TEB ENTERPRISE BANKING
Designated by International Finance Corporation (IFC) as a worldwide model in the field of non-financial services for its efforts in the business of SME banking, Türk Ekonomi Bankası (TEB) launched the most comprehensive enterprise banking movement in Turkey by taking its experience with SME banking into the domain of enterprise banking as well. In 2012 TEB began providing customer relationship managers who deal with small businesses at its branches with “Entrepreneurship & Entrepreneurial Businesses” training in order to act as an enterprise consultant in a way similar to what it does in SME banking. In this way, entrepreneurs are served by a customer relationship manager who understands them and who has the ability to give them advice about their projects. In addition, TEB authored yet another first in the Turkish banking industry by making its TEB Enterprise House and TEB Incubation Center in the Batı Ataşehir district of İstanbul accessible to entrepreneurs as well.
Created by TEB to provide free consultation on such issues as business management, finance, accounting, and brands & patents, the TEB Enterprise House is the first undertaking of its kind in Turkey. One enterprise consultant is on duty at all times at the TEB Enterprise House in order to provide advice to entrepreneurs who have come up with high added-value projects and to help entrepreneurs who are just starting out to move forward on the basis of proper feasibility studies, realistic business models, and good business plans. Besides supporting entrepreneurs at the original-idea stage, the TEB Enterprise House also provides them with advice on such issues as sales, marketing, target market research, and business plans.
At the TEB Incubation Center, which is a part of the TEB Enterprise House, entrepreneurs who have projects in the areas of e-business, information technology, and software are provided with physical premises where they can work. The TEB Incubation Center can accommodate up to 50 entrepreneurs (25 on a full-time and 25 on a part-time basis). Entrepreneurs are given access to hardware, software, and internet resources and they are provided with important ancillary services in such areas as “Business Management Consulting”, “Academic Support”, “Networking Support”, “Company Website Design & Execution Support”, “Brand, Patent & Intellectual Property Registration Consulting”, and “Accountancy Consulting”.
THE WORLD TEB ACADEMY: Banking advice for individuals as well as SMEs
SME Academy
Financial management skills play a critical role in the ability of SMEs to compete globally and to develop themselves through sustainable growth. This is because managing one’s financial resources is a crucially more important issue for a business than is just finding them. We created TEB SME Academy out of our belief that SMEs which are nourished by knowledge will turn into firms which are stronger and better capable of generating more economic value. TEB SME Academy provides SMEs with the knowledge they need to support their efforts to grow and develop. Every month the curriculum of TEB SME Academy focuses on the sectoral breakdowns, the economic structures, and the potential areas of development of one of the country’s provinces. Under the auspices of TEB SME Academy, SMEs are provided with guidance in the form of free-of-charge training and workshop activities designed to help them grow and to show them how to be more successful and to earn more. In addition to focusing on business development models whose effectiveness has been proven in the field, TEB SME Academy conducts SME-specific marketing workshops, institution & process management workshops, and foreign trade strategic planning & management workshops and it also provides training on SME growth scenarios. Through efforts such as these, TEB SME Academy helps SMEs to expand their horizons and to keep one step ahead of their competitors. Well in advance of the start of each new round of TEB SME Academy, visits are made to the target province’s authorities, professional chambers, and NGOs to ensure that local SMEs are informed. Efforts are made to mobilize all interested parties in order to enable as many SMEs as possible to take part in and benefit from the training. In a report published by International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, the IFC said “TEB SME Academy is evidence both of TEB’s commitment to the SME segment and of its leadership in this area.” As of December 2012, 59 TEB SME Academy activities conducted in 38 cities had reached more than 15,500 business people.
TEB Family Academy
As TEB we believe that Turkey’s ability to make its growth aspirations a reality is dependent on fostering a sense of thrift in society. In line with this belief and recognizing that household economics are the bedrock of a national economy, we launched a campaign to make people aware of the need for saving and to raise the level of financial literacy among them. Combining its distinguishing national and international reputation as a “Consultant Bank” with its “Sincere Banking” attitudes, TEB has made both an integral part of Retail Banking. We took the first step in this direction with the launch of TEB Family Academy. Recognizing that a nation’s economy is grounded in the economics of its families, we started TEB Family Academy with the long-term aims of increasing public awareness about banking and of fostering a sense of thrift and saving among people in general. Through the seminars which we organize as part of TEB Family Academy, we show people how to manage their household budgets and how to effectively put their savings to work.
