From Continuity To Sustainability

duce this product or provide the following service or that you will focus
on quality, etc. When Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Cor-
ruption are added to the pledges, the matter also becomes about how your
firm generates income. Principle 1 of the Compact states that “Businesses
should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed
human rights”; in principle 3 it is further set out that “Businesses should
uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the
right to collective bargaining”. Principle 7 states that “Businesses should
support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges” and that
“Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including ex-
tortion and bribery” represents the 10th principle.

The Global Compact is a turning point in the history of sustainable de-
velopment. In addition, it acts as a compass for business in that it clearly
shows what needs to be done by converting the issue from the macro to
the micro level.

While writing my thesis, I remember asking myself why it was necessary
to put these principles in place. It seems there is a risk that businesses
will not comply so the UN obliges companies to make a firm commitment.
Without observing these principles, a company can maintain its continuity
and survive diverse crises. But will it be sustainable? Never! Therefore, the
first step that a company takes towards sustainability is to join the Global
Compact and strictly abide by its principles; that is to keep its word and
stand behind its signature.

Owing to my curiosity and interest in the subject, after each sustainability
report that was published in Turkey, I kept thinking about why our firm
wasn't writing something similar. Of course, the main purpose should go
beyond simply penning a sustainability report and the latter needed to
catalogue what had been done in the company in order to reveal the rela-
tionship between the report and our corporate sustainability vision. At the
same time, I was aware that in addition to what had been achieved so far,
the opinions of stakeholders other than company employees needed to be
sought on further actions required to create an effective corporate sustain-
ability infrastructure. Therefore, all that I had done up until that point was

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simply to collect data and reconcile it with our business model to ensure it
aligned with our sustainability vision in the light of it.

The corporate sustainability approach should be built on an already exist-
ing foundation in the firm so as not to contradict the firm's operations in
the first instance. I could easily perceive the relationship between corpo-
rate sustainability and the foundations on which the firm was established.
In fact, although the principles that had kept us afloat for nearly 45 years
were not obviously stated, they were in line with corporate sustainabili-
ty. However, it did not seem possible for us to achieve the sustainability
awareness that I was aiming for with the few company employees who
were able to perceive the relationship in part but imperfectly. Therefore,
my first task was to allocate 6-12 months to ensuring that sustainability
was understood fully. I began by sharing articles from some of the litera-
ture that I regularly follow on the subject - EkoIQ Magazine, Dunya News-
paper's Sustainability Corner, and MIT Sloan Management Review - with
the team. Curiously, however, after scanning and emailing these articles, I
was not receiving any feedback. The people I talked to said that they had
too much work to do and had not had time to look over them, changing
the subject whenever I asked. I tried a different approach by sending the
articles, again but this time underlining the important parts and adding
notes. I sent them first thing in the morning or at around five thirty, close
to the end of the working day. I succeeded in having a limited impact, re-
alizing that these carefully selected articles caught the attention of at least
a few employees. This was not enough, so I began writing articles on sus-
tainability myself. One, “Business, Ethics and Sustainability from Enron to
Volkswagen” published in the December 2015 issue of Harvard Business
Review Turkey had a serious impact on furthering a better understand-
ing of sustainability.28 The concepts that the article highlighted under the
headings of ‘profit pressure, continuous growth targets, unfair competi-
tion, ethical egoism and money as the only form of measurement’, were
things that I encountered in our sector and in my experience, were very
familiar indeed. As a manager, it was natural that my views on these issues

28 Dr. Izel Levi Coskun, ibid.

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also reflected the general point of view of our firm. Sustainability was new
for most of our employees and this fact appeared to be preventing their
perception that ongoing habits that were part of our firm's culture, were
directly related to corporate sustainability. For example, almost no one re-
alised that our principles on the ban of talent transfers from our competi-
tors during the peak season or refusing to compete solely on price, which
are matters of professional ethics, are also directly related to corporate
sustainability. To create this awareness, I decided to:

1. Share instructive articles and videos on sustainability, including my
own work;

2. Allocate time to sustainability in company meetings;
3. Invite senior company employees to external conferences and sem-

inars on sustainability;
4. Provide brief notes on sustainability to company employees who

came to consult me on different issues;
5. Use methods such as inviting speakers to give presentations on sus-

tainability.

These are some of the actions that spring to mind and provide an insight
into the steps I took immediately. When I look back, of course, there are
other things that I wish I'd done better. I could have shared more visual
content about sustainability; I could have brought up different issues that
might seem unrelated to corporate sustainability at first but are relevant
to our lives, such as sustainability's close relationship with gender equal-
ity, human rights, social justice and ethics; or I could have arranged a few
in-house seminars to promote discussions of the relevant literature, in-
cluding articles I have written myself.

Decision Phase

One of my biggest goals was to measure the impact of what is achieved
in the name of sustainability and to track different kinds of progress. But
apart from a few metrics such as average years of employee experience,
our employee retention percentages, the number of female employees, the
total hours spent on supported NGOs, the number of trees we plant each

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year, and our paper consumption, all I had to go on was the information
that we had two employees studying the subject: one was taking a masters
degree, the other a doctorate in sustainability.

