Turkey’s Innovation Leader: İnci Akü

The Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) has named innovation leaders in Turkey’s first innovation development programme. Standing at the forefront of a number of innovations and firsts in the industry, İnci Akü won the Organisation and Culture of Innovation prize, one of five categories in the competition where Turkey’s most innovative companies are named.

İnovaLİG is TIM’s first innovation development programme to identify Turkey’s innovation leaders. The competition is based on a wide-ranging assessment of companies in Turkey on their innovation credentials; finalists in five different categories then competed before a jury during the 2014 Innovation Week and the champions were selected. The winners were given their prizes by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the ceremony held at the Istanbul Convention Centre on Saturday 6 December. President of İnci Holding Perihan İnci received the award on behalf of İnci Akü, the winner in the Organisation and Culture of Innovation category.

Emphasising that innovation had become an integral part of İnci Holding’s corporate culture, Perihan İnci said, ‘İnci Akü, the flagship of our Group, made us proud by winning the Innovation and Organisation Culture category. Innovation will shape the future. As İnci Akü, we are aware of this fact, and consequently place innovation at the heart of all our business processes. I owe a debt of gratitude to all my colleagues who had a hand in this significant and invaluable achievement. I also congratulate the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly who planned the Innovation Week for the third time this year.’

Commenting on their win, Cihan Elbirlik, General Manager of İnci Akü, said, ‘These awards motivate us. This is an award we have won with our strong R&D team and innovative perspective. It has been a great source of happiness and pride for all of us. We have been investing since the very beginning of our establishment in line with brand policies, innovation, technology and sustainable environment, and adopting the goal of advanced technology. Those efforts have returned a very important success rate both nationally and internationally. With our perspective aiming at continuous improvement, we will keep on being the herald of the firsts and the innovations in the industry, and crowning our achievements with the awards we receive.’

How İnovaLİG operates

The companies that joined İnovaLİG underwent a comprehensive assessment in the first phase, during which participants were provided with weekly and monthly notifications and innovation-oriented training materials. Conferences were held to increase the innovative competence of the participants. At the end of each phase, the participants received comparative analyses consisting approximately 100 pages in which their competence was compared with their peers in local and international markets. These comparative analyses enabled the companies to assess themselves within the framework of the five categories in A.T. Kearney’s IMP3rove innovation management methodology.

After the surveys, the top 250 companies were invited to the first round event, where their reports were examined by the İnovaLİG jury. Shortlists in five different categories named the 50 companies eligible to compete in the semi-finals. In August 2014, the semi-finalists submitted 15-minute presentations describing their approaches to innovation management. The list of 25 finalists was determined at this stage. The finalists competed before the grand jury during the Innovation Week 2014, and the champions were named in five different innovation categories.