As part of the TEB Family Academy project, the bank’s retail sales personnel attended a detailed, six-month training program conducted by Boğaziçi University, at the end of which they receive certification as evidence of their qualification to be a “Family Consultant”. Through this program, TEB personnel acquire advanced skills in such areas as correctly identifying customers’ needs and offering the right product to the right customer.
Underlying all of the issues which are dealt with under the TEB Family Academy is the discipline of home economics. Among the subjects dealt with are how to use credit cards correctly and how to borrow wisely. TEB Family Academy participants are shown how to balance their income and expenditures and consequently how to better plan what they spend and what they save. They also gain a correct understanding of such financial terms as “interest” and “tax withholding” and a greater awareness of how to use such channels as online banking and mobile banking as well as of their legal liabilities and rights.
Another reason for launching the TEB Family Academy project has to do with our realization that the use of formal banking products and services is no longer confined just to big cities and towns but is spreading rapidly into every part of the country. Research clearly shows that we are a society that likes to spend without giving too much care about what our actual income level may be. That being so, it is especially important to increase public awareness about such things as using credit products wisely. A great majority of people are unaware of how important it is to make at least the minimum monthly payment on their credit card obligations and they don’t realize that a poor credit history can create problems when they need to borrow in the future. They don’t know why insurance products are important or necessary. It’s a widely-held belief for example that the insurance products that are sold along with credit products are just a way for banks to take more of people’s money. It’s not understood that insurance is something that is absolutely essential unless you’re affluent enough to replace out of pocket a property or other asset that suffers loss or damage. These are some of the reasons why we created TEB Family Academy as part of our overall approach to social responsibility. We believe that banks have a responsibility to be honest and sincere in their dealings with people in matters where the proper use of their savings is at issue.
We launched TEB Family Academy on 5 October 2012. Since then we have reached about 20,000 people through the conduct of 941 activities.
We learn to be thrifty when we’re young
Believing that fostering a sense of thrift in society has to begin by making children aware of such issues, TEB launched its web-based TEB JR project specially designed for children.
Accessible online at www.tebjr.com, TEB JR gives children basic information about economics and money management by means of entertaining training modules. Through games such as “Save-Work-Earn”, TEB JR teaches children how money is earned and should be saved. We believe that TEB JR will help children grow up into financially more responsible adults.
TENNIS
Recognizing innovation and development as being among its core values, and drawing on the international experience of its first global strategic partner BNP Paribas, which has been supporting tennis for nearly forty years, TEB took its first steps in the direction of championing tennis as a sport in Turkey in 2011.
As one of the most important supporters of tennis in Turkey through its organization of the TEB BNP PARIBAS WTA Championships in İstanbul since 2011 and a prime sponsor of the Turkish Tennis Federation with its “We Adore Tennis” slogan, TEB seeks to make tennis popular among a broad segment of the public.
Through its investments in tennis, TEB seeks to contribute to sports, young people, and the nation as a whole. In line with this goal, TEB joined forces with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the world’s principal organizing body of women's professional tennis in the conduct of such investments.
Because of the major contributions which TEB’s strategic partner BNP Paribas has made to international tennis, the latter’s name is intimately associated with the sport in the minds of people around the world. One of the world’s leading tennis sponsors ever since 1973, BNP Paribas has been a prime sponsor of prestigious tennis tournaments such as the French Open (also popularly referred to as “Roland Garros”). Having distinguished itself through the outstanding infrastructure investments it undertakes to support the worldwide spread of tennis as a sport in addition to international events, BNP Paribas has played an important role in the development of both the WTA and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in the course of four decades. TEB expects to make a similar impact in its own country as well by taking advantage of the knowledge and experience of its strategic partner.
The second in the series of three TEB BNP PARIBAS WTA Championships that are to be held in İstanbul took place at the Sinan Erdem Sports Center from 23 to 28 October 2012. Eight of the world’s best female tennis players competed in what is one of the most prestigious events in the international women’s professional tennis calendar.
The 2012 championships provided yet another successful opportunity for TEB to demonstrate its support for tennis as a sport. The elimination matches conducted on the first four days of the tournament were watched by 39,000 people while the main events subsequently attracted 73,000 fans. According to WTA, that is the biggest crowd attending the games since 2000. Live TV broadcasts of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships İstanbul matches were also watched by more than 44 million people in 167 countries.
