O.S. Global Earth Simulation

A couple days ago I participated in a game called Global Earth Simulation. The first time, I have heard about it, I got a little bit confused because I did not understand what kind of game it was, but when I searched about it more online, I realized that it was an interactive game.

In the place where we have played the game, there were around 150 students ready to get into a harsh competition. There were 2 different worlds divided from each other and many countries, organizations. Every team started the game with a limited amount of money and they had duties to be done. My teammates and my country was Japan which was counted as a developed country, so we had a higher amount of money in comparison to the other countries. However, we had much more responsibilities, and duties to get accomplish because of our society's higher level needs, such as, technology, environment, human rights, or health. In order to do so, we had to bargain with other countries and most importantly with the organizations which had got these needs in their hands.

I think bargaining part of the game was so fun, but we had to rush all the time to divide our sources and figure out the goals to cover our society's needs. There were 3 10 min-long games, and each one was counted 10 years in the game time. We got a chance and improved our level and made it advanced which meant for us the end of the game because it was the highest level, but responsibilities were still on and we helped other countries as much as we could.

I know that it is a little bit complicated for those who have never played this game before, but I can say that it was one of the best things I had ever experienced. Communication with people all the time, and trying to take care of your country by supporting other countries was such a harsh task to do, but as soon as I started playing, I forgot the real world, and focused on the artificial world which was a copy of our world.

I strongly recommend this game to everybody because it is such a great opportunity to show your leadership skills, and create practical solutions to the current problems. At the end of the game, even though our country had a advanced level of total wealth, the world got into a disaster because nobody had enough care to each other, and we all got responsible with the disaster. Therefore, we realized that the important thing was not only to make your country stronger, but also, to support and improve other less developed countries too.

I hope that you can get a chance and check this link.

O.S. Global Earth Simulation

Six sigma: the result of creativity and innovation

In today's business world which has such a harsh competition, taking a strong part by producing or serving to the customers has significantly become harder. Of course, it is a kind of "survival-of-the-fittest" game for most of the companies, and "big fish eats the little fish" is still a strong statement even though the innovation has made some little companies faster and stronger than other bigger ones. However, we are well aware of the fact that most of today's leaders do not have any doubt about that if you can not improve customer satisfaction with the improvement of your products and supply chain management, being a big fish and taking a strong part in a difficult business environment is such a dream. Therefore, Six Sigma has been developed to fill up this gap with creativity and innovation.

What is Six Sigma? I think firstly we should ask this question to ourselves. Six Sigma is a process of identifying and defining the variation in our production process and of finding correct techniques to minimize them. It was first established by Motorola in 1986, and in a short period of time, it was started to be used by many other big and middle size companies. For example, General Electric (GE) is one of the most popular and the biggest followers of this process under the authority of the company's legendary CEO Jack Welch. Also, as he has stated, "in such a big supply chain which GE has, embracing Six Sigma brings the help and the support to suppliers and the most importantly customers."


What are the rules and six steps for Six Sigma? What kind of advantages does it bring to our organization? First of all, we should clarify that Six Sigma is a way of checking quality by identifying and counting the defects (errors) in a production process. If a company is aiming for minimized deviation and applying Six Sigma into its process, the company managers from bottom to top have to understand the importance of making each employee in the organization understand what Six Sigma means, and how and why they are applying this method into their production process. Also, all employees including especially top managers must believe in the process and take it in a serious way. Secondly, we always aim customer satisfaction by applying Six Sigma which means that Customers are our target. Customers have to get the non-defected productions. By the same token, Six Sigma helps us minimize the deviation. Once Jack Welch has said that "deviation is an evil for the company". What he means is that deviation (errors, defects) has to be got rid of or at least minimized to satisfy the customers even though we know that whatever happens in a production process, defects are always going to happen. Hence, how much we are minimizing the defects is the important question. "Keep the process on target by reducing variation to satisfy the customers." is the popular saying of Six Sigma.


Now I would like to explain with really easy terms how Six Sigma process reduces the deviation. As all of us know, the normal distribution which is also called Bell Curve is given above. The lines are representing our variations, and the more we have errors, the steeper our curve is. Therefore, when we apply Six Sigma method on our product process by aiming an important target which is customer satisfaction, we see that the line gets more smoother and wider as red line represents. That means we are decreasing the errors by using 6 different sigma processes.

