Simon Hobbs Have you struggled in business being a woman?


Güler Sabancı In the first years of my career, this was a great issue for me. But now I feel it is just part of the life (I come from a male-dominated family). But I love business. It excites me to do projects, to create things, to join partnerships. 


SH Why do you think more women don’t succeed in business? 


GS I think they don’t want it. If they want it, I think that we have the systems to allow it to happen. But I was lucky: I was supported by my family and my colleagues. We do need positive discrimination in the sense that women need to be supported.


SH You have said that you enjoy working with teams that make you proud. How do you motivate teams when you have 53,000 people working for you?

GS I discuss things with people. I don’t 
give orders. By having a true discussion, we come to a point that people agree, find the right thing to do and implement it.


SH You are a strong advocate of Turkey joining the European Union and are keen to attract people into Turkey through foreign direct investment. Does that lie at the heart of your business?


GS Exactly. I believe that Turkey’s long-term position lies with the EU and that this is not a revolution but an evolution. You cannot divide this ideology from the business. Of course you look at your business with your numbers and visibilities, but then it will be the leadership, the vision, the ideals that invigorate it.


SH You’ve said that you grew up in a traditional Turkish family, where the women cooked and the men talked business, but you always sat with the men. What did you learn?


GS That hard work and earning money is something to be proud of — withethics, 
of course. 


SH Why didn’t you go abroad for your MBA?


GS I could have easily sailed off to the end of the world but I felt responsible to my family and I was eager to start work as soon as I could. But I found myself starting in a business that was on the edge financially because the lira had crashed. I started as a clerk in the procurement department which was the toughest place to start: how do you procure when the foreign exchange is not on your side? You need to be very creative — and I learned the most in the first five years of my career.


SH Why have you cited American psychologist M. Scott Peck’s The Road Less Travelled as so influential on your career?


GS In the first five years, my job was crisis management. I was not unhappy — I was learning a lot — but when we achieved out goals and made it, then I realised what were the important factors in our success, our team, our people. It’s not just the results. Now I realise that my biggest strength is being able to select the right person for the right job at the right time.


SH On the basis of what?


GS In order to do that you need to understand people, their desires, their strengths and weaknesses. You need to know more about a person than their CV and Peck’s book was the beginning of my internal journey in psychiatry.


SH How important was your uncle, who ran the company, in your career trajectory?


GS My uncle was of course my boss and my mentor; when I was younger, he knew more about my strengths and capabilities than I did myself. Through the projects that he assigned me, he tested me. 


SH During your thirties and early forties you sold tyre materials — so much so that they called you the “Tyre Queen”. 


GS I loved it. We had a local 
company selling into a local market, but eventually we made it into a global company through a 
joint venture.


SH So what’s the secret to a successful joint venture?


GS You need to know where you are sailing to. If you do not know where you want to go, no wind is the right wind. Then, you need to know how to get there as soon as possible. Then comes the joint venture; then comes the partnership. You may have the market and they may have the technology or vice versa. As long as the parties are in alignment in the long-term strategy and both clearly understand what they are contributing to the joint venture, then it will be a success.


SH You built up the company against a backdrop of complex political and social situations in Turkey. What was your ideology during this time?


GS To do the right thing for the business. It is not patriotism, though it does give you pride, but you don’t do business for that reason. We had a strong local market, we had the know-how and vision and we had the capital structure. We are the least leveraged company in Turkey.


SH In your mid forties, the Sabancı family decided to found and support a multimillion-dollar university as a large philanthropic initiative. When it opened, you were chosen to develop and implement the plan over four years.


GS We’ve been building schools, hospitals, arts centres all around Turkey. By the time we started the university, 120 such projects had been realised. My uncles said they wanted me to lead this project because founding, leading and developing a university is the project of the future and you are the future. How far sighted they were to give a project that meant so much to them — that is why my uncles are great leaders. They are able to do what is best for the project, not what it is best for them. 


SH How did you manage the responsibility?


GS It was a big responsibility; I had nights of sleeplessness. I pulled 52 people from around the world from different disciplines and for three and a half days we discussed without any barriers. First, we discussed what is an ideal university for the 21st century and from that we have worked for four years to design the plan for the university.


SH How do your family’s values translate to the company’s brand?


GS Even in the last minutes of my uncle’s life, we were talking about the university and the museum and the philanthropic work. He made it very clear how precious those things were for him and the family. He always believed that what makes the Sabancı brand so loved and accepted by the Turkish people is because of our genuine and frank philanthropic work. 


SH And when you became chairman did you feel additional pressure because of being a woman? Isn’t it the case that one of your cousins sold his shares because he didn’t want to be bossed around by a woman?


GS [Laughs] Well, that is part of it — that happened. The majority of the family, however, wanted me to lead the business. 


SH So how did you start?


GS The first announcement I made was that no one should expect me to be like 
Mr Sabancı. It wasn’t fair to my uncle or to me. I said, I will try my best in a new era.


SH What form of new leadership is that?


GS The essence of my leadership is teamwork. I believe in teamwork — the strength that you create from different minds. 


SH And now, when times are tough and may get tougher, how will your leadership change over the short term?


GS I am sure that you will see by the end of this year that we will be relatively better off than our competition. In a difficult year such as 2009, we only have growth targets in a few of our businesses. In other businesses, we are working 
to preserve the value. Working capital is the name of the game — as well as being cash liquid and making money.


SH And what is the biggest lesson that you have learned?


GS That you will always make mistakes. However, as long as the calculated risks that you take are manageable you should not avoid taking a risk.

Curriculum vitae — Güler Sabancı

Born: 1955


Education: MBA from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul


Work history: In 1978, she started her professional career at LasSA, a family-owned tyre-production company in Kocaeli Province. She was then appointed general manager of KordSA, a position she held for 14 years. Later, Güler Sabanc1 became a member of the board of directors at Sabancı Holding, heading the tyres and reinforcement materials group, as well as having responsibility for human resources. In 2004, following the death of her uncle Sakıp Sabancı, who had led Sabancı Holding since its foundation in 1967, Güler was appointed chairman of the holding by her uncles Şevket and Erol.


Distinctions: In 2006 Sabancı received the “Woman of Distinction Award” from the international relations group Daughters of Atatürk