Yıldız Holding Chairman of the Board of Directors Ali Ülker underlined that in order to attain a place in the future world and in global competition, it is necessary to benefit more from the ideas and energy of the rising generation. Yıldız stated that ‘human’ is at the center of their investments and that they have eliminated the ‘experience’ requirement in recruitment in an attempt to give more room for the young in particular.

Ali Ülker emphasized the significance of equality of opportunity for sustainable growth and said: “We are working under the umbrella of the Women’s Platform in order to make women more visible in all our companies and to provide opportunities for more female employees in administrative positions.”

In his speech at the panel entitled “Preparing for the Future: Next Generation Investments, Solutions and Opportunities” held at the Uludağ Economy Summit (UEZ), Yıldız Holding Chairman of the Board of Directors Ali Ülker said that more attention and equal opportunities must be given to youth in order for Turkey to take the place it deserves in global competition. “One of the most fundamental elements by which we can make a difference in the world has to be to put ‘human’ at the center of all our companies. We need to give more opportunities, especially to young people. We have a young population that adapts quickly and learns quickly. Based on this fact at Yıldız Holding, we have eliminated the ‘experience’ requirement in order to make more room for young people in our companies. We also think that it is extremely important to pave the way for women’s greater participation in the economy. For this reason, under the leadership of Yıldız Holding Women’s Platform, we aim to make women more visible in all our companies and to provide opportunities for more female employees in administrative positions,” Ali Ülker said.

Yıldız Holding increases expertise in data 

Ali Ülker underlined that investments in data science are of great importance for the future of companies and gave information about the projects developed in this field at Yıldız Holding. Ali Ülker said, “Analyzing data correctly is becoming more and more important for companies like us. At Yıldız Holding, we have made important breakthroughs that will add value to our employees in the field of data science. We have increased in-house expertise by bringing together professionals in data science with our company’s middle managers in joint projects. Another project that got us excited about data science was the “Global Data Management Governance” project. Thanks to this project, we want to design the information network and big data of Yıldız Holding’s companies spread all over the world in such a way that they interact with each other. We have created an infrastructure that can closely monitor the performance of Yıldız Holding and its companies, the behavior of the consumers it interacts with, and brand developments. Thus, we will be in a position to make data healthier and manage it with more comprehensive analyzes.” 

 “We should benefit more from science in the agricultural sector”

Ali Ülker stated that it is necessary to focus on long-term plans and projects against global risks in agriculture. “The supply chain that was broken during the pandemic has not been repaired yet. In the face of increasing geopolitical risks in the world, the significance of developing sustainable agricultural production solutions comes to the fore. The world now moves in ‘communicating vessels’. The negative impact of the war in Ukraine on supply chains around the world is the most basic indicator of this. On the other hand, global climate change is increasing its negative effects on agriculture and food production in every way. In order to minimize the risks in agriculture, it is necessary to benefit from science and adopt a more scientific approach. It is necessary to reconsider agricultural policies and to invest more in agricultural technologies,” he said. 

“We focus on R&D projects in domestic seeds”

Ali Ülker stated that they are constantly investing in smart agriculture practices in line with Yıldız Holding’s strategy of focusing on food and retail, and added: “We are going through a period in which agricultural technologies are gaining weight in the world. Harvest forecasting with data mapping in agriculture, smart irrigation applications, monitoring of soil with satellite data, land classification with image processing, drone applications are among these technologies. At Yıldız Holding, we develop projects for domestic seed development on top of agricultural technologies like these. With Aliağa, our domestic wheat development project, we are focusing on exactly this issue and we are focusing on R&D studies in the coming period in order to develop new high-quality wheat varieties.”