Gökhan Köseoğlu

In this episode we bring CFO Gökhan Köseoğlu of Damen Shipyard back to the table to revisit one of the era’s most pressing questions: is globalization actually heading toward a finale? Building on the earlier conversation with Cem Sürmen, the new reality created by pandemic aftershocks, the Russia-Ukraine war and China’s repositioning in world trade is examined through the eyes of a CFO.

Gökhan summarises the new agenda items now sitting alongside the more familiar globalization themes of sustainability and digitalization: the geographic reorganisation of supply chains, production bases moving closer to home, and regional alliances reshaping economic decisions.

For a CFO making long-cycle investment decisions, this new picture spreads across multiple layers. Which markets to invest in, how to design the supply chain, and how much currency-risk exposure is acceptable — none of these questions can be answered through an efficiency lens alone. Geopolitical resilience now sits in the equation too.

The episode also surfaces practical detail on how Damen Shipyard frames strategic decisions, how communication with global customers changed after the pandemic, and how a group CFO coordinates teams across different geographies in this new operating environment.

Gökhan’s closing message is direct: globalization is not ending — it is changing form. As the re-localization wave begins from developed economies and spreads outward, finance leaders need to recalibrate their long-term strategy against the new shape of the global economy.