January, 2021
Robb Report: Confrontation Period
ABK Holding Co-Founder, Murat Kutay Yıldırım owes the success of the companies and initiatives in the fields of automotive, motor sports, industrial design and economy to not being intimidated by change, initiative and confrontation.
We have a humble collection of ourselves. For me, it was a childhood dream. As much as possible, I try to collect the cars that I dream about. It is a hobby for me, that is right. At the same time, it's an escape point allowing me to get out of the hustle and bustle of everyday life and relax my mind. On the other hand, there are businesses that I have established with my partners due to this automobile curiosity of mine in the automotive sector, and we have achieved successful results in these initiatives in a short time. I have never believed in my life that a person can maintain his life blindly for the sake of earning money, I have always taken the topics that are within my area of interest to my business life and enjoyed being engaged in business profoundly. I consider it a way of living my life rather than a luxury. For this reason, we pay attention to the fact that the cars we have added to our collection from the past to the present represent our style and philosophy of life.
As the Turkish nation, we are very fast in adapting to new technologies. Turkey has quickly entered this ecosystem. The Central Bank of Turkey publishes researches on this issue, employs staff specialized in this issue, 11. Blockchain technologies are referred in the Presidential Development Plan. Therefore, we see meaningful steps to understand and use blockchain technologies from both market participants and authorities, and for these reasons, we think that the future of the Turkish crypto-currency sector is very bright.
As Kutay Group, you have also established a new industrial design company.
Goa Design Factory is one of our investment areas that have the faith the most. We see a design philosophy and meaning creation behind successful brands that produce for retail. Especially the understanding of people-oriented design plays an important role in the competition of brands. Design is the embodiment of the produced meaning.
With reference to this vision, Goa Design Factory is a design office that makes difference while satisfying the concept and industrial design needs suitable for the brand identities of initially Turkish manufacturers.
GOAdf has already succeeded to crown its successful designs with international awards. It was awarded the Interior Architecture Innovation Award by the Iconic Awards 2021, given by the German Design Council.
We also would like to mention your Adus Motorsports Racing Team. You have a mixed team of experienced, young, female, male pilots.
When established, Adus Motorsport had two main goals; first, to contribute to the Turkish automotive sector in a professional framework, and second, to support the formation of physical and academic conditions necessary for their training by offering equal opportunities to Turkish athlete candidates who will do credits to all of us.
In the first year of its establishment, this year we managed to be a leading racing team in the Turkish Rally Championship, and we again took the lead in the drivers ' standings. In addition, at the World Rally Championship last September, our pilots Yağız Avcı and Onur Vatansever duo took the podium and came in third world in the WRC3 category. Now our desire is to reflect our sporting success on other motor sports as well and to form our Motor Sports Academy as soon as the pandemic conditions come to an end and reach out to talented, smart, agile and faithful athlete candidates all around Anatolia and help them achieve success internationally by contributing to the reputation of the Turkish Motor Sports.
How do you maintain your motivation?
In truth, the only and most important thing that motivates me to live is the time I can spend with my wife and children. Work is of course important but it is important to remember that things that we need to maintain a quality life are values such as health and family that we cannot buy with money.
During the pandemic, our consumption habits and our daily routines have changed. What do you think is the new definition of luxury?
We can call this period of time the “period of confrontation”. People have been undergoing a mental confrontation where they seek values that matter in sooth by looking at what they have lost. I do not know to what extent it will be accepted to transfer into a sharing economy after a period of time that allows manufacturing technologies to personalize consumption products to this degree but many current personalized means of usage will become invaluable and a sharing economy aimed at only needs will be created at the end of a confrontation process when 'new valuable things' will be explored.
Is there any advice that guides you in your private and professional life?
I think the person who is the most important value that the Turkish nation has is Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and I confront more things to be inspired as I read more about his life. His words “We don't need anything but only one thing; to be hardworking!” are the highest source of motivation for me. No matter what challenges we face, we have no chance of getting through them without working and producing.