Meanwhile, I was consuming all the sustainability reports that I could get
my hands on. The thought of actually writing one was giving me sleepless
nights. As I read reports from other companies, I became increasingly con-
cerned that the writing process was going to be very difficult for us and that
we were probably not ready for it. In my role as CEO I knew about the con-
cept of sustainability and was wholeheartedly sold on its necessity, but how
many of our managers shared the vision of building a solid foundation by
preparing this report? How could I demonstrate to our managers the clear
relationship between our work and sustainability? How ready were our em-
ployees, the first of our stakeholder circles, for sustainability reporting?

While I was thinking about these questions, we were also making a serious
effort to push on with the four main targets we had set at our most recent
general assembly: ‘focus on quality, access to foreign clients, increased pro-
ductivity and brand reputation’.

The countdown to the Paris COP 21 meeting had begun and many countries,
including Turkey, were preparing by deciding policies and the kinds of com-
mitments they would make. When the meetings began, I watched the news
from Paris intently. Despite diverse views, I felt the meetings had not pro-
duced the intended outcomes. I asked myself “Why do we have to wait for
someone to do something? Not getting the outcome you wanted on the mac-
ro side shouldn't prevent you from taking micro steps.” This logic showed
me that there was no point in waiting any longer. I had made my decision. As
CEO, I would place ‘corporate sustainability’ at the top of my agenda and act.

When I have to take difficult decisions, I make the announcement in writing
so that, like the legend of Tariq bin Ziyad, there is no turning back.29 Once the
decision is communicated to all employees for their evaluation, afterwards

29 As the legend goes, Berber Umayyad commander Tariq bin Ziyad ordered that the ships in which
he sailed to Gibraltar during the conquest of Spain in 711–718 AD be burnt, to prevent any coward-
ice from his men.

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we can begin to implement it with confidence. I followed the same route for
corporate sustainability.

1. Formalising the decision: First of all, I delivered the decision in writ-
ing. I had two goals here: the first to ensure that the management units
in the firm were aware of the issue. The second was to to announce the
decision so that there was no possibility of going back or giving up on it.

2. Creating a support team: I approached Professor Dr. Guler Aras at
Yildiz Technical University for help because she is one of Turkey's most
prominent experts on corporate sustainability. She agreed to support us
without hesitation because she knew how much I believed in and valued
this cause. After getting her buy-in, I brought together the managers in
Human Resources, Marketing and Budget Planning to form the first core
staff of our sustainability team.

Planning

At our first meeting, we produced a plan to create priorities and deadlines.
The most important decision of our kick-off meeting was setting a date
when we would sign the Global Compact. Also, to complete this quite diffi-
cult report, we needed to put together a team that understood the subject
and could gather the information we needed for the report from our offic-
es located throughout Turkey. I assumed responsibility since I was the one
at our firm who knew most about the subject. Though it was customary
and generally the preferred option, I did not like the idea of having the

bulk of the work done by a third party. That's why I chose to take part in

the team and be present at every stage. I also insisted that we prepare the

report strictly according to GRI430 because it was the most up-to-date ver-
sion of the Global Reporting Standards. Of course, while the report was be-
ing prepared, I had to continue my management responsibilities without
interruption and in the midst of existing economic problems. Although the
path of corporate sustainability lies in balancing economic returns with

30 Global Reporting https://www.globalreporting.org/ (February 2022)

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environmental and social impacts, an economic failure that might occur
during the reporting period could also affect the course of the report.

Professor Aras thought that if we were able to set up the infrastructure
quickly, the report could be written in a few months. I on the other hand,
favoured delaying the signature date as long as possible and making as de-
tailed a plan as was feasible because I wanted the report to be exemplary.
Also, I was uneasy at being unable to reliably estimate how much time I
needed to devote to the project and felt under pressure to make sure that
the firm's performance did not fall off, particularly during this period. This
is why I was constantly trying to read the GRI4 standards, distribute the
tasks within the team and come up with an estimated time plan. “As a ser-
vice sector company, how many of the standards will we be able to provide
information on?” and, “will the information we provide be sufficient for
the content of the report?”. Questions such as these were a source of great
concern.

When I saw the progress I wanted to achieve was beyond my grasp, I real-
ized that the process would not begin properly until we signed the Global
Compact and pressed the button. I had the ten Global Compact articles and
the Sustainable Development Goals on the UN Global Compact website on
the screen before me as I listened to Professor Aras. It was she who finally
convinced me to start by signing, instead of preparing everything before
the signing. "Then let's get the ball rolling," I said. The website outlined
three steps for joining UN Global Compact:

1. Reading the online application guide,
2. The tasks for the CEO were;
i) Compliance with the Compact’s ten principles,
ii) Alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals,
iii) Signing the letter to commit to annual progress reports,
3. Filling out the online application form and uploading it to the web-

site alongside the digital commitment letter.

We completed the tasks in two days, and pressed ‘go’ on April 1, 2016, with
an immediate announcement to all our employees that we had signed.

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Establishing the Sustainability Team

One of the most important goals was to ensure that everyone in our firm
understood the direct link between the work they did and sustainability. I
always highlight the following in my speeches: “The slightest mistake we
make in the disclosures we prepare, the certification reports we sign, and
the independent audits we give our opinion on will also mislead the or-
dinary citizen at the far end of our value chain. That's why we should be
aware of the grave social responsibility we bear when carrying out our
profession, in which our duty is to seek the truth. This awareness makes it
necessary to prioritize people, not money.”

