Commanding a wealth of USD 1.4 billion today, Mr. Ahmet Çalık grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. Coming from a family engaged in the textile business, his professional life took shape amidst industrial machinery and business life as the second generation. He worked after school and through summer holidays. From early ages on, his family taught Ahmet Çalık how to be a responsible person. By the time he reached 20, he asked his father for capital to start his own business only to receive the answer: “Son, if you have been raised well enough to start your own business, then that is your capital. If not, you should come to the company and work as a paid employee.”
This advice laid the foundations on which Çalık Holding stands today. After this conversation with his father, Ahmet Çalık “picked up his jacket”, in his own words, and started his own journey. Maybe he did not have any capital, but he had his ideas and a good business reputation from his family.
“I started by doing business with my already existing network. I wanted to expand to other areas once my business advanced,” he reminisces… Çalık decided to enter the denim business not only because denim trousers were fashionable but also because they were hard to come by at the time. “I entered the denim business by acting on my experiences, observations, and my gut. From that point on, every business opened a new area. At this point where we have reached, I owe a debt of gratitude to my father for his advice,” he says.
Ahmet Çalık did not confine his investments to Malatya, and took the steps that would transform his holding into the frontier principality it is today. He started his investments in Central Asia in line with his vision of operating and investing internationally. In 1990s, he expanded his fields of investment, achieving major investments across a host of areas including energy, construction, mining, textile, finance, and telecom.
Mr. Çalık believes that setting a local business policy that adheres to the culture and respects the people of the country in which one would invest is of utmost importance. Corporate values always have the priority in the shaping up of this policy. In the meantime, adding value to the country in which one invests and developing mutual trust are also instrumental for success. Pointing out the importance of establishing relations based on mutual trust while doing business overseas, Mr. Çalık uses universal know-how and state-of-the-art technology in his investments, but also pays attention to doing business in accordance with local culture.
Mr. Çalık underlines the importance of his communication with customers in the investments he makes, and adds: “We respect all cultures, faiths, ages, and experiences. And this differentiates us in relationship management.”
Çalık Holding invests in many areas overseas. Surely, it also encounters various challenges. However, Ahmet Çalık believes the hardships they come across should not be taken as “challenges”. According to him, it is only natural to have investment conditions, bureaucratic preparations and market dynamics that differ from one country –and in fact from one industry– to another. And one needs to study the legislation well, follow the processes, timings well, and develop proper business models. Ahmet Çalık explains his strategy in these processes as follows: “We benefit from working with teams that are very knowledgeable in their respective subjects. In long-winded projects, we invest in the human resources of the country, in which we operate, train and employ the people of that country, and leave a trained human resources behind. These people also become our colleagues in any new project we undertake later on.”
Ahmet Çalık’s investment philosophy is based on adding lasting value to human life and refraining from involving in anything that harms humans… He believes that success or sustainable success is impossible in any effort that fails to add value to human life. In the meantime, he describes another criterion they pay attention to while investing overseas as follows: “While doing business abroad, we believe that we represent not only our group but our country, and that we have significant responsibilities. In our projects and operations, we aim to contribute in the efforts to boost the prestige of both our country and of the other countries where we operate.”
Ahmet Çalık notes that very different economic, social, and technological developments would unfold worldwide moving forward. It is only clear that different areas of business and different professions will emerge, according to Mr. Çalık, who says: “We are all trying to adapt to these new areas. The world is getting increasingly smaller, our target geography is expanding, our ways of doing business are evolving, and Industry 4.0 is opening new areas for us all”. In this conjecture, focus has shifted on digital transformation to meet today’s needs while determining and implementing strategies for the future.
The world is getting increasingly smaller, our target geography is expanding, our ways of doing business are evolving, and Industry 4.0 is opening new areas for us all.
"We will continue our efforts at a global scale through proactive strategies in an environment where the borders are eliminated in the business world,” he says.
As a businessman with 36 years of experience, he also has many advices for entrepreneurs who are still at the beginning of their business careers. Noting that we are living in a world dominated by technology, Çalık says, “The lifecycles of products and services are getting increasingly shorter. It’s been a while since we left behind the times when we can ride on the back of a successful project for many years. That’s why it is very important to anticipate changes and to make the breakthroughs change would bring about in an agile approach.”
Pointing to the importance of believing in oneself to be successful as an entrepreneur, Çalık notes that dreaming and following one’s dreams is crucial. He also emphasizes that dreaming in itself would not be sufficient unless complemented by realistic analyses and risk measurement. And his greatest piece of advice to the youth: “What we do at Çalık Holding, and what I advise the youth to do is this: start a project in good faith, use your reason, and work, work, work…”
Forbes Türkiye - September 2017