Events

The wealth of a nation, the power of its economy,
the level of prosperity it can achieve,
is the quality of its system of values and above all
its capacity to produce healthy emotional individuals,
visionaries, pragmatic dreamers.
The life of a nation, the future of an entire civilisation,
depends on the existence of these men and women.
Without them no progress is possible.
(The School for Gods)

FORUM ISTANBUL 2023

Ideas to bring Turkey to play a key role in the
world’s human development and global economic progress.

The drive to print a special edition of this Book for the FORUM ISTANBUL 2023
and write this foreword has come from some reflections that were increasingly clear in our mind
and present to our conscience: the crisis that the world is facing is a crisis of values and the scarcity
of ethical, impeccable leaders.

In your daily work, as corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, at the helm of your companies,
you have realized that the main obstacle against which the most ambitious projects shatter is not the
lack of financing or material resources, but a shortage of committed men capable of approaching
business as if they were serving a cause; with competence, efficiency, honesty, in one word,
integrity. Men and women who dream and love; doubtless, fearless people capable of conceiving
brave ideas, of committing themselves to their realization with all their strength.

The wealth of a nation is not made by its exports, industrial production capacity, plenty of
natural resources, the discovery of oil fields or gold mines and diamond deposits. The real wealth of
a nation is the quality of its system of values and above all its capacity to produce healthy emotional
individuals, who have eliminated from themselves any form of inner conflict, negative emotions,
any daily death. Change within society can only come through the personal effort of single
individuals. The life of an entire civilisation depends on the existence of these visionaries,
pragmatic dreamers, men and women of integrity. Without them no progress is possible.

In economics as in politics, Turkey needs to prepare a new generation of leaders, a
decision-making aristocracy capable of bringing solutions… men and women free of any ideology
or superstition. They are the healthy cells of a new humanity and the real wealth of this nation and
of the world. Mass education cannot create them. They need individual attention, they need to be
forged one by one.

We firmly believe that educating the leaders that Turkey needs to play a key role in the
world’s human development and global economic progress is not a matter of money, knowledge,
power or social standing, so much as the development of self-knowledge and that central quality of
leadership which is integrity.

We dream of a Turkish economy led by integrity and fearlessness, as engraved in the first
word of the Turkish national anthem: Korkma. We dream of a new generation of whole, healthy,
ethical leaders forged in Turkey through a specific research centre and a unique educational
programme, to be an example to the world.

In the spirit of gratitude for Turkey, The European School of Economics Foundation has
intended to do something significant for this country by giving a concrete start to a programme to
prepare the luminous leaders that Turkey needs. “The Visionary Leaders for Turkey Programme”
has been founded with an initial endowment of 30 scholarships reserved to 30 talented Turkish
students to study in Turkey and abroad to develop their potentiality.

This Book expresses the ideas and principles, the quality of values we believe in and is a
finger pointed towards that farsighted vision that Forum 2023 is seeking for the future of Turkey.
We thank Turkish Economy Bank and Aras Group for their support and believe that more
institutions and larger corporations will join ESE Foundation in this project so that these initial
scholarships, which we will found and increase each year, will become hundreds and the
preparation of visionary leaders will be the most fruitful activity and the one Turkey will be most
proud of.

E. DʼAnna
- European School of Economics, London

“In times when Economy is showing to be far from a science and we have lost all traditional beliefs
in management techniques and tools, like planning, decision making and problem solving; and we
have definitively found out that business Schools and universities do not know much about facing
the global financial and economic crisis, there is one way to go to ensure corporate longevity:
educate, forge, visionary, pragmatic leaders. There are not solutions out there to choose from. YOU
have to become the solution. This is a revolution, an overturning of thought in political and
business leadership”. (The School for Gods)