I recognised that raising this awareness would mean undertaking a seri-
ous and challenging process. And I couldn't accomplish this alone. That's
why I established a roadmap for building the sustainability team on a
'master-apprentice' structure. First of all, I would train everyone joining
the team. Those I trained would in turn provide training to new colleagues.
Our core team included me, Professor Aras and our HR manager, an HR
assistant and the manager of the Marketing and Communications de-
partment. In the first phase and together with Guler Aras, we gave them
a brief training on sustainable development and corporate sustainability
and explained the Global Compact and Sustainable Development Goals.
We provided suggestions for books and articles on these topics. Then, we
encouraged reading of domestic and foreign sustainability reports by giv-
ing examples from different business areas and also from our own sector.
We studied, assessed and discussed these reports. We focused on the lat-
est standard, GRI4, by examining the progression of reporting standards
through reports written in different periods. Professor Aras's books and
my doctoral thesis in which I had reviewed different sustainability reports
published in Turkey, were useful resources too. All this took a few weeks.
We added our Budget and Planning department manager to the team after
members were happy that they had reached a certain level, so they could
learn which resources to use and how, and so that the manager of this de-
partment could obtain a smattering of knowledge on the subject. The job
of educating our new team member fell to the other members of the team
and not to Professor Aras and myself. Time was passing and we kept meet-

105

ing every week. Of course, the time I had begun to dedicate to these meet-
ings within our firm had started to be noticed. This was when we encoun-
tered the greatest difficulties on our journey. Senior executives said, “Why
does our CEO place such importance and give such priority to this issue
when our workload is so heavy and there are so many serious problems in
our country; wouldn't it be more sustainable if he spent his time getting us
a new client or two instead of wasting it on these meetings?".
On the other hand, I was also aware that colleagues in different depart-
ments were wondering what we were doing. Seizing this opportunity, we
announced that we would take a representative from each department to
join our team. We selected participants from management and lower lev-
els. I realized later that I had made two mistakes. First of all, I allowed our
meetings to be optional, on condition of being excused in advance and in
exceptional cases such as health, and emergency departmental meetings,
as I thought our meetings would be fully attended. Secondly, I failed to
speak to the department heads about the importance of this task in order
to request them to smooth the way for participation. Since I overlooked
these two critical steps, participation gradually decreased due to constant
excuses. I later realized that several senior executives often refused to al-
low staff to attend our meetings, saying that their daily work was more
important. This demonstrates how important it is for the C-suite to have
full buy-in and adopt this vision if sustainability is to be fully integrated
into the company.

Stakeholder Surveys

During the compilation of the report, the stakeholder surveys and the
assessments of results took up the most time. I say surveys because we
divided the stakeholder survey into two and combined the results later.
Given that our firm's main stakeholders are our employees, we conducted
the first survey with them. We sent the second survey to other stakehold-
ers such as clients, suppliers, regulatory bodies, professional chambers,
non-governmental organisations and universities.

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We had two main goals:

1. To formulate action plans tailored to employees in different depart-
ments, levels and offices according to answers given to questions
such as the department they worked in, their experience, level of
seniority and demographic information.

2. To check the compatibility of our firm's identity and image by com-
paring the results of the surveys we conducted with our employees
with the results of other stakeholders.

Although most of the questions were the same in both versions, at the end
some demographic questions such as “In which department and for how
many years have you been working? What is your total work experience?”
were only in the employee questionnaire.

With this survey we wanted all of our stakeholders, especially our employees:

1. To know that they were a part of Mazars Denge's future strategy,
2. To feel that they had a direct role in the decisions we made while

determining our priorities,
3. To ensure that our employees could see the link between their work

and sustainability.

Our survey consisted of six main parts:

1. An annotated introduction in which we set out the ten articles of the
Global Compact with the introductory letter,

2. The first section measuring the survey participant's general knowl-
edge of sustainability,

3. Questions to determine priorities in the creation of Mazars Denge's
corporate sustainability strategy (In this section, we also included the
Sustainable Development Goals, which we planned to focus on),

4. Questions about the actions to be taken for the determined priorities,
5. A single open-ended question to describe in three words how

Mazars Denge is perceived,
6. Questions relating to demographic information.

It took about two months to prepare the questions. It also took a few days
to write the e-mail to be sent out with the questionnaire. When I review

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my e-mails on the subject, I can see how much correspondence there is
between the sustainability team and our marketing department, how we
have gone through each and every question multiple times and that we
have gone outside the sustainability team to check the finished product.
But despite the effort, I can say that it was definitely worth it.

Assessment of Initial Results and Prioritization Analysis

The most striking outcome of the survey was that employee development
and satisfaction was selected as the most important element that our em-
ployees and other stakeholders thought should be the focus of our firm's
strategy. Commitment to values, compliance with corporate governance
principles and creating sustainable income appeared to be other issues
that we needed to prioritize. Another noteworthy outcome lay in the an-
swers we received to open-ended questions. The words “reliable, ethi-
cal, high-quality and boutique”, which recurred in the answers given by
employees and stakeholders clearly proved how well Mazars Denge's
corporate identity matched its image. These results threw up two highly
sensitive issues that needed to be handled as a priority. The first was the
commitment to the values that have sustained Mazars Denge for over 40
years, and the second was that our people - who have claimed these values
as their own for almost half a century and who would project them into
the future - were able to develop themselves and be satisfied at our firm.

