Suddenly, the most wanted man in Turkey

Early on Tuesday morning, I read an announcement from Yiğit Kulabaş’s Facebook account in which he said that he was coming back to Turkey after 40 months in Stockholm. Attached was a public declaration by Turkcell which made him the most wanted man in Turkey, at least for the technology industry. The Turkcell announcement is as follows:

“To adopt a common perspective in the management of marketing operations and further improve customer focus in our corporate business, which has increasing importance for both our revenues and profitability, a ‘chief corporate marketing officer’ role has been established reporting to the chief corporate business officer. Within this context, Yiğit Kulabaş has been appointed chief corporate marketing officer effective March 11, 2013.

“Mr. Kulabaş has held executive positions at Oracle, Microsoft and Ericsson. Most recently, he was the global marketing director of Ericsson. Mr. Kulabaş received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer engineering from Bilkent University, and a PhD degree in marketing from Istanbul Technical University.”

Kulabaş was already in a very prestigious position as the global marketing director of Ericsson but in just hours he has become a man that everyone in the technology business would like to meet and do business with in Turkey. This might be an indicator of how inverted we are as a nation, but I would like to have Kulabaş’s opinion on that subject – maybe Turkish firms were as eager to meet with him when he was in Stockholm, too.

His appointment made me think about how important it is to have extracurricular activities to broaden your vision to achieve top management positions. Kulabaş had been a writer for Bilgi Çağı magazine for years and is also a published author. His book “Zamanya” got really good reviews. It was about a man who started working for a firm that pays with time. The hit movie “In time” was something like his book as both questioned what we really need to achieve our goals and happiness.

I believe that his grasp of time management and how to balance life will help him greatly in his new role as it is one of the hardest to do in Turkey. Becoming the chief corporate marketing officer of Turkcell at a time when everything about the company is seemingly at stake is a very bold move. With all the partners fighting each other, achieving a common perspective in the management of marketing operations and further improving customer focus in corporate business is virtually impossible as Turkcell’s board is still deadlocked.

However, Kulabaş might be the person to unlock the situation as he is known to be impartial to all and a very good communicator. His previous position also gives him authority and he might make all the parties listen to his advice. I hope that will be the case so that we can finally see Turkcell moving ahead.