Leather firms in Türkiye are rushing to exploit the benefits of knowledge as a production factor, replacing the traditional production elements that have steered their industry for decades, namely wages, raw material costs and fixed manufacturing units.

Many from second-generation, ‘father and son’ businesses have been sent abroad for a "business administration" or other post-graduate degree and subsequently return to give the enterprise a new, knowledge-based edge.

Evidence of this trend can be seen with Boston-based executive education specialists Babson, who have now set up offices in Türkiye. The company is faced with a glut of management course capacity in the US and believes there is a growing market in Eastern Europe for teaching, or upgrading, business development skills to corporate clients. The benefits to companies who cannot afford to give top management time off to travel for such courses abroad is enormous.