It was very important for everyone who participated in the survey, espe-
cially our employees, to feel themselves to be a part of the sustainability
strategy we were implementing, in order to take the next steps harmoni-
ously and as one. We combined the survey results from their raw form,
turning them into a presentation. Afterwards, we shot a video in which I
gave a ten-minute summary of the presentation. We uploaded this video
onto the Vimeo platform and shared it with everyone in the company. We
also translated it into English and sent it to all our other stakeholders.

We conducted our analysis by grouping our priorities into three clusters
according to the first phase answers. You can see these results in Figure 12.
Here we illustrate how we drew a prioritization matrix. Afterwards, we met

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with department managers and discussed how to create an action plan and

what steps to take based on answers from the survey. Initially, we focused

on setting measurable goals for outcomes. At the moment, we are trying to

update the performance evaluation criteria for all our employees, including

myself, along these priorities so as to achieve these goals. Work has been
helped greatly by the fact that internal and external stakeholders showed
almost exactly matched results, as was the case with our open-ended sur-
vey questions.

As seen in Figure 12, employee development and satisfaction come out on
top. Both our internal as well as our external stakeholders emphasize that
we, as a services sector firm, need to devote the utmost care to ensuring
employee satisfaction. In other words, external stakeholders are advising
us to take care of our employees so they can continue to add value to them.

They are absolutely right. In second place is the issue of compliance with

corporate governance principles. There are four indispensable matters for

any company that adopts a corporate governance approach -responsibility,

accountability, transparency and fair management. Thus we designed our
model using corporate governance principles as the first step to forming
a solid foundation for the model. Both internal and external stakeholders

FIGURE 12

Stakeholder preference OTHER ISSUES TO BE TRACKED IMPORTANT

Corporate Generating Sustainable
Volunteering Income

Innovation Compliance with Corporate
in Services Governance Principles
Offered
Commitment to Values

Gender Equality Intrapreneurship Employee
Satisfaction

Global Warming Work - Life
Global Concerns Balance

Institutional effects and impact on work performed

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directed our attention to 'commitment to values' as being important and
this became our third priority. Our people working at management level
over the years, as well as those clients who have been serviced by Mazars
Denge for a long time, know quite well that the secret of our success does
not lie in being a big brand or because we have the support of international
capital. The chief reason for our 40-year longevity is that we have never
compromised on our values. That's why we place our values at the centre
of the business model we have created. As a for-profit company, of course
income is among our top priorities.

But the sustainability of this income is directly related to the ten princi-
ples that I elaborated on in the first part of the book. We reflected this as
'responsible income' in our model. Moreover, given that income genera-
tion was not the top choice for either internal or external stakeholders, the
analysis results suggest that some issues are indeed valued more highly
than money in our firm. It goes without saying that I am extremely pleased
with this result.

While prioritizing, we came up with the idea of taking advantage of the
New Year's celebrations to decide which Sustainable Development Goals
we would choose and how, by including our employees in the process as
well putting questions to them in the survey. We designed Christmas or-
naments with each SDG written on the front, placing them beside a Christ-
mas tree at the entrance of the New Year’s Party venue. We asked our em-
ployees to hang these ornaments on the tree by choosing those SDGs they
were interested in or cared about. This served the dual purpose of rais-
ing awareness in the company about Sustainable Development Goals and
helping us determine the most popular goals for our employees. We have
also provided a space at the back of these Christmas decorations where
people could record their wishes. This was one step towards realizing the
wishes and goals of our employees in their personal lives and for the ben-
efit of their community.

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Employee Satisfaction Survey

We as executives are aware that the best way to increase the personal
development and satisfaction of our employees, who are the focus of our

sustainability survey, is to determine the current state of affairs and act
accordingly. We chose a consultancy firm to conduct a company wide sat-
isfaction survey. There are differences in the practices of our regional of-
fices, so we chose Istanbul for the pilot survey. Our intention was to share
the results with all our offices and then jointly plan any required improve-
ments. This allowed our regional offices the time they needed to prepare
for the second survey roll-out to all our offices. The sustainability survey
which resulted in the video message that “our focus is on our employees”
was actually quite consistent with the reason that the employee satisfac-
tion survey was going to be conducted. Furthermore, the fact that our first
course of action had been to conduct a satisfaction survey based on the
results of our sustainability survey had a significant meaning and impor-
tance. Although the questionnaire's format is fairly standard, we added a
few short and open-ended questions at the end of it about how we are per-
ceived on our sustainability work as a firm. We felt the need to emphasize
two points in the email that was sent out jointly by our HR department and

the consultancy company:

1. Our firm can achieve its strategic goals only with the feedback and
support from its employees,

2. An assurance to those surveyed that results would be evaluated by
an independent and expert organisation, and that personal informa-
tion would be kept strictly confidential.

