The change has started, new projects are on the way

Hasan Yılmaz is one of the most experienced executives in the Turkish business community... His career path has seen him serve in high level executive positions in leading companies such as Unilever, PepsiCo, Koç Holding and Hürriyet Gazetecilik.

For the last year, we have been following him at the head of Fenerbahçe. Yılmaz himself says that he took over at CEO at a time when Fenerbahçe was passing through an extremely difficult period and adds that they have realized a large number of projects over the last year.

He says that it is more important for Fenerbahçe to be successful on the sports field than commercially and notes: “This year I am expecting us to be the champion in every sport we play.” We spoke with Yılmaz about Fenerbahçe’s new course and his plans for the future.

How did your path cross with Fenerbahçe’s?
I am a Fenerbahçe supporter. But I wasn’t a member of the congress. I had never seen the club president in my life. Cengiz Solakoğlu was an independent board member of our football company Futbol A.Ş.

When I was at Koç, Ender Alkaya used to work at Migros. He mentioned me to Solakoğlu. They tried to persuade me. I resisted. But then I thought: “If I am going to work for 1-2 more years and then retire, then I shall work for my Fenerbahçe,” and I accepted the offer.

When I was still resisting, they would say: “Come on over one day and meet the club president.” The club president Aziz Yıldırım came and shook my hand. “You have started. I hope it all goes well,” he said. Everything happened at once. He is an incredible person. I have never met anyone so positive, so clever and so amusing.~

Did you find what you were looking for in Fenerbahçe?
To be honest, there were two things I had never imagined. The first was that I had not realized that the responsibilities I had assumed would be so great. The second was that I had never realized that I would receive so much support from the board of directors, particularly the president.

When I first came here, I thought that Fenerbahçe was all about football. But we are not just a football club. It is a major holding here. We oversee nine different companies. One of these companies is worth a billion Turkish Lira.

What kind of turnover are we talking about in total?
Overall, Fenerbahçe Sports Club has total revenue of TL 550-600 million. Approximately TL 250 million of this is from the football company, Fenerbahçe Futbol A.Ş. The rest is from the other companies and the club. We have over 2,000 sportsmen and sportswomen.

But only 28 of these are professional footballers. We have nine branches and nine companies. We provide the coordination for all of these. If we exclude the sportspeople, we have a total of 960 employees, including executives, workers and clerical staff.

What was your main goal after you started at the club?
In normal companies, the goal is to maximize profits. We have a single goal and that is sporting success. We want to represent Fenerbahçe and the Turkish flag in the best possible manner in Europe and at the global level. ~

I am not looking to manage a sports club with an institutionalized corporate structure. What we are trying to do here is as follows: we want to establish a machine which works smoothly. We are obliged to provide the decision-makers with all the information they need in the appropriate manner at the appropriate time.

What kind of pressure do you feel as CEO?
In fact, all the pressures, such as profit and turnover, are here. Sporting success is an additional element. We are obliged to turn commercial success into sporting success. In the end, I can manage Fenerbahçe A.Ş. perfectly.

I can regulate the balance of profit and loss. But there would be no Fenerbahçe supporters left. It would be such a boring Fenerbahçe. The sports industry is something else. Normal companies work better according to the trio of quality, price and value.

You make the highest quality goods from the most expensive raw materials and sell for the highest price. But when you put together the most expensive team, no one can guarantee success.

As Fenerbahçe CEO what are your priorities at the moment?
Why did I come to Fenerbahçe? Fenerbahçe was going through a very difficult time. It had suffered a major injustice. Fenerbahçe and Fenerbahçe supporters are very special people. Instead of discouraging them, difficulties make them more ambitious.~

But now we should leave the past behind and look to the future. To be honest, the most important issue on my mind is “sustainability”. We should establish systems that bring “sustainable success”. We want to be a club that is always successful and is financially sustainable, can create its own resources and does not need to borrow.

What have you done so far? What are your targets for 2014 and afterwards?
We have completely renewed our advertising, marketing and sponsoring department. We have been barred from Europe. It is very difficult to secure sponsorship. Despite this, our sponsorship revenue rose by 15 per cent in 2013 compared with the previous year. In fact, in business life the goal does not change.

It is to secure a competitive edge, do business in the right way and satisfy the supporters... The management part of the business is no different to a holding. We make forecasts for inflation, devaluation and profits and prepare budgets.

I expect us to be champion in every sport in which we are active. Particularly in football. Our basic aim is to raise our profile even higher on a global scale. In terms of our companies, we are predicting growth of 10 per cent for our smallest company and around 25 per cent for our largest company.