There is one more thing that we should take into consideration. In terms of using Six Sigma, always lean to the customer satisfaction, do not forget that people are the most valuable resource, and always keep continues improvement which means Six Sigma is a process which needs applying in the long run to get the correct results. Therefore, the companies have to solve the problems one by one and eliminate waste and variation in every process by aiming the perfection and by using team work.

I will try to write more about Six Sigma which is a subject that I am interested in, so it will be continued.

I am posting some of the webpages and articles that I have used to write this entry.

For Six Sigma Motorola articles

The Six Sigma Sweep

Wikipedia Source - Six Sigma

GE Six Sigma source

Six Sigma web page

It is a joy to work there!!!

Google, one of the most successful companies of our century. Actually, it would be much better to say one of the most innovative, creative, and most successful companies.

In fact, Google was a research project of 2 brilliant Ph.d students at Standford University. They started it around 1996, and then realized the gap in online world: the need for a strong and useful searching site which includes a wide range of web area. They launched it in 1998 and the company has become the best since that day. Of course, they did not realize that it would have been such a great success, but they found the need and created the best company which has the best working environment in comparison to other companies.

Yes, Google has the best working environment for its employees, and I would like to cover that point. In my opinion, the most important fact is empowering its employees, and the company is doing it so well. Everybody has a voice in most of the decisions, and what most of the employees say is that even though you are a new employee who started working one week ago, you can still change many things in the company because your ideas and you are valuable. Also, in terms of structure and culture, Google has always believed in creativity, and innovation and it has gained its reputation by taking always care of its employees, customers, and by providing the best environment for its employees in which you can be yourself far from bureaucracy, high job stress and arguments. There are a lot of recreation centers in the building. The design is extraordinary and beautiful. The food is extremely nice and delicious including a lot of options. Moreover, yoga, pilates, and different kinds of activities are always reachable. Therefore, these kinds of advantages make Google the most desirable work place in the business world.

Of course, it is not something easy to get in, but the company provides many opportunities to its employees from day care of children to day care of the pets.

Keep Google watch to catch the innovation and creativity.

Edirne, the city of Sultans

Edirne, one of my most favorite cities in Turkey. To be honest, I have seen many cities, especially in Europe, but I have never seen such a warm and friendly city that much. Before I came to the US, I used to take daily trips to that beautiful city just to get a relief and escape from the chaos of the biggest city in Turkey, Istanbul. I know that this subject is way different from my usual entries, but I just want to write about it particularly because I miss it a lot.

Firstly, Edirne is such an old city which is known not only for its popularity as a capital for Ottoman Empire, but also for its architectural beauties that have been mostly built by Mimar Sinan (1489-1588)

When you go to that beautiful city, the magnificent artifact, Selimiye Mosque welcomes you from wherever you get into the city because it is so huge that you could see it from each corner. Also, during the night it has a gorgeous view which I call absolutely breathtaking.

It is still one of the greatest mosques in the world and I believe so that it would keep its reputation for a long time by exciting many domestic and foreign people. Moreover, whenever you go to the mosque, there are a lot to do around it and under it:) I know it sounds kind of weird, but there is a nice and big bazaar under it which you can go and buy many beautiful souvenirs one of which is my favorite to eat, marzipan made with crashed almonds. My mouth is getting wet even while I am writing and thinking about it. I would definitely recommend you to try it as soon as you can because it is delicious (Lezzetli, the synonym of delicious in Turkish). I am posting one of the pictures of that bazaar taken by myself a couple years ago in a lovely summer day.


One of the other things that I like about the city is that it has a famous museum designed in a creative way and considered the best museum in Europe. The first time I have heart about it, I told myself that I had to see that place, and I just took the train and went there. Hopefully and thankfully, I did that because it was such a calm and peaceful place. It used to be a clinic for those who had mental diseases during the Ottoman Empire period. The doctors of that treatment center believed that the music was the strongest way of healing people and making them find the solutions in their hearts.



Folks, can you imagine such a clinic, where you get treated by music and the sound of water which is dropping continuously? It is so cool and when you get inside, you see the whole room in a kind of panoramic view. Each patient's room is separated from each other in a pentagonal shape and the fountain is located in the middle of the room. Also, the musicians' place is located so close to the fountain, and the echo is very good, so each patient can listen to the music to get cured. Of course, it is out of question not to think how beautiful it is to treat people in such a way, especially at that time.