We assessed the results with the managers of all departments and service
units. Some of the deficiencies identified by all parties were the need for
technical training and the development of competencies, improvements in
fringe benefits, and increasing inter-departmental and intra-departmental
communication. On the other hand, the relatively low level of loyalty dis-
played by mid-level employees is endemic to our sector and was thrown up

as a matter that needed resolving in our sustainability vision. Satisfaction

and loyalty varied, which meant we had to take different measures accord-

111

ing to each level. Two other areas also stood out as needing improvement:
the first was brand perception and the second was allowing entry-level
employees to have more authority and initiative in their areas. The fact
that we conducted the employee satisfaction survey immediately after the
stakeholder survey was a good decision, in that it based our decision-mak-
ing on the solid foundations of research and observation. In addition, the
answers we received were very helpful to us in our next steps.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards Assigned to
Members of the Team

We divided the GRI standards content into the following topics amongst
the team:

1. HR department and internal communications issues
2. Marketing and external communications issues
3. Environmental obligations
4. Issues of corporate governance and strategy
5. GRI4 Content Index

The ranking of one to five above was not in any order of importance. Once
we had assigned the tasks, we built an appropriate timeline. By the na-
ture of our business of being a services company, our employees are the
focal point of our model, so it was also normal that human resources is-
sues were central to all our activities. Consequently, our HR manager re-
mained in touch with the other members of the team throughout the pro-
cess. My responsibility was to ensure coordination in communication and
troubleshooting on the sustainability e-mail group that we had set up. I
also assumed responsibility for writing the strategy section in the report,
including the CEO's message, the meaning of corporate sustainability for
Mazars Denge, the sustainability model's source, targets and its corporate
governance structure.

Of course, my task would have to wait until all of the others were com-
pleted and I needed to review all the data we had collected. I set myself
the extra work of determining the short- and long-term future corporate
sustainability goals for each task, and also defined our existing corporate

112

sustainability vision for each. To give an example, I tried forecasting how
to reach a target number of female managers within a few years, basing my
calculations on our actual number of female employees, according to their
job levels and departments. We went on to commit to these projections
directly in our report in order to hold ourselves accountable and obligated.
Our marketing director took on responsibility for issues raised in the cli-
ent satisfaction survey and all activities carried out outside of our firm re-
garding the services that we provide. The collection of information on our
firm’s carbon, energy and water footprint was assigned to our budget and
planning manager, because of their regular contact with our offices. We
tackled the GRI4 Index together, beginning with eliminating those items
that were irrelevant to our firm. Each team member filled in their assigned
section. We sought help from Dr. Guler Aras on anything that was missing.

Designing the Sustainability Model

Designing the model was the subject that challenged me the most. Right
from the start, there were two priority areas:

• That it be comprehensive and easily understood
• That it be measurable

In striving for a comprehensive model, I was aware that I might be asking
for a lot. The model needed to provide the kind of satisfactory infrastruc-
ture discussed at our general assembly in terms of its quality, efficiency,
access to foreign clients and brand reputation. It also needed to build on a
foundation that combined its corporate sustainability vision and integrat-
ed thinking with corporate culture and corporate governance principles,
whilst demonstrating the importance given to employees. In other words,
I wanted each of our employees to be able to say, “I understand what this
brand means and what my role is in this firm". When other stakeholders
looked at this model, they needed to be able to see the 'cause-effect' rela-
tionship for the ties they had with Mazars Denge and feel that they were
partners in the effort to create a common sustainable future through these
ties. Were we able to achieve all of these goals in the model we designed?
For the time being, it would be accurate to say that we have tried to do our

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best, but that I trust I will be able to give you the exact answer after some
time has elapsed.

In terms of measurability, we made sure that the entire model be based on
numerical data, given that improvement is impossible without measure-
ment. But what kind of measurement would be most suitable? Even if we
designed our model, would this prototype be accepted by all, and particu-
larly by the firm's executives?

I recognised that I would not get the answers I needed without getting
senior management's support. We decided to address this with a brain-
storming exercise. We formed four groups and began by showing these
groups examples of sustainability models from different companies. This
was our attempt to show the groups the direction in which we were head-
ing by anchoring their expectations. We reviewed the company targets
and survey results and gave the groups a week to work on them. Next,
we held a brainstorming session on model design which lasted for about
three hours. At the end of this very enjoyable and productive exercise, the
telescope model, in which each lens represents a value, scored the highest.
We drew many good ideas from the different models we looked at, which
we could put to use in our final model.

After this meeting, I took over the design of the model. By collecting all
the data we had gathered, I focused on the writing of the other parts of
the report with our team for about three months. I knew that the writing
would affect the final design of the model. I was constantly thinking about
the model and when I got together with company executives, I shared my
thoughts with them and sought their opinions. I took all kinds of feedback
to share at our sustainability meetings for the team and Professor Aras in
particular to assess. The shape of the model was another matter that I was
puzzling over. Given that the concept of sustainable development necessi-
tates a cyclical structure, I kept imagining the model as a symbol of circu-
lar motion. Every time I explained the subject, I went back to the drawing
board to reshape the model in my mind's eye, new things came up, so I
took notes and saved them for the next time.

