Anamed & Analitik Grup continues on its path with the awareness, knowledge and experience that years in the sector have provided. One of our objectives is to think globally and interpret all actions according to our market and situation. As a team in this sector, the tools we have at our disposal are technology's tools. We are the ones who operate them and make them beneficial to humanity. Anamed & Analitik Grup gives life to Quality Control and R&D equipment and ensures long-term service to our country. What matters here is being able to select the right people to perform these services. If you invest in the right person and prepare them for the future, it means you are on the right path. I believe we are on the right path. We sell not equipment but the future and solutions. With approximately 50 colleagues who are educated, experienced, equipped, knowledgeable in their field, and work in technical, sales, service and administrative capacities, we serve this sector.

Which sectors do you serve? Could you tell us about the projects you are engaged in?

We operate in the food sector, chemical sector and life sciences sector. Essentially, I can say that the aim, target and even the equipment used in these 3 sectors are the same. The only difference is the sample and product used. For example; the same equipment works with wheat flour dough in the food sector and with plastic dough in the chemical sector. The rheological properties of wheat flour dough and plastic dough are the same. One is from nature, the other is a creation made by humans in the laboratory. We are everywhere in chemistry. In the analysis methods and application areas of our equipment; we are present in water chemistry, detergent chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, plastic chemistry, environmental pollution chemistry and even in the chemistry of the brain. We start our projects by obtaining researchers' views and suggestions and determining their needs. Within the relevant subject scope, we first collect information about our research, how the equipment is used in international-level R&D work, discoveries made with these equipment, awareness created, and value-added products generated, and we share this information with the sector. Through trade fairs, congresses and seminars, we provide technical information and visual promotion. In addition to industry, we also operate in universities and state laboratories. There are over 158,000 researchers in Turkey. These individuals conduct R&D in universities and research institutions for our country. These invisible forces are leading us in many areas.

What are your thoughts on R&D? What investments have you made in R&D?

The importance of R&D is increasing day by day. The power of R&D is the human being. Today, there are approximately 57 active R&D incubators, SMEs and startup companies working in Technoparks. Around 40,000 researchers in these places are trying to create new products that will create awareness. They are bringing vitality to this sector and offering new product solutions. And we are also assigned here. Anamed & Analitik Grup's company vision is that human beings, who will create awareness and carry our future to better places, conduct the work. With this thinking, the biggest investment we have made in R&D is our investment in people. We provide training to all our team members with great care, both domestically and internationally. With a knowledgeable, talented and experienced team providing technical support training for our equipment, annual inspections and maintenance, calibration and validation services, preventive maintenance and training on usage, we serve the R&D and quality control laboratories of our country. The sector that uses Anamed & Analitik Grup products and wishes to use them also makes a great contribution to Anamed & Analitik Grup's vision. With the system we use, we try to follow technology in the best and fastest way. The only truth we know is that producing awareness-raised, value-added products will take this country to higher levels from where it is. And this only happens with dreaming, setting targets. To be able to speak at the same level as our competitors on the international platform, it happens with the equipment we have at our disposal and our laboratory, the kitchen that is the mirror of our work, and it is called R&D.

What would you like to say about the sector? Could you tell us about R&D before and its current position in Turkey?

Before stating my views on the sector, I would like to mention an anecdote that led to my involvement in this sector. My goal of becoming a chemist began with my first encounter with the periodic table in my first year of high school. The periodic table seemed to show me life, the world and the future. The periodic table, which became like a life to me, I even sometimes compared it to the flattened form of the world map. I still carry it in my bag. I said I should become a chemical engineer and I did. But my work was just beginning. To become one who has been tested and tried in the sector, I strive to develop and be open to production, to gain new knowledge, to be aware of new technologies, and to share what I have accumulated. I can say that the sector gained momentum in the 1990s with the pharmaceutical industry. With the training received, the face of the pharmaceutical industry changed and analyses became more precise. Drugs produced in Turkey began to be sold abroad. Control systems started to be provided both by the state and international quality companies. Following this breakthrough that started with the pharmaceutical sector, other sectors began to emerge. In this process, many advanced technologies, innovations and productivities have also given us very great momentum. Today, we have globally recognized international organizations and factories established with domestic capital, quality control and R&D laboratories. We are proud of these developments.

There have been major changes in our country over the last 10 years.

With the positive change in the state's R&D strategies, significant breakthroughs occurred in the sector. With the awareness that the mindset and thought pattern of the 19th and 20th centuries could not take us further, it became clear that we need to act in accordance with the 21st century. Today, with our labor, our people and value-added products, we can further advance the sector's portfolio. To examine Turkey's R&D history, we need to see how the sales rates of R&D equipment have changed up to today. There are various organizations where we can obtain this data. Since the 1980s, our country has possessed many laboratory equipment, but only a few of them were for R&D purposes. In the 2000s, the use and awareness of these equipment increased. Ten years ago with technology training we received from abroad, we were just beginning to discuss a subject. But when we started discussing the training from 10 years before that, 20 years had passed. So now we can catch up with the times. There is nothing our country cannot achieve with advanced technology and investment in people. Because we are a very practical and hardworking nation; our only shortcoming is the system. Once we have the system, we will take much faster, forward-looking steps on this path. It will be the Human who will create and implement the system. Anamed & Analitik Grup's company vision is educated people first. If education is lacking, then a patient, loyal and hardworking person to whom we will provide the necessary equipment. Most importantly, a good person. I sincerely believe that we will build a peaceful, healthy and successful future with good people.