Transcript

Well, I think it was about 1955 that the School undertook to work with the University of Istanbul in creating a school of business administration. And my memory for names plays tricks with me here. But we hired a very able person to go over and head up the business—the Harvard Business School aspect of this—who was very much interested in Turkey, and studying the Turkish language, and Turkish history.

But it turns out that the Turks weren't interested in Turkish history. They were interested in industrialization, and the future of Turkey—Ataturk's protégés. So there was kind of a revolution there. And the School sent me over to see what the situation was. And my good fortune, as Director of Case Development, was that I was interested in getting cases on current management problems of the current businesses in Turkey, which is what they were interested in.

So we had some very able young Turks for our research team. And we'd go out and visit factories, and stores, and other professional groups, financial groups, and started writing cases. So as a result, the program got back into place, and things were taken care of.

But that created my personal interest. In the wintertime, it's not the ideal time to go to Istanbul, when there's lack of petroleum, and no heat in the university buildings, and everybody's sitting around in their boots and their overcoats. But it was a fascinating experience. And they've been kind enough to keep in touch with me, and invited me back a year or so ago for the fiftieth anniversary.