In my opinion, the other most important thing in order to understand the real essence of a city and to catch its spirit is to take long walks in different times such as sun rise, down, or in the evening. I have done all of them, and listening to the prayer in the garden of Selimiye Mosque with the friendship of different kinds of birds was marvelous. There was no light other than shining stars, and a small spot light of the mosque which was kind of scary, but at the same time exciting and peace-giving. Also, I loved my long walks in Edirne's long, but narrow streets which I call the ruins because city itself is such an open museum and wherever you go, you would definitely find something interesting and old coming from Bizantine or Ottoman Empire period.




Of course, one has to mention about the great rivers of Edirne when talking about that gorgeous city, called Arda, Tunca, and Meriç which are connected to each other and go through the city. Meriç is the biggest and the longest one among them and it draws the border between Greece and Turkey. When you go to that city, you have to see the rivers and enjoy the calm atmosphere by having such a great Turkish Cuisine in many different kinds of restaurants located on the way of the river and just tell them that you would like to try "Raki" which is our national and traditional drink. It is a kind of alcohol which is hard to drink, and one needs to learn the rules of how to enjoy it because if you do not know, it might kill your day by making you completely drunk all day long. :) I am kind of exaggerating, but it is better to be careful about it. :) I am posting a link about Raki.

The last advice is that go to that city by taking the train, so you can watch the good and bad sides of Istanbul; such as, the beautiful coast and Marmara sea including beautiful houses located on the coast, but also, poverty and poor areas, over populated places, and thousands of houses. Do not forget to open the train window and take yourself slightly out, so you can feel the warm and fresh summer breeze on your face and in your lungs.

Have a great trip if you go to Edirne one day and I hope that I have been kind of helpful to you all.

Southwest Airlines' Success and Gary Kelly as a CEO

Today I would like to talk about a legend in airline industry, Southwest Airlines. It is a well know airlines not only in the US, but also all around the world with its huge profits and permanent success being the most profitable airline in the world. At this point, I should add one more thing that Southwest does not mostly fly overseas. Although its flight range is limited by US, it can still be the most profitable airline. Just one question comes into our minds: How do they do that?

Of course, there are many different kinds of answers to this question, but I would like to mention one of the most important for the sake of the airline, the CEO, Gary Kelly. He is the guy who keeps Southwest one of the best airlines in the world with its forecasting, emotional, and comprehensive skills. He started working as an accountant and he never thought that he would have got CEO position one day, but he did. What are the gems that he has in order to keep the company the best one?

Recently, as all of us know, the world has suffered from gas prices, and it was one of the worst periods not only for all different kinds of industries in the world, but also, especially, for airline industry. However, even though many companies' sales have extremely fallen down, Southwest managed to be the best even at that time. The important factor and name was Gary Kelly, the guy who realized what was coming up, petroleum crisis. He made fuel hedging contracts and kept the fuel price much lower than the current rising price and that smartest attempt made the company be able to keep ticket prices low as well in comparison to the other airline companies' prices. I think this strategy brought such a big advantage to the company, and it still is taking advantage of the hedge contract while other companies are still trying to put their budgets together.



Secondly, he has great communicating skills. He tries to know everybody in his company and whenever he takes a ride, he never uses first class. Instead, he always prefers leaving the front seats to the customers, and he travels with his wife at the back side, which is the loudest part on a plane. Moreover, He is a humble guy who can get into communication with all kinds of people either from his staff or from his customers.

There is one more point that I would like to emphasize, and that impresses me a lot about the company. Whenever you get on the plane, you might realize the difference of the treatment to the customers. Once every 3 months, top executives take a position at the check-in desks and help employees. Also, flight attendants are most of the time so energetic and funny. I would like you all to watch this video because it is hilarious and I call it the real spirit of Southwest airlines. :)


The last advantage of the company I would like to add is its plane types. For example, when we look at Delta airlines' planes, we realize that they have all kinds of different planes from a wide range mostly being used for the flights to overseas. However, Southwest has a clear understanding and policy about their planes. "We are trying to be the best airline fliying with the lowest fares, so we have to keep our prices low and the first we can do is to keep our planes in one or two kinds, so we can reduce our maintenance cost and the repair time." Hence, the company has mostly Boeing 737 to apply this smart policy and guys it works so well because Southwest's success mostly comes from its reduced flight costs.


Therefore, we have covered some aspects of the success of the Southwest Airlines. I am attaching a couple links that you can check out if you are interested in.