Utku Tansug
utku@tansug.com.tr
Founder of Auraset
Studied MSc in International Business at CBS (2003)

In 2000 I started the MSc International Business Program at CBS after graduating from Istanbul University in 1999. My prime motivation for studying at CBS was the international scope of the program.

CBS helped me a lot at this point. The program attendants were so internationally diverse that it helped me understanding and working with different people. During my studies I also worked for a Danish company focusing on international sales. In 2002 I did my exchange semester in The York University Schulich MBA in Canada. Overall I have had my master degree in both Europe and North America. I had a broad understanding of the business life in both regions of the world. In 2003 I wrote my master thesis on the “network competitiveness of nations” for which my thesis partner and I received the third place on the “top master thesis of the year.”

During my master years at CBS I have been trained to understand the ways of doing business internationally, taking decision as to where to invest and how to invest and what conditions to take into account in taking such decisions.

I used to think that not before getting a top level management position I would be able to use the skills I learned at CBS to take the kind of “executive” decisions. I was mistaken! In 2004, despite all the generosity the Danish government provided me during my years studying at CBS, realizing that in Denmark it is quite difficult to achieve the kind of objectives I set for myself, and that the country is not so keen on keeping an entrepreneur such as myself in any case, I returned and settled to Adana in the south of Turkey where my family had been running a manufacturing business since 1970s.

Based on the “market study” I carried out, in August 2004, the family board decided to invest in the production of solar thermal systems. As the founder of the project I took the responsibility to run the new business venture. This was the birth of a brand new product and brand “Auraset”. Our team started out with designing the products, catalogues and website and did the marketing work from A-Z. In 2006 our family business made 70 % of its revenue from solar water heating systems sales and we are exporting to 12 countries. At its march 2007 issue, Europe’s leading magazine on Solar and Wind systems “Sun and Wind Energy” appointed Auraset as “the fastest growing solar thermal company in 2006”.

Soon after my graduation I started using every single bit of the information I learned at CBS. Soon, I hope to start making sales to Denmark, the country where a significant part of my education was shaped. This is a tribute to Denmark as well as a personal objective for me.