114

The model was slowly starting to take shape in my mind. Inspired by the
work we did in groups of four, I placed the basic principles of Mazars Denge
and the values of trustworthy, ethical, high quality, boutique service that
matched the answers given to the open-ended questions from the stake-
holder survey, at the centre of my design of nested circles. These values
were also a component of our brand and reputation. The second circle was
formed by our employees: our most important stakeholder group. This
was followed by the circle of clients, competitors, affiliated professional
associations, public institutions, universities, non-governmental organisa-
tions and also the circle of “other stakeholders” which formed our entire
community. The last and outer circle represented all the many different
economic, social and environmental values created for all corporate stake-
holders. These circles were also placed above our corporate governance
principles of transparency, responsibility, accountability and fair man-
agement, which were ranked as top priorities in the stakeholder survey.
I consider corporate management to be an indispensable and constantly
improving main foundation. It was, therefore, as if values and stakehold-
er circles were placed on this original foundational level. On the second
tier above it, I placed technology and innovation, one of our priorities in
the stakeholder survey. Both of these concepts had to be included in the
model. Of course, the goal here was to be in a position to take a powerful
role in technological changes and lead their applications, rather than be a
follower of tech innovation. I believe that fostering flair is vital to keeping
a company lively with new projects, to increase productivity and to moti-
vate younger generations. My goal is to position our firm to nurture intra-
preneurship by creating an ecosystem that encourages innovation, which
forms another component of this part of the model.

This model envisaged that every activity, be it serving clients or other
stakeholders, would reflect our founding values and would be a continua-
tion of their effects to the circle of sustainable value creation, seamlessly.
One of the most important assumptions was of effective communication
between stakeholders, so appropriate targets had to be determined and
then be accurately measurable. For us, the most accurate method was the
Balanced Score Card (BSC), as it possessed various dimensions. However,

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the sustainability model that we wanted, which was inspired by the work
we had previously carried out with Professor Serdar Pirtini and which we
had designed using the four BSC model headings, needed message integri-
ty. That's why I revised these headings to reflect a corporate sustainability
approach, using ‘responsible income’ instead of 'finance' and ‘client rela-
tionship management’ instead of just 'client'. I made no changes to the ex-
isting ‘employee development and learning organisation’ and ‘processes’.
I was continuing to imagine this model as circular, but I was stuck. I could
think of a rising Ziggurat form, but I could not seem to position the values
with the corporate governance and technology and innovation platforms
in the design at the same time. So I sought help from our graphic designer
Selin Estroti. I briefed her on what we were trying to do, gave her the parts
of the report written so far and asked her to go through it along with ex-
amples of other sustainability models, and the different models that had
resulted from our brainstorming. Finally, I gave her free rein.

FIGURE 13
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Model Name: Nautilus

About two weeks later, Selin came up with the design based on one of the
oldest creatures on earth - a crustacean called ‘Nautilus’. Selin identified
Nautilus, which derives from the Greek for 'sailor' and has survived for
500 million years through its ability to adapt, with Mazars Denge's posi-
tion as one of the first companies in the sector and with the versatility
achieved through its corporate structure. The form of the Nautilus is based
on the belief that just as our values have continued unchanged, they will
be carried forward to the future. She also characterised the robust shell
of Nautilus as the sustainable value created for stakeholders. There is also
a link to Jules Verne's famous 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,'
in which Captain Nemo commands the submarine 'Nautilus', particularly
with the story of the freedom of the seas and interesting discoveries which
Mazars Denge demonstrates through its uncompromising principles of in-
dependence and innovation.

One more interesting feature of the Nautilus is its relationship with the
'Golden Ratio' of 1.618034 in the Fibonacci number sequence. Although
mathematicians have differing views on the relationship between the Nau-
tilus shell and the Golden Ratio, Mazars Denge connects this to our princi-
ple of seeking truth and perfection in everything we do. In Figure 13, you
can find an illustration of the Nautilus model we first used in our 2016
sustainability report.

Preparing the Report's Content

This section became a data merging activity. We incorporated the data into a
written whole. Of course, before we did that, we created the report's content
index. We pulled the main text of the report together, leaving the Chairman's
and CEO's message to be filled in later. By mid-February, our time was run-
ning out and work was hectic. When we realised that the report's design
would not be ready in time, we contacted UN Global Compact Turkey's rep-
resentative to ask for permission to upload plain text initially, followed by
the graphic design version, provided that the content remained the same.
We were granted a two-month extension but decided not to use this option

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instead choosing to push ourselves to the limit. We gathered all of the infor-
mation into a single Word file. We took care to work on the same file which
was complicated as each member of the team worked on their own section
in their own separate files and made their own insertions and amendments
based on the outcome of our meetings. Then, each section went through two
proof-readings, and only after it was checked for spelling was it added to the
main file in order to ensure integrity of the report.
I want to share the CEO's preface to our first sustainability report below.

Dear Stakeholders,

The December 2015 COP 21 meeting was a turning point for us,
laying the groundwork for our firm's push towards readying our
Sustainability Report.

This meeting helped us understand the impossibility of reach-
ing desired goals so long as the level of contribution by individ-
uals remained at a limited, 'micro' scale and states continued to
seek to 'square this circle' at the macro scale.
This understanding paved the way for us to sign the “UN Global
Compact” on April 1, 2016. We initiated our GRI4 reporting pro-
cess in light of the overlap between GRI standards and our val-
ues of putting people first, professional accountability, ethical
behaviour; independence and quality, of our 40-year-old com-
pany, perceived by our peers both as an academy and a pioneer
in the accounting, tax, audit and consultancy sectors, inherited
from Mr. Leon Coskun, founder and Chairman.

We are confident that our commitment to protect professional
and universal values, which have always been integral to busi-
ness activity, along with our rational approach and effort at
self-improvement will carry us forward for another forty years.
We know that it is possible for Mazars Denge to accomplish its
responsibilities to work towards sustainable development goals

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only to the extent that the social and environmental impact of
the value we create for our stakeholders is reported within a
corporate setting.
We believe that the first step in achieving this is to create aware-
ness of sustainability within our firm. The next steps will be:

• Implementation across all processes,
• Defining short, medium and long-term sustainability

goals,
• Accurate measurement, and
• Assuming the role of a sustainability ambassador.

