Turkish entrepreneurs have courage but lack plans, says prominent businessman

Hülya Güler ISTANBUL

Pegasus Chairman Sabancı attended an event bringing together entrepreneurs and mentors. DHA photo

The CEO of Turkey’s largest private airline company says young entrepreneurs are brave enough to promote their ideas but don’t have proper plans to bring their ideas to life.

“They have courage but no plans,” Pegasus CEO Ali Sabancı said, after meeting 615 young entrepreneurs at the Entrepreneurs as Power of Future (G3) forum in Istanbul, as part of events held to mark global entrepreneurship week.

Sabancı, who had the chance to meet with thousands of aspirant youths as one of 90 mentors in the program, said courage is “crucial but not enough on its own.”

“When we ask, ‘what is the idea, what do you want to do?’ all of them tell us well. They are good at telling but when the job comes to writing it down, planning is not something they have learned,” he said.

Sabancı claimed that “the world does not need more ideas,” emphasizing that it is more important to translate them into projects.

The CEO also praised young entrepreneurs for being “bothered,” saying “those who are bothered can succeed.”

Speaking at a separate event on Nov. 18, Doğan Online Founding Chairman Hanzade Doğan Boyner underlined the importance and changing meaning of entrepreneurship in today’s world.

“Today, entrepreneurial companies, not big companies, are successful,” she said, delivering a keynote speech at International Quality Conference hosted by the Turkish Quality Association (KALDER).

According to Doğan Boyner, entrepreneur professionals succeed by being “brave, dreaming, visionary, willing to make changes, bothered by the existing situation, experimental, passionate and searching for perfection.”