Institutionalization: Promises and Traceability
Institutionalization is the parties giving their word to one another and making whether those promises are kept traceable. In the generational handover too, the two sides must make an agreement and a system must monitor it.
Transcript
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Institutionalization is the parties giving their word to one another, and turning whether that word is kept into something traceable.
The concept of institutionalization, often drowned in technical detail, is actually built entirely on trust and communication. From successionThe transfer of management and ownership in a family business to the next generation — approached not as a moment of 'handover' but as a long development journey that begins with growing the next generation. See in glossary → to daily operations, wherever there is a given word, it is possible to speak of institutionalization.
Tags: #OrhanErkut #Institutionalization #ManagementConsulting
Transcript
The definition of institutionalization is very varied. Based on what I hear and listen to, before making my own definition I try to understand what other people's definition of institutionalization is. Because I handle senior executive recruitment and conduct job interviews, I naturally ask the candidates I meet, "What do you mean by institutionalization?" The information I gather actually focuses the definition of institutionalization on the kept word. That is, the one who keeps the word he gives. When I go into more detail, I see that it is not one-sided; that is, both the company and the employee need to develop a corporate perception.
Therefore I define this work as a culture of kept promises. At different scales, different things come up before us. You can speak of institutionalization in the relationship between a grocer and his customer. You can speak of institutionalization in the relationship between parents and a child. Generally, in terms of perception, you can also speak of the kept promises on the side of clarifying the part between a professional, manager, or employee in large-scale companies and the company's expectations.
As a management consultant, I am also interested in monitoring whether the kept promises are actually kept; because the work changes as the number of promises grows. Between a grocer and his customer there is a tiny matter; if the word is already being kept, the customer-grocer relationship continues. But in larger-scale companies, because different promises are made on many subjects, other concepts come into play that we look at under the heading of governance or corporate governanceThe principles and mechanisms ensuring a company is governed with fairness, transparency, responsibility and accountability. These build on the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance; the four emphasised in Türkiye (there are more) are central to Orhan Erkut's work. See in glossary →, where it is tracked whether these promises are kept. In short, surfacing which promises will be kept between the parties and making them traceable are the consulting-side outputs of this process.
In sum, institutionalization is giving a word, the parties giving their word to one another, and turning whether that word is kept into something traceable. Since our main area is succession, in succession too there are parties. And these parties give a word to one another. To be able to give that word, you need to communicate.
You need to come to an agreement together in the first place. Then this needs to be turned into something traceable within a system. Perhaps we can summarize institutionalization in succession this way too.
Source: Instagram Reels · Posted: April 22, 2026. The media link is in the "Medya URL" field.