We hope to be able to reap the fruits of these efforts by publish-
ing our first integrated report by 2020 at the latest.

Dr. Izel Levi Coskun, CEO and Corporate Sustainability Ambassador

Checking and Cross-checking the Information gathered -
the Final Proof-reading
We rotated the team in order to read different sections. Each team member
read a section that was different to the one they had been working on, sub-
mitting their comments and ensuring that the person who was heading up
that particular section made corrections as needed. In addition, in order to
have our report checked by an outsider, we had the company from which
we would later receive brand and communication consultancy also read
it. Our marketing director Barlas Hunalp, Guler Aras and I made the final
read through. This is how we completed the text element.

The Chairman of the Board's Message
The day we had been anticipating had finally arrived. We were ready to
share the text of our report with our Chairman Leon Coskun. Although

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Leon Bey had been following our work closely, he had no idea what the
final result would look like. In fact, we had planned for this in advance
because it met two objectives:

1. Gauging how well the report's content aligned with Mazars Denge's
40-year-old founding principles,

2. Enabling our Chairman, who was not on the sustainability team, but
who nevertheless had extensive knowledge of all the issues, to pro-
vide an independent review of the entire report.

It took two days for Leon Bey to finish reading it. He liked the report. He
noted that, not only was the strategy harmonious with our firm's past, but
that it promised to shape our future on the same guiding principles.

We asked him to write an opening introduction. He was a little taken aback,
but immediately accepted. And although the report submission date was
fast approaching, he was kind enough to deliver our introduction within
two days.

Dear Stakeholders,

Heraclitus, who lived in the town of Ephesus in Southwestern
Turkey between 535 - 475 BC famously said, “The only thing
that does not change is change itself!”.
Since humans first stood up on two legs they have contributed
to changing their environment and until now have managed to
make extraordinary efforts to adapt to this changing environ-
ment in order to progress and develop. The fluctuating relation-
ship between the environment and humans is more unusual
and complex than the relationship between the environment
and all other living things.

Humanity has gone through various stages from the ‘hunt-
er-gatherer society’ to the ‘information society’ structure of

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today; gradually becoming today's human, now called "homo
sapiens intellectus".

Sadly however, the prosperity and healthy living conditions that
this progress has made possible has not been shared equally
between different regions and indeed, between people living in
the same region. The environment has also been adversely af-
fected by this progress and been irreparably damaged.

Our economic model of excessive consumption, which is pro-
moted as the engine of progress and development, has turned
into an unsustainable phenomenon that harms our environ-
ment and society; it has thus resulted in the questioning of the
future of our world and humanity.

Today's economists argue that changing this model is now in-
evitable; they are putting forward alternative models and claim
that moving to sustainable economies beneficial to humanity
and which are compatible with the environment is a necessity.

Of course, the implementation of this depends on some essen-
tial reforms at national and international level and upon the re-
vision of state structures. This is outside of our scope and is not
our responsibility. However, as individuals and as companies
we do face an important task. This is to contribute to the effort
to apply this sustainable model in the areas over which we have
influence and to help achieve positive progress by ensuring an
environmental, social and economic balance towards this goal.

Our firm is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It has al-
ways held true to its values, which have formed part of this cor-
porate sustainability approach since its inception.

The report you hold in your hand highlights the importance and
effort our firm places on this approach. In the future, we aim to
increase this effort to contribute to the awareness of sustain-
ability in our country and in the world so that we can help it
become a pattern of generally accepted behaviour.

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My sincere thanks go to our firm's CEO, Dr. Izel Levi Coskun, our
advisor Professor Dr. Guler Aras as well as our 'Sustainability
Committee' and not least of all, to all our employees.

Leon Aslan Coşkun, CPA
Chairman of the Board

Everything was now ready. At least, that's what we thought...

Uploading the Report to the UN Global Compact Site
It had been exactly one year since the UN Global Compact was signed. It
was Saturday, April 1st. Unfortunately, we were down to the wire on our
last day and our Marketing Director Barlas Hunalp had assumed responsi-
bility for uploading the report to the site. We thought it was just a matter of
pushing a button, so we had bought tickets to the theatre that evening and
made plans to meet with friends. While we were at dinner, Barlas called
me. “Izel Bey, in order to upload the report, we have to answer some addi-
tional technical questions. I've taken care of quite a few of them but I think
there are a couple that you will need to look at." I logged on to the web-
site using my mobile phone and started reading through the questions. I
had thought there were a few, I was surprised to find pages and pages of
questions relating to various criteria and their priorities. They included
corporate governance, human rights, employee rights, the environment,
anti-corruption, charity work, women's empowerment and the CEO's com-
mitments, from a forward-looking strategic point of view to control mech-
anisms, from the current policies of the firm to best practice. It would not
be possible for Barlas to complete this very wide-ranging section on his
own. I had to leave my dinner immediately and cancel the theatre.

