GTalks | Hüsnü Özyeğin & Sina Afra ile Girişimcilik

But how has this period been for you at home? Were you at home first of all? I was at home, then I went to the sea, so I'm very well now.

Actually, entrepreneurship is not just about starting a company in business life. It should be understood that way. I can say my life is already full of entrepreneurship and adventure. Because important... entrepreneurship at an early age. At the age of ten, coming from Izmir to Istanbul to study at Robert College was an idea and practice that came from me. Actually, a friend one grade above me from primary school came to our class in winter and enthusiastically told us about Robert College. My mother was a graduate of Izmir Girls' College, my sister was studying there, and in this way, I think I made an important venture in my life. My second important venture was going to America at the age of 18 with very little money and studying there. Even though it was a very good university, I went there. They gave me a half scholarship, but only for the first year. Then I earned my living there by doing all kinds of jobs in summers and winters. So these are, I think, my most important ventures. Later, after becoming a civil engineer, studying business administration here was very important at that time. Because I was the second student admitted to Harvard Business School, which was founded in 1908, in 1959. Professor Mustafa İhsan from Mersin did it as an academician. Actually, I was the first person there as a potential businessman. That was also very productive. There were smart things like that. My life is full of money and examples of this business.

One of the important turning points was finding Mehmet Karamancı when I returned from America. I was about to join the Eczacıbaşı group. To sign the contract, I came from Taksim by dolmuş, arriving half an hour early. There I saw the Çukurova sign. Mehmet was working at the school; I didn't realize he was a partner. I hadn't seen him for 12 years. He came in 10 minutes, kissed my cheeks, and said, 'Are you going in or not? Let's go together.' He found me at Pamukbank. I was 29 years old. What a nice coincidence.

Mehmet Bey came from Mersin to Robert College. I had come, and we studied together for six years. Mehmet went to England in the second year of high school for school. We didn't see each other after that for the last two years. So we met 12 years later. There were no cell phones back then. It shows how important the bond between two boarding school students is, doesn't it? Yes, that was a turning point.

It's truly a magnificent story. Even if it were a movie, we'd probably say they exaggerated it. Going to say hello before signing a contract, finding your job, and coming out as a board member... On the other side, Eczacıbaşı was waiting for you to respond. What did you tell them? I was very embarrassed because I had broken my promise. But Nejat Bey, Bülent's late father, spoke to me twice in person for five minutes each. When he heard about the task given to me, he understood. Later we became very good friends.

Failures taught me many different things. Failure taught me this: you shouldn't enter a business you don't understand. But sometimes, not entering a business you don't understand can also be a failure, like with Turkcell. I was the first potential partner offered a partnership in Turkcell, and I didn't take the time to examine it. There wasn't much to examine; it was founded with very little capital. I didn't take it seriously because it was five years after I founded Finansbank. Even my former boss Mehmet Karamancı and entrepreneur Murat were involved. Could I close down the businesses I entered that failed? Going to a completely new geography is a big smile. Doing business in a geography you know, and doing a business you know in a geography you know, is important. For example, we were successful in banking in Turkey. Then we went and founded a bank in Russia. At that time, Russian banking was not far behind Turkey. Then, when we got to know that geography, we entered the retail sector there. We took over Marks & Spencer and Gabon like a bank, and I am proud of it. Because there are hundreds of banks in Russia, and according to a Forbes magazine survey, we are among the most loved and appreciated by individual customers. We are going there. It's not an easy country; it's very difficult. In Russia, we can say we went and tried to teach Russians English. Rice University has a language school. 1200 students study in the preparatory program every year before starting their undergraduate program. We said we would do this. There is an organization in Russia and Turkey; we took its franchise. We couldn't reach sufficient numbers. To create a critical mass, we opened 4 centers in 4 years. We had about 1000-1500 students. We sold it to a Jewish citizen from Israel. Can you imagine? I sold something for the first time in my life. The man said, 'If you put 1 million 750 thousand dollars into this company, it will work.' I learned that too: when selling a company, the concept of putting money into it is common. But if a company is failing, the sooner you close it, the less loss you incur. Apart from money, it's also beneficial for focusing your human resources, morale, and other businesses. It's like pruning; when it gets too long, healthier branches and leaves come out.

