A Turkish Fan

Strategic management professor Daniel Blake speaks about non-market strategies while watching a football match: Atletico de Madrid against Betis.

Strategic management professor Daniel Blake is articulate, efficient, focused, Turkish, and, most importantly of all, a fan of Atletico de Madrid. He says he picked Atletico because it’s too easy to be a Real Madrid fan. He tends to support the underdog, and is ready to fight and suffer just like any real Atletico supporter. Don’t forget that Atletico’s fans are called sufferers, sufridores in Spanish, because they face an uphill struggle all the way, except this season that is…

We went together to watch Atletico play against Betis from Seville. So far this season Atletico hasn’t lost a home game, so, thinking it was high time it did, I bet Daniel 10 euros that Betis would win. But I forgot that professors always win, and that’s exactly what happened. Apart from that we had a nice Spanish tortilla sandwich and a really good time, which is what it is all about, of course.

I’m going to leave you with a quote by Turkish Nobel prizewinner Orhan Pahmuk: “Life can’t be all that bad. Whatever happens, I can always take a walk along the Bosphorus”. I spent my summer holidays in Istanbul and have included some of the shots I took of the city in this video, but unfortunately I could not share that particular experience with Prof. Blake.

The international Art Fair ArcoMadrid has this year as one of the major attractions of the Fair FOCUS TURKEY, a section which enjoys the collaboration of the Turkish Embassy to Spain and the participation of the curator Vasif Kortun, director of research and programmes at SALT Istanbul,who have selected the 10 Turkish galleries which will take part in the programme.

P.S. Prof. Blake teaches non-market strategies and has a lot to say about external factors that dramatically affect businesses.