On the fourth-year anniversary of Enerjisa Üretim’s (a power generation and trade business) independence from the highly profitable market leader Enerjisa Enerji (an energy distribution and retail business) and becoming a stand-alone company jointly owned by Germany’s E.ON and Turkish conglomerate Sabancı Group, the CEO of Enerjisa Üretim (hereafter Üretim)– Ihsan Erbil Bayçöl, could not be any prouder.
Only four years ago, Üretim was in dire financial shape, almost teetering on the brink of failure. During the first six months of 2017 preceding the demerger, Üretim had posted a net loss of €114 million. This was the third loss making year in a row, and unlikely to be the last. Then there were the chronic operational problems in its plants, which were partly due to design deficiencies and construction problems, a shortage of technical skills, as well as years of operational mismanagement and top management’s prioritization of the lucrative Enerji over Üretim. Üretim had been a captive supplier to Enerji and had never had to acquire customers nor face market competition. As a result its organizational DNA did not include a sharp performance focus nor aggressive market competencies. Following the demerger, the company would have to operate independently in a highly competitive market and the market outlook was grim to say the least.
Thus, for Üretim’s new management team, the road ahead was filled with seemingly insurmountable financial, operational, and strategic obstacles and dramatic market challenges, culminating in the very real risk of failure. In fact, even in the ranks of management there was little confidence in the future of a stand-alone Üretim. Many senior executives actively campaigned during the demerger to join Enerji instead – the star division of the former integrated company. Yet what transpired in the next four years is nothing short of an epic story of transformation containing many critical lessons. A young, visionary leadership team was adamant not to go down without a real fight, snatching the company from the brink of extinction and in the process transforming it into a sector leader with immense growth prospects. Today Üretim boasts the strongest balance sheet in its sector, pays dividend to its shareholders, owns the top performing power plants by key operational metrics, commands the most innovative portfolio of energy services, is heralded as the digital leader in its sector and through aggressive expansion across Southeast Europe, is on the verge of becoming a regional trading powerhouse.