Keeping Up the Momentum and Achieving Superior Success with OKR

A new step in preparing for the future of work: OKR strategic business management tool

In the past weeks, we held an event with our executives and employees at Y?ld?z Holding, which we deem highly significant for the road toward the future of work. As part of this “2023 OKR Meeting” we had in the next-generation office Just Work, we elaborated on the next steps of the strategic business management tool OKR (“Objectives and Key Results”), the foundations of which we laid back in 2021. Following this very efficient meeting, I wanted to share some basic information about this topic on which I place particular importance in line with our Holding-wide mission of leading the change. I also wish to touch upon the significance of our transition to this tool in terms of our business.

I shared a quote by Paulo Coelho at our OKR meeting. He says, “When I had all the answers, the questions changed.”?Today, we are going through a radical transformation on a global scale -both in our personal and professional lives. In the last few years, the impact of rapid and unexpected changes occurring in many fields has brought about a strong sense of uncertainty in our vision of today and tomorrow. And this, in turn, gives rise to a need for new solutions and ways in various fields, from personal choices and communication language to our methods and tools of doing business.

Driven by our strong sustainability focus at Y?ld?z Holding, we have prioritized the topic of preparing for the future of work on our agenda for many years. As an institution making the best of technology and aiming to go beyond just adapting to change by leading it, we implement comprehensive efforts in this field. This perspective guides our practices to transform our ways of doing business and the systems we adopt. As paradigms rapidly shift one after another globally, we take pioneering steps to ensure the sustainability of the benefits we enable for the people, society, and world, as well as the sustainability of our success and growth. Of course, we need a way of doing business and systems that are open to change so that we can answer changing questions as we find the answers concerning our business. That is why we focus on the systems that can develop solutions for future needs.

One of these is the strategic business management tool OKR, which we consider an instrument supporting our leadership goals and enhancing momentum and focus as we conduct our operations. OKR can be summarized as a system that boosts performance, makes everyone’s contribution to shared achievements clearly visible, and enables sustainable and improvable success. Devised by Andy Grove, the former President of Intel, and popularized by the author John Doerr’s book “Measure What Matters” later on, this tool is adopted by many world-leading companies today.??

We are happy with the results we have achieved on our OKR journey that began in 2021 at Y?ld?z Holding. We observe that this methodology does contribute to each of the four topics referred to as the superpowers of OKR by John Doerr in this book: focus, alignment, tracking, and stretching.

Our Chair Ali ülker said in a recent message to our executives, “As leaders, we should focus on the essence of business with our teams.” And, as Y?ld?z Holding Board Member Murat ülker highlighted in his?blog post, “The higher the targets, the higher the performance!” ?OKR increases efficiency, productivity, and employee satisfaction through specific, measurable, time-bound, challenging, and transparent targets. Offering a solution to the focus, coherence, and participation issues that organizations face, this methodology cultivates an innovative perspective across the company, helping them turn their strategic plans into results.

More than a performance management system, OKR is a strategic business management tool that includes this aspect. By setting forth the tactics through which an organization, a team, or individuals can reach their targets, it facilitates achieving goals using key results. It enables team members to focus on common goals and connects all the targets that serve each other while making everyone’s contributions visible. OKRs, which cover the entire organization, contribute to establishing a team possessing more and better competencies at the end of each period than at the beginning. Thus, the OKR system enables an efficient leadership and employee profile that is ready for transformation and the challenges of a new period and capable of developing and improving itself.

Encouraging an innovative perspective, OKRs enable employees to set their own targets in line with company strategies. Thus, they find meaning in them and engage in target-focused brainstorming. The fact that targets work in both directions creates an opportunity for employees to reflect their creative ideas on their targets, resulting in a significant increase in employee satisfaction, loyalty, and motivation. Designed for creating ambitious and inspiring targets, OKRs aid in business growth and efficient management of opportunities by driving innovation through their challenging nature. They enable self-managing business teams guided by previously set targets on the way toward a company that has built its competitive strengths.

I believe strategy and setting the right goals are keys to the success of this system which contributes to our goal of ensuring continuous improvement and establishing fair and transparent work environments. Challenging and synergy-boosting shared goals, organizational harmony in connection with strategic plans, regular performance monitoring, and ongoing communication… These are our musts for maximizing the efficiency of OKR, which we are gradually implementing in all Y?ld?z Holding companies, always aiming for the better.

As we highlighted in our meeting where we addressed our goals for 2023, we will build business teams that self-manage in line with common goals and eliminate the ranks between those who do the work and the leaders at Y?ld?z Holding, with the support of OKR. Believing this step taken with the strength enabled by our innovative corporate culture, the vision of “Investing in People,” and agile structure will yield significant positive results, I wish it brings the best for all of us. On this occasion, I would like to once again extend my thanks to everyone who contributed to our meeting.