Yes, first of all, what is important for a person is the institution they created. These institutions were large. Ensuring their sustainability after oneself should be the goal. While I was growing and diversifying my businesses, I always thought about what I needed to do at the end of this. And I raised my children from the beginning in that direction, together with my business. Murat is a graduate of Sabancı University, my daughter Ayşecan is a graduate of... she went to Istanbul. She is the black sheep of the family. I mean, Murat, from here... We learned that it was good that I went to Istanbul; we stayed much longer. It was a difficult program for my daughter. So, I learned that. And let go for three years. Otherwise, my daughter worked at Finansbank as an analyst. But the important thing is that before Murat took over the chairmanship, he was already chairman and had been working in this group for 17 years. Ayşecan had been working for 10-12 years. The preparation was already there. The handover was not a one-day ceremony; it was continuous. For example, I had already transferred all the energy businesses to Murat. I was attending board meetings, Murat was running the company, both wind and solar energy. Murat had already taken over the two banks. I left 8 years ago. So the handover was already happening partially. For the purpose, of course, you would drive the group crazy. My moving to honorary chairmanship happened recently. After I became honorary chairman, your time has now started to be channeled elsewhere. In your business or private life, what do you enjoy the most now? Are there good things you do after becoming honorary chairman that you didn't do before?

Yes, now, first of all, even in my chairmanship, an honorary chairmanship is different. Rahmi Koç's is very different from mine. I still have some executive duties. I am the chairman of the credit committee, the chairman of the bank in Russia, and of course, the chairman of the board of trustees and executive board of Özyeğin University. So I still have some work that keeps me busy. We are here. I said that retirement won't happen for me, let me say that first. But now, at a full time, from this perspective, Murat has taken over 90% of the group, I can say. But they still inform me about the meetings, and I participate. In this period, I allocate much more time to myself. For the first time, I started reading literary books, Nobel Prize-winning authors. Before, I was reading biographies of successful people in America, books on technological developments and digital banking related to work. Now, I read books by Spanish authors, Seher Özdemir, Elif... I learn many things the world doesn't know. For example, I read a Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning author. I enjoy it, frankly. I have more time to read books, I listen to more music, all kinds of music thanks to Spotify. Then, of course, I spend much more time with my grandchildren. I also spend a lot of time on work. And painting. For the first time in my life, I have been painting for 12 days with my wife. Really, I'm saying this as an example. We had done 5000-6000 before, but 12 days is a beautiful record for us. May God grant everyone such records. Amen.

Well, when I founded Özyeğin University, I established it as a field of application for the things I learned from my own life. I founded it as an American system. In the American system, there is a campus, there are very good professors, and students are motivated and rewarded. It's a system built on the concept of rewarding, not just giving grades. This question is very important. Apart from academic activities, student clubs are very important. But there is another system at Özyeğin University that doesn't even exist in American universities: the work-study system. I place great importance on every student entering Özyeğin University doing a internship. We even publish a booklet every year with pictures of the graduates. When our students graduate, their resumes are quite full. They have worked in 3-4 places. For example, 340 students at our university work for a fee. Because working means experience. You gain experience in any kind of work. Since I continued my university education in America by working, I want my students to do the same. When students come at the age of 19-20, they shouldn't just get by with allowance from their parents. They must earn their own 35 kurus. The value of the money they earn themselves is many times greater, and it's also harder to spend. You will spend the money you earn less easily; you spend money you get from others more easily. It's a simple system. So I founded the university with this mentality. For example, in the basement of our university dormitories, there is a call center. In that call center, our students call hundreds of our customers every day for the collection of credit cards that our collection company couldn't collect from other banks, and they try to get results. Because a student's contact with a customer who can't pay their credit card debt is so important. I am sure that when that student gets a credit card, they will be much more careful with their spending because they experience how those who can't pay their debts are distressed when they are called. This is a simple example. But as I said, everyone at the university should have all kinds of experience. Also, Fiba Group companies are open to our students. In our factory stores, banks, hotels, all our companies, students have the opportunity to do internships, provided they maintain a GPA of 2.5. Also, my long-time friends, owners of five-star hotels in Antalya, open their hotels to our students. We have a strong tourism school, a strong gastronomy school. But I even tell law students, 'How will you be a lawyer? Go work in a five-star hotel in Antalya. You'll swim in the sea and improve your English.' I give such advice. I tell students to work at least one or two months every summer, starting from prep school, not just the mandatory internship.

