Murat Agabeyoglu, has close to twenty years of professional banking experience under his belt. He moved to Moscow from Turkey only two years ago, to become President and CEO of GarantiBank-Moscow. But he feels very much at home here: Russia and Turkey have a long history of economic and cultural ties. He spoke with The Leader about the work and the philosophy of GarantiBank, his career and the importance of balancing work and private life in order to become a successful person.

GarantiBank-Moscow was listed by business weekly Kommersant-Dengi as one of Russia’s ten most profitable banks as of the end of the first quarter of 2001. Murat Agabeyoglu has been President and CEO of GarantiBank-Moscow has the enviable role of leading the bank to further success.

How did you come to work in the banking sector?
As you know, this bank is based in Turkey: GarantiBank in Moscow is a 100 percent-owned subsidiary of Turkey’s GarantiBank. I graduated from the University of Ankara with a degree in political science and my area of specialization was economics and finance. My university usually feeds these levels of financial bureaucracy in the Ministry of Finance, the board of auditors or the Treasury, where they have a special board that supervises banks.

I applied to T. Is. Bank, one of the largest banks in Turkey in terms of asset size. After numerous exams and interviews, I was accepted into the bank’s board of auditors as an assistant auditor. I was a 23-year-old young man. Two years later, I received an invitation from ABN-AMRO Bank in Istanbul, so I took the position and stayed there for eight years. Basically, my job was in operations management. Operations management takes care of almost everything in the bank, except for IT and marketing. After ABN-AMRO, I made the latest stop in my career — GarantiBank.

How many years ago was that?
That was in 1993. My career spans almost twenty years in total: two years at T. Is. Bank, eight years at ABN-AMRO and nine years at GarantiBank. I started in GarantiBank’s head office in Istanbul as a head of a department called “general directory of treasury planning and operations.” I worked in Istanbul for three years, and when our Luxembourg branch needed a manager, I was posted there. Luxembourg is still one of the best-known financial centers. It has only 400,000 residents and 205 banks. In January 1999 I came to Moscow within the Garanti group, becoming the chief executive officer and a board member of our bank.

Russian legislations prohibit foreign banks from opening branches, although a bank can create subsidiaries. GarantiBank-Moscow is a Russian bank, no different than Alfa Bank, Guta Bank or Sberbank.

Is it difficult to be a Turkish businessman in Russia?
No, it’s not. There can be some benefits and privileges, if you can use them correctly. Turkey and Russia have been partners for years, and they share many things in common: history, cultural ties, and, of course, economic relationships. In the very early years of the Republic of Turkey, the U.S.S.R. was first to recognize it. And the first industrial enterprises or corporations were largely built with the assistance of the U.S.S.R. We have good ties; plus, geography makes us very close. But business is an international concept, which doesn’t have just one language, flag or nationality.

Are there any other offices of GarantiBank besides the Moscow office? Are there any plans to expand?
GarantiBank-Turkey has had its representative office here since 1987. In 1995, the full general-licensed bank came to Moscow. At the moment, Moscow is the bank’s only location in the Russian Federation. Of course, there are plans to expand. From time to time, the Garanti group looks very carefully into them. For example, immediately after the 1998 financial meltdown, both we and the Russian economy performed very well — quite unexpectedly so for the international community or leading analysts.

Was the 1998 crisis a big problem for GarantiBank?
Not compared to some other big banking names, which invested huge sums into some portfolios here. We were more into the real sector rather than portfolio investment. And, as you know, Turkish markets are known as volatile, so GarantiBank has built up an immunity to high volatility.

How do you encourage your employees to perform better?
Just like all companies, we have a book of corporate principles or business ethics which tells us what we need to know about business, the bank and how we see every part of social and business life. It is a kind of code of conduct. The name of our bank comes from the word “guarantee.” We encourage our employees to become members of this Garanti family, and it works. It works everywhere: in GarantiBank-Turkey, which is our parent company, in Luxembourg and now in Moscow. As far as I know from my colleagues, it works in Malta, Dusseldorf and London as well.

Do you see your bank as a family?
Yes, but not in emotional terms. As I said, everything evolves around the business. We delegate a lot of responsibilities. Training is extremely important for us. Even our board’s chairman goes for training every year for at least 14 days. This is average in the bank: lots of hands-on training in policies, management and staffing.

GarantiBank was named one of the Top 10 most profitable banks business weekly Kommersant-Dengi in the first quarter of 2001. How did you manage to achieve this?
We need to know our sources, to predict internal budgeting and future business flows very well. We sit down together with our colleagues, make the budget and then look into it every day to revise it, if necessary. We look into every business process from a productivity and a profitability point of view. For instance, we do not provide services at a loss. We do not subsidize many products for the sake of having them.

You said business doesn’t have a nationality. Is doing business in Russia any different from doing it in Turkey?
Yes, every country has its culture. We all know about it since we operate in this market. But we do not deviate from our principles and, in most cases, we reach a common understanding with our Russian colleagues; that makes us happy because this is a country that will become one of the very strong players in the world economy.

Is there a secret to a successful banking career?
Some people say that success in business is only for those who run after it all the time. I don’t agree with that. I never pursued it in such a way. Real success comes with devotion towards your job. I don’t mean that work should be your entire life — that could be very dangerous. You may be a successful person at the office, but you will definitely be a loser in society. I think that a reasonable level of devotion to the job, a love for what you do, and an expertise in your topic will — under normal circumstances — carry you one step further to success.

How do you balance work and your social life?
One of my bosses once said: “Sometimes I ring you at five minutes past nine and you are not there.” I said, “Look, you know, I like my job, and I also like my life.” These two things don’t always go together. Balancing them is not easy, but it is doable. Delegate enough responsibilities, empower your colleagues, work together with them, share ideas, pick targets and achieve them together. Never work weekends unless there is an emergency. Weekends are for your social life: your family, friends, hobbies and so on.