ENGR 400 Corporate Dynamics for

Engineers

(13th of Feb 2024)

Dr. Eşref Ünsal

(Lectures 1 and 2)
Course Meeting Frequency:2 sessions a week

Tue 11:30-14:15 SCI 103

Office Hours to be announced

eunsal@ku.edu.tr, Room 129e Engr Bldg

 Course grades/evaluation:
based on

•Final exam 50 %
•Participation, group presentation 50 %
• Participation, group presentation 50 %
25 % active participation
–Attendance
–Showing interest in learning: comments, questions,
answers (in and outside the class)
–Mails, individual and group sessions
25 % group presentations
–Group formation
–Topic selection
–Prep for presentation
–Presentation; group and the individual
–Power Point slides
–Q and A, follow-up
Lecture Infrastructure
•Face to face
•Attendance and participation important
•Lecture notes to be placed on the Blackboard
•Syllabus uploaded to Kusis
APPROACH
An appreciation for
• Nontechnical/organisational skills (relations
management)
• Awareness for pitfalls
– Commercial and marketing notions
– Common sense, order of magnitude,
presentation skills
Relevance of the Course for engineers

• Most engineers do not stay on technical track for

long, they assume team leadership
responsibilities
• To appreciate the importance of the human
dimension and ‘’marketing’’
• All corporate missions require dealing with other
people (i.e., non-technical skills and knowhow). In
fact corporate politics exists and is relevant for
everyone
The course has bits from
• Human Resources, Management Science
• Organisational Psychology/Behaviour Science
• Brain Science

• Participants
– Majority: engineers
– Mostly seniors
– A range of GPA’S
Course Methodology and Philosophy

• knowledge , method and means, awareness

• perspective expected, establishment of a mindset

(rather than a recipe)
• Open up subjects for debate, no ‘’one right
answer’’ (partial credit for good arguments),
discussion of cases, principles
• Subjects introduced in a dynamic fashion (as it
happens in business life) not in a gradual
progressive fashion
Eşref Ünsal

• B.S. and M.S. in Chem. Engineering ; MIT June 75,

• Ph.D. in Chem. Eng. ; Penn State University, Nov 78

– Enhanced Oil Recovery
• Sep. 81 – Feb. 90
– Shell Int. in Manufacturing and Supply/Marketing in
Curacao (Dutch Antilles), the Hague and Istanbul
• Mar. 90 – Nov. 02
– Çolakoglu and Total Oil Groups
– Pemi Crude Oil Exploration and Production Co in
South-Eastern Turkey,
• Feb. 03 – July 07 Petrol Ofisi
– Sales and Marketing
• Aug. 07 – Current
– Consulting and Business Development
• June 11-May 16
– TÜV NORD Turkey GM
• Feb 2011 – Current
– Koç University –Instructor, Engineering and CEMS-
MBA
• Possible Guest lecturers, Example topics:
– HR Policies of Large Companies
– How Covid has changed the world
– Young Koç Univ Graduates-experiences
Review of the Course Material

1. Course Fundamentals

• Corporate Dynamics: definition, perspective vis-

a-vis corporation size and type
• External and Internal Dynamics
• The Individual & the Corporation, perspectives,
vantage point
2. Individual Entering the Corporation +
Ingredients of Corp. Success

• Prep at school
• Types of jobs, matching the job with capabilities
and wishes
– Prof. Acar Baltaş: not everybody can do all
– Do something you like
• Emotional and Social Intelligence/Behavior,
Creative Thinking
• Multiple Intelligence
3. Behavior in Large Corporations

• Office fundamentals
• Keeping records
• Successful Completion of Tasks
• Interaction with others, Critical Balancing of Drives
– Working with others/Helping others
– Competing with others
• Corporate goals and standards vs the individual’s
• Goals of different individuals and dept’s
• Increasing responsibilities up-the-ladder (career
ambitions, managing others)
4. Corporate Culture and Decision-Making in Large
Organizations

• Levels of Authority
• Meetings
• Different Behavior Patterns in Large Organisations
• Priorities and Urgencies
• Order of Relations Management issues
• Crisis and Stress Management
5. Customer-Focused Organization
• Customer Behavior/Trends
• Product Callbacks
• Product/Service Offering
– Design
– Venue and Channel
• Who designs the Product or the Service
• Brand Equity
• Communication and Marketing Programs
(design, implement, redesign)
• Public Opinion, Regulators
6. Ethics and Values
7. Corporate Body Overview
• Between the ages of 22 and 27, try to get
– Exposure to other countries
– Some job experience and
– If you have management aspirations, an MBA
•Managing yourself is crucial
•If you are going to manage only one
person, that should be yourself