I don't know which student it was. Of course, I have invested in students and followed them. For example, I invested in a student who developed a drone. Later, a graduate of ours named Mücahit Dalgacı opened a 'lokma' shop called Lokma Sadıye in Akaretler. I saw that every day there were queues of 30-40-50 people in front of it. I called Mücahit and said, 'If you want to grow this business, I am here. I will put in money, let's grow it.' He opened shops in Çengelköy and Kadıköy. But he said, 'I don't want to open more shops, and I don't recommend this business to you.' I remember. When one entrepreneur becomes successful, everyone follows. After Mücahit, 400 lokma shops opened. You know, in Turkey, when one thing is successful, everyone opens the same thing next to it. It's like McDonald's and Burger King being next to each other. It's very interesting. People see something successful and immediately follow it. Like Simit Sarayı. Before, simit was sold on the street. Then Simit Sarayı opened, and then how many different simit chains opened? It's incredible how quickly they follow. We live in a country with very high adaptation. There are also colorful examples. Someone called me from Izmir; he had opened a bakery called 'Pastafoni'. I said, 'Where did this come from?' He was inspired by 'Markafoni'. It was the time of Tarkan. The name association, independent of the sector, started things like 'sepet' in Turkey. People love to follow in the shadow of success.

Özyeğin University. In 50 years, Özyeğin University will have around 270,000 graduates. A university's strength is its graduates. For example, if one of our graduates works at a company and becomes a manager, they will prefer to hire Özyeğin University graduates. Just like Turkey has Robert College, Galatasaray High School, Kabataş High School, TED College in Ankara. They are all brands. Therefore, Özyeğin University will be the most important asset for me and my family.

It will be much more positive. Because there is a big difference between generations now. There is not just one generation gap, but two or three generations gap. Because technology is developing so fast. Also, they have very different circles, younger friends. I believe they will be much more effective than me in areas like personnel selection. They have already proven themselves. They will do much better things from now on. Because values are very important. Human values come to the forefront. So I believe they will carry this business very well, without a doubt.

I saw myself as a manager. I didn't say this to brag. Because when I started at the bank, I knew nothing about banking. So I had to bring out my managerial qualities. When Mehmet Karamancı said he would make me the general manager of the bank, I said, 'I've never worked in a bank, I just came from America. How will I do this job?' His answer was very interesting: 'I don't know anything about banking either. We will learn this job together.' So the managerial aspect always came to the forefront. What is the managerial aspect? When I was the general manager of Pamukbank, there were very few people who knew the job. There were very few employees who had graduated from the best universities. We didn't have graduates from Boğaziçi or Middle East Technical University. So we hired top-level people from universities like Boğaziçi and METU. I hired Arzu as Assistant General Manager, people like Akın Öngör who later went to Garanti Bankası, İbrahim Geçici who went to Garanti Bankası, Vural Akışık, and later during Kemal Derviş's term, we went to Ziraat Bankası with Burhan Karaçam. All of these people were my assistant general managers at the same time. They weren't bankers, but they had managerial skills. They were young people who studied business administration at good schools and had worked in international organizations like Arthur Andersen. So we managed our banks by striving to be successful in management, not by relying on banking knowledge. At the top level, technical knowledge takes a back seat. I can give another example. When IBM was in trouble 25 years ago, 170,000 people worked there. The general manager they brought in had no technological experience. He was the general manager of RJR Nabisco, a cigarette and food company. He was successful. So a good manager can be successful in any sector. I believe in that.

