Which recent political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted the company and your team the most?

At the moment, everything in Türkiye is changing rapidly with no visible political economy or regulatory standards in the country. One of the most outstanding instances is that our local currency depreciated five times in the last three years, and inflation rates are on average 30 percent to 35 percent. It is quite impossible to make new investments because lenders in Türkiye are backed up with outsourced financials, meaning that every single depreciation will ultimately have an effect on both lenders and company. So, there are no new investments unless there’s a huge rate of return which is quite impossible, so instead, we focus on buying and selling companies.

Other challenges are the collateral effects to the company regarding uncollected receivables. Previously, it was possible to exist even if receivables were not collected immediately because there was sufficient cash flow to pay for turnovers among other things. However, now if you skip or miss one receivable, there could be trouble for your own financials. This is a huge challenge for large companies, which have foreign currency landings but income based on local currency.

Lastly the general principle in reliable legal jurisdictions is that laws are non-retroactive. Contrastingly, in Türkiye it has not been this way the last few times. This climate means we must adapt instantaneously once the law is already effective.

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected the company and your team’s priorities?

Climate change is a multinational topic and one that affects us all as people and organisations. Our company is headquartered in Ankara, in the same building for over 11 years. This building was the first one in Türkiye to have a green certificate, a LEED certificate, which means it is super energy saving and cost effective. Concerning sustainability, we have a fresh initiative in the company where we do more with less. It is an employee based initiative consisting of four groups. One of the groups is focusing on sustainability, and on working standards such as flexible working which I am involved in. We have implemented a new working regime where employees are expected to work from home for at least two days. This helps us save energy in the building because it bears on variable costs; another group which I advise focuses on using less paper. We are looking towards a future where work is solely online with zero paper printing. Additionally we have only sets of recycled waste bins in the building. As a legal department, we recorded the most printing so it was a struggle adapting but the upside was digitalising  everything on one platform. I would also like to thank my colleagues Ms. Yüksel Temizer and Ms. Mina Kangal, for their support.