Following up its successful title sponsorship of the TEB BNP PARIBAS WTA Championships, TEB entered into a collaboration with the Turkish Tennis Federation (TTF) in a joint effort to make tennis a game actively played and enjoyed by young people all over the country rather than just a spectator sport that a few people watch on TV. Under the TEB-TFF agreement, projects are to be developed and undertaken with the aims of promoting and developing tennis in Turkey, popularizing and encouraging young people to take it up as a sport, and creating home-grown international-caliber players of our own. As a first step in this direction, TEB and TFF launched their “Street Tennis” program under which streets, shopping centers, and similar public spaces in all 78 of Turkey’s provinces are transformed into tennis courts and people are given a chance to watch and become familiar with the sport. So far 500 such “mini-courts” have been set up all over Turkey and thousands of tennis-related brochures and kit have been distributed free of charge. Working together with TFF, TEB plans to undertake a variety of other activities aimed at promoting public awareness of and participation in tennis as a sport.
In yet another effort to promote tennis as a sport, in 2013 TEB Star Banking acted as a prime sponsor for the İpek Şenoğlu Cup Veterans’ Tennis Tournament. Having once again drawn public attention to tennis in this way, TEB will continue to invest in the sport in line with its vision of making tennis popular and expanding the community of licensed tennis players in Turkey.AWARDS
BNP Paribas-Group Innovation Award
• TEB Special iPad Application
BNP Paribas Innovation Award-2012
• The "Innovation Award" in the category of "Administrative Practices That Support Innovation" in recognition of the project entitled "Creative Café & Mind Idea Campus"
Stevie International Business Awards
• "Bronze Award" in the category of the "Best Marketing Campaign of the Year" in recognition of TEB's Paran Hazır (Your Money Is Ready) Account
• "Bronze Award" in the category of the "Best Product Development and Management Department of the Year" in recognition of the efforts of the Private Loans, WU Marketing and Business Development Departments
• "Bronze Award" in the category of the "Best Customer Services Team of the Year" in recognition of TEB's Multichannel CRM Practices Department
• The "Best in its Class" Award in the category of Financial Services in recognition of TEB's Corporate and Star Banking internet branches
• "Silver Award" in the category of the "Best Call Center Training Team of the Year" Award in honor of TEB's Call Center Training team
• "Bronze Award" in the category of the "Best Call Center of the Year" in honor of TEB's Call Center team
• "Bronze Award" in the category, "Stevie Awards National Sales Team of the Year", in recognition of the Direct Sales team
• Bronze Stevie Award in the category of the "Best Managing Team of the Year" in recognition of TEB's SME Banking Group
• Bronze Stevie Award in the category of the "Best New Product/Service of the Year" with TEB's Employment Package
• Bronze Stevie Award in the category, "Best Organization", in recognition of the achievements of the TEB SME Academy
Stevie for Sales & Customer Awards
• Bronze Stevie Award in the category, "Best Relationship Solution", in honor of the TEB SME Olympics
• Bronze Stevie Award in the category, "Innovation in Customer Services", to honor the efforts of TEB SME Consultants
WTA- Billie Jean King Award
• TEB was deemed worthy of the WTA Billie Jean King Award.
Contact Center World.com Awards
• "Golden Award" in the category, "Best Instructor", in the EMEA region
• "Bronze Award" in the category, 'Best Customer Representative'
• "Second Place" in the category, "Best Instructor", in the world finals
Crème de la Crème Business Awards
• "Outstanding Success Award" to TEB's Private Banking and Üniversi TE websites
Global Finance
In 2012, TEB's Corporate Internet Branch was deemed worthy of the "Turkey's Best Corporate Internet Branch" award, courtesy of Global Finance.
European Business Awards
• "National Champion" with TEB SME Consultants
Best Business Awards
• Outstanding Successful Business Award in the category, "Best Product and Service Package" in honor of TEB's SME Banking approach (value added services)
European Enterprise Promotion Awards
• "Turkey National Winner" in the category, 'Improving the Business Environment', in recognition of the TEB SME Consultants project.
IMI Conference Turkey Call Center Awards
• "First Place" in the category, "Best Call Center Performance Development", in honor of TEB's Call Center Team
• Outstanding Success Award in the category, "Television", in recognition of TEB SME TV
• Outstanding Success Award in the category, "Education", in honor of the TEB SME Academy
Golden Spider Web Awards
• "Winning Award" for TEB's Practical Internet Branch
Golden Compass Public Relations Awards
• "Golden Compass" in the category, "Financial Services and Investor Relations", given in recognition of TEB's Vehicle Loan Campaign