Major pause

As a result of the turmoil on the markets, the business community has begun to take preventative measures before the ink is even dry on their budgets.  A survey of 139 leading executives who are members of the CEO Club found that 61.2 per cent had made plans to “postpone investments”. The list of investments that will be postponed is headed by “human resources”.

Click images to see the table.
Moreover, 31.1 percent said that they are unable to forecast when they will be able to implement the postponed investments. Despite this picture, there are also those who will push ahead. They say “We won’t give

HR FIRST TO BE POSTPONED
The results of a survey by Capital magazine of the members of the CEO Club showed that, in the prevailing environment, 61.2 per cent of CEOs say that they are going to halt or postpone investments.

The list of measures to be taken by CEOs who are planning to postpone investments is headed by “halting the employment of human resources” with 16 per cent. One of these CEOs is Selçuk Tümay, the Turkey General Manager for Pernod Ricard, the French drinks giant.

“We have postponed recruitment of new personnel and our plans for the launch of new products,” he says. Tümay explains that they took the decision to postpone investments because of the political and economic uncertainty and the volatility in the foreign exchange rate. ~

İnoksan Mutfak CEO Gürhan Akdoğan says that first of all they will stop the recruitment of new human resources. Akdoğan says that they will put the recruitment of new personnel on hold during the first quarter but that later they will continue with to implement their plans in order to realize their budgetary targets.

“We shall not stop work on new products,” he says. “In addition to industry fair and marketing activities, we will not impose any restrictions on product launches, particularly not on activities to access target markets abroad.”

POLITICAL POSTPONEMENT
A total of 61.2 per cent of CEOs said that they will halt or postpone investments. So what are the most important reasons for the postponement? When will they start again? The CEOs who participated in the survey gave the most important reason for the postponement as “political uncertainty and elections”. 31.2 per cent of the CEOs cited these factors as the reason,

The second reason, cited by 24.4 per cent of the CEOs, was “economic uncertainty”. The third most important reason, and one cited by 22.1 per cent of the respondents, was the unstoppable rise of the foreign exchange rate and its repercussions. Some of those who are postponing investments expect to implement them in 2015.

These accounted for 14.1 per cent of the total. Another 11.9 per cent preferred to wait until after the presidential elections in summer 2014. But the largest proportion (31.1 per cent) said: “At the moment, I cannot see into the future. I can’t give a firm date for when we shall start.”~

Aydınlı Grup CEO Ahmet Said Kavurmacı said the earliest that they would implement their postponed investments would be 2015. Kavurmacı added: “We have put our investments on hold because of the political uncertainty, the movements in the exchange rate and economic problems.”

THERE ARE ALSO THOSE WHO AREN'T STOPPING...
Those who do not want to make any concessions in terms of growth in 2014 are not postponing their investments. 38.8 per cent of CEOs said that they were not thinking of halting or postponing their investments. Carrefoursa General Manager Mehmet Nane is one of them.

Nane said that they are not planning to postpone any investments in 2014 and they will continue as planned. “We are not thinking of postponing our investments in infrastructure or growth, regardless of what happens,” he said.

“Nor will we halt our investments in human resources, our investments in IT or our investments in opening and improving stores.” Another executive who says that they will continue to invest is Hayat Kimya General Coordinator Orhan İdil.

İdil says that they will continue with their 2014 investment targets and adds: “Our investment in a paper plant in Russia will begin operations at the end of the year and we are continuing with our investment in a paper factory in Mersin, whose foundations we laid last year. At Hayat Kimya, we are aiming to recruit a total of 1,613 new personnel, 813 domestically and 800 abroad.”

PLANS TO TURN THE SITUATION INTO AN ADVANTAGE
In fact, to date, the Turkish business community has survived many crises. Indeed, a culture of turning crises into opportunities has developed. There are business people who regard this process as an opportunity.~

For example, Bürotime Board Chair Hüseyin Tosunoğlu says: “We know that if every difficult period is analyzed and managed well then it can be turned into an advantage or survived with minimal damage. We learned this from our own extensive experience that enabled us to achieve the position we now have in the sector.”

Erkunt Traktör Deputy Board Chair Zeynep Erkunt Armağan says that they will not postpone any investments and adds: “We are continuing with the investment that we started in a new plant in order to be able to produce important components that we bought from the supply industry.

We have not postponed the plans we made in this regard to increase employment. The workforce will be completed in March. We are continuing work on the design of two new products. We have increased our investments in promoting our brand abroad by 50 per cent. Because I think that exports are an important way out when a country is in crisis.”