A good manager must first and foremost be a good person. They must treat their team well, honor them, motivate them both materially and morally. They must even be a friend to them. If I became important, it's because of how I developed people. After me, the general manager of Finansbank was Ömer, who was 30-35 years old. There were 4-5 general managers at Finansbank after that, like Onur, Umut, Bozer. None of them were over 40 when they came to Finansbank. So I gave importance to young people. If I could do it, I thought others could too. They were luckier than me because generations who didn't know banking like me took over. But a manager's success comes entirely from managing people, from treating their personnel justly. When building a great team, I would manage at most three levels. Being fair is very important.

Looking at my life, I wouldn't change anything I did. Thank God. But of course, if you dig a little deeper, it would have been good to do that too. But there is no such life.

It's not possible to answer 'no' to that question. I would want to be in my early 20s, and I wouldn't change anything if I could go back. That's very nice.

I founded Finansbank at the age of 40, which is considered middle age. I never had a business before. I only had one business: I ran a cafeteria during my two years at Harvard Business School. That was my only business. I worked for myself. At 40, I launched the bank. Today, to found a bank, I had 8 million dollars in capital. 13 million was my own money from my salary as general manager. I had two houses; I sold both and put all my money into the bank. I sold shares to 21 businessmen before the bank started operations. I sold 1% or 2% of the bank to them, totaling 35%. With the premium they paid, I added to my own capital. I founded the bank this way with 8 million dollars capital. Today, of course, due to my successful work at Yapı Kredi Bank between 1984 and 1987, which is detailed in a book, the bank was in trouble. Mehmet Bey made me general manager there, at Pamukbank. I saved the bank, and I can argue that. And the permission to found Finansbank was given to me as a reward by the Undersecretariat of Treasury. At that time, there was no such thing. A professional manager was given permission to found a bank. It was incredible. Thank God we were successful. What I mean is, in entrepreneurship, time and place are very important. When you do it is very important. I need to touch on a few more aspects of entrepreneurship. Because I think entrepreneurship in Turkey is best at something. I'm not explaining it well because it's very different. My entrepreneurship in America is called 'serial entrepreneur'. I have founded 27 companies in many different sectors: shopping malls, banks, insurance, asset management, energy, wind energy. I have done this in different countries. In Turkey, our group has banking, and abroad we have 5 million customers in Russia and Egypt. Even the largest bank in Turkey doesn't have 1 million customers abroad. Was it right to enter so many sectors? But I carried the excitement of starting a business from scratch and growing it throughout my life. Most of it, thank God, turned out very well.

Entering a new geography doesn't scare me. Entering a new business creates a slight anxiety. It needs to create some anxiety. The shopping mall was 398 full, but I couldn't make money. I'm working on it now. It was all due to our own mistakes. The vision was good, but the implementation was very weak. In one place, the geography was very different. I'll be very honest. But in banking abroad, the employees we trained are unmatched. Many American brands are working with the employees we trained. We trained many bankers in Turkey. Many general managers of banks in Turkey are friends who worked with us. So that is also a pleasurable thing. Training people is very pleasurable. I met all of them as general managers of a bank. I didn't know they all worked with you at the same time. That's very impressive. It's a very good team with an incredibly high deposit.

Marrying Ayşecan. I think that's it.

Choosing the right boss is the biggest investment and the biggest channel. Absolutely. It's more important than choosing the right university. Let me say this: not everyone who graduates from here becomes successful. Education is important, but what else you learn in life is also important. I always tell my students: choose your state and graduate with a 2.17 GPA like I did. I was never a super student. I graduated from Robert College with mediocre results. But I was the student council president. At Harvard, I was the student body president. I had two secretaries then; now I have one. They wouldn't have accepted me with those grades, but they accepted me because I was student council president. So in life, besides academic success, life experiences, human relations, and networking are very important. Students and entrepreneurs should embrace this very well.

Thank you. I thank the cinema for giving me this opportunity. I congratulate you on your beautiful successes. I hope to meet you in your other works. I wish you a good day. Thank you everyone. Lots of love. Stay healthy. Take care of yourselves in this period. Young people and entrepreneurs, thank you very much. Thank you everyone. Bye bye.