What is King Naked?
I have learned, albeit belatedly, that I should say the last thing at the beginning, and even though I know that storytelling is interesting, I cannot tell it that way. As an engineer, I do not have such a skill. Our situation and the point we have reached is at the point where someone has to shout and say “The King is Naked”, just like in the fairy tale. I will try to explain this child’s cry as much as I can from the mouth of Gülay, an engineer with 30 years of experience in business life, without silencing the child in me who cries out that the king is naked.
I and our period, that is, as I always say, those of us who are Generation X (1965 – 1980), also known as the “lost generation” in this land, have already grown up in constant distress, anxiety about the future, Cyprus operation, economic crises, terrorism, revolutions, etc. On top of that, as a person who has witnessed many new technological births and innovations such as the internet, mobile phones, Google, artificial intelligence, etc. one after another, and as a person who has been in the changes, I had to manage all these changes and crises to come to these times and survive. I constantly fought like my surname. I took steps and struggled to find solutions and reach information. Therefore, I am someone who knows very well how to manage this crisis and pandemic situation we are in, and although it is not a pandemic, I have always lived in pandemic conditions and have always thought about “how to achieve maximum efficiency with minimum resources” in crises.
King Naked Story
A long time ago, in a country far away, there lived a smug king who was very fond of his clothes. Seeing himself in a giant mirror, this king admired his intelligence and did not care about other people.
One day, the king of another country said that he wanted to visit him. The first thing that came to our king’s mind when he heard that the king was coming was: “I wonder what clothes I should wear”.
He immediately called the crier:
– “Send a message to all tailors”, he said. “I want such a garment that will be unique in the world.”. After a while, the news reached everywhere. The best tailors came to the king and explained all the models they could make one by one. But the king did not like any of them.
– “It’s got to be better; it’s got to be more beautiful!” he was shouting at everyone. A wise tailor who was in command of the situation asked the king for a word:
– “Dear king, I will sew you a very special dress.”. The king asked how it would be.
The wise tailor said, “I will sew you such a dress that it will be unique! No one will be able to wear this dress before or after you.” He said and took the job.
The wise tailor said, “But I have a condition”. “No one will interfere with my work and enter my room until the sewing of the dress is finished.”
The king accepted this offer with the joy of finding what he was looking for. He immediately gave a few bags of gold.
– “Come on then, start sewing immediately!” he ordered.
The wise tailor started working immediately. He went to his room and received two bags of gold from the king every day. As the days and weeks passed, the king’s curiosity began to increase. Finally, he entered the room to see which fabric the wise tailor was sewing. The wise tailor was working hard on the sewing machine. The king silently watched the tailor for a while, and when he could not see anything, the king got angry.
– “I have been feeding you for days, sending you bags of gold every day, and yet you sit idle. Is this why I give you gold?”. The wise tailor replied calmly and confidently:
– “My dear king, this fabric is very special. Only wise people can see it. Look how beautiful it is, isn’t it?”
The king, so as not to look like a fool:
– “Yes, it is very beautiful.” He had to say and left the room quickly.
Soon the rumour spread all over the city. “Only the wise can see this dress!” everyone was saying about the king’s new dress.
Finally, the day of the ceremony came before the people were curious. The people were gathered in the field, waiting for the king with curious eyes.
The tailor took the king to the dressing room, took off his old clothes, and dressed him in the clothes he sewed on him as if it existed. Then he stood in front of the king:
– “You look marvellous, my dear king, you are very elegant”. The king, in the face of these compliments of the wise tailor, without paying any attention to his naked body in the mirror.
– The king replied: “Thank you, it is very nice, I like it very much.”
The king came to the ceremony area with his new clothes. The people gathered were surprised to see the king naked, but no one dared to tell the king that he was naked. Suddenly a young boy shouted from the crowd:
– “The king is naked!”
Hearing this, the people started laughing and finally, the king realized the truth even though it was late.
What Does King Naked Mean
You can probably see that there is no difference in our situation. In fact, since we have not yet realised the truth and we are still talking about “everything will be fine”, “we will have a double holiday” etc. and we are in such an expectation as a society, we are in an even more dire situation.
Now let’s come to the realities that cannot even be plastered with clay. Let’s remove the masks on the expectations and take a look at the 2020 report of Scope Ratings, the German rating agency, which is accepted to represent the economic approaches of the European Union from https://scoperatings.com/#search/research/detail/163377EN . Here, Scope Ratings states that in the 2020 external fragility and resilience report of countries, Turkey ranks sixth from the bottom with 63rd place.
King Naked and Turkey Agenda
According to the latest update dated 21 April 2020, Scope Ratings has rated the economies of Argentina, Turkey, and Georgia as the “risky trio”, noting that they are not only fragile in the face of factors such as the balance of payments problems and exchange rate volatility but also very weak in terms of their capacity to resist crises and defines them as “non-investable”. In other words, Turkey is heading towards economic bankruptcy!
To see our reality in education, when we look at the report of Nature Index (https://www.natureindex.com/country-outputs/generate/All/global/All/score), where universities in the world are ranked according to the research articles they published between 1.December.2018 – 30.November.2019, we see that American Universities are ranked 1st with 28330 articles, while Turkish Universities are ranked 39th with 368 articles. Even the universities of Iran, Mexico, and Argentina are in a better position than us. There is a 77-fold difference between the research and articles produced in our universities, which train engineers, doctors, artists, businessmen, literary experts, economists, lawyers, etc., and America, which ranks first. If we realize that the power that protects people from traumas and countries from crises is knowledge-based management skills, we will understand that there is a 70-fold difference between us and America as an example in terms of development level.
In addition, when we look at the high circulation newspapers such as The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/international ), and the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/ ), we see that even they see the future of the next 2-3 years as risky and list the measures to be taken as soon as possible. So what precautions are we taking for the future, or do we at least ask ourselves the following:
- What have the corona days taught us, what do they teach us?
- What can we do despite everything?
- What would I do differently if such a crisis happens again?
- What should I have done as a company to prevent my production from stopping?
As for those in the education sector, which is the most important issue, what should I do to deliver education and the examination system to the students from everywhere, to continue my education system without reducing its quality? In other words, let me see what is called an “Education Management System”!
There is a formula for successful management. That is to establish a measurable, repeatable, and manageable system. According to the “Five Gaps Model” in management
- Finance
- Customer
- Human Resources
- Education
- Process
It is possible both “to fulfill its functions with the necessary and sufficient quality” and “to have enough staff with management competence in these five areas”. Only then can a high-level strategic approach be adopted that combines all these and all kinds of problems become manageable.
Itemized Summary of the King Naked Story
- Irrelevant education
- Uneducated knowledge
- Skill without knowledge
- Incompetent management
- Stable process without management
- Without a stable process, there is no stable company or country!
Dr. Engineer. Gülay SAVAŞ