We could have uploaded the report a day or two later; we had in fact been
given an extension as I stated before. However, we did not want to take

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advantage of this, thinking that given the amount of effort we had put in
already and as we had set a deadline, that we should stand behind the de-
cision to meet it. I called Barlas and asked if I could stop by his house. I also
called up Professor Aras and asked if she was available. Within thirty min-
utes, we were all online and going over the questions. We went through
the questions that Barlas had already answered and the others that re-
mained, one by one. After struggling for two and a half hours, we were able
to finish. I would definitely recommend not leaving this section to the last
minute and even advise keeping these questions to hand while the report
is being written. If I had not mastered the subject and if Professor Aras
had not provided last-minute support that evening, we would not have
been able to give answers in such a short time. By the time we completed
everything and uploaded the report, it was 11 pm. We enjoyed keeping the
promise we made to have finally completed our report, but we couldn't
celebrate that evening due to the stress and fatigue.

Preparing the Communications Infrastructure for the Report

We had a lot in mind regarding how we wanted to communicate the report.
However, due to the intensity of the preparation we could not find time to
plan it exactly as we wanted. That's why the first order of business at our
next meeting following publication was to prepare the communications
plan. We knew that brand perception would be critical; and we needed
an outside perspective. The consultants went through our report, bench-
marking Mazars Denge against our rivals, who are also our stakeholders,
and after reviewing our brand positioning, made suggestions on how to
communicate the report. The most important issue was to communicate
its content really well to our employees, because the external communica-
tion of the report had to be done not only by the marketing department at
management level or by the sustainability team, but by each employee. We
knew that it would be impossible to carry out this communication as we
wanted without them understanding the purpose of the report and assim-
ilating its content, which is why we decided not to move forward before

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we had a printed version and to take the following steps at the completion
of the report:

1. To organize a series of seminars lasting about two hours each, at all
our offices, giving an overview of sustainable development in gener-
al and also the content of our report in sections,

2. To share the content of the report using our social media accounts,
3. To send the Turkish and English editions of the report to our stake-

holders, who had an interest in it, in person with a signed personal
letter from the CEO,
4. To use our sustainability report as the main promotional tool for
Mazars Denge going forward in order to ensure that its content was
satisfactory and to prevent further waste of paper,
5. To provide information about the report at our weekly 'CEO break-
fast meetings' with groups of seven from different departments.

Completing the Graphics

We had the simple text version of the report and we had just been through
a very challenging period. Unfortunately, we had not been able to complete
the content and design at the same time. We knew that without visual-
izing our report in the most striking way, we would not be able to fully
express what had been achieved, so we had to be a little patient. Beyond
simply embellishing the text, we were looking for a language that visually
conveyed us and what we were attempting to do. Even after the concep-
tual work was completed, the chasing down of every detail by our entire
team and the fact that we were able to share what we didn't like with our
graphic designer Selin helped us to find the right visual language we were
looking for.

Three weeks passed. Selin had been about to give birth and had done her
best to finish all the preparations. The graphic design of the corporate
sustainability model had been the most time-consuming part. Our various
schematic and visual expressions were also resolved by Selin's incorpo-
rating botanical motifs and other elements, which bore traces of the Fibo-
nacci sequence in nature, into our report. We were delighted with the final

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result, in which the integrity of the colours and other illustrations, and
their harmonious connection with the design of the model that combined
Fibonacci and Nautilus.

When we received the mock-up we appreciated that it had been worth all
the effort and patience. Selin had read the report in great detail and by
making sense of the content in her fashion, had done a terrific job of vis-
ually reflecting the sustainability bond she established with the narratives.
Our marketing department excelled in the successful completion of this
process. I also believe that the meetings in which I elaborated my vision to
Selin as well as conveying the mission and vision of the firm without tiring
of the subject, were to prove useful. Hearing it from the horse's mouth and
understanding what kind of responsibility the vision of sustainability im-
poses on our firm played an important role in producing a result that the
whole team could get behind. Selin also connected with us at a deeper level
and became a sincere stakeholder who truly understood us.

Final Check of the Report Before Printing

I can say that this was perhaps the most enjoyable of all the steps, because
now we had a tangible booklet. We wanted no mistakes. At this stage, by
chance, we spotted a critical error. We wanted to use our report in im-
portant meetings, so we asked our marketing department to prepare five
digital copies of the report. When we examined the copies, we noticed that
a page was missing. I don't know if we would have had this problem if we
had asked for the final number of copies to be printed, but if we had, I could
never have forgiven myself for wasting a huge amount of paper by printing
the sustainability report incorrectly. Fortunately, we prevented this thanks
to a timely intervention. The marketing department had set a one-week
deadline for printing. In the end, it took us a little more than two weeks.

Communicating the Report

When we started to put together our sustainability announcement, we de-
signed an extensive strategy to reach as wide an audience as possible. We

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tried to make our targets more realistic by spreading them throughout the
year. The main aim was to continuously give our stakeholders, especially
our employees, meaningful sustainability messages, to inspire and raise
awareness without being boring.

In the belief that communication should begin with our employees, we
prepared to go live in our Istanbul office at the weekend when our reports
were coming off the presses. These preparations included decorations,
distribution and e-mail notices. Without changing the main elements of
our office's interior design, we decorated the areas that our colleagues
tend to use the most, the corridors they used often and hung the office
walls with graphs, messages and visuals from the report.

Actually, we even used the empty wall above the photocopier machine
and the space where our coffee cups stood. We began a serious ‘internal
comms’ campaign.

We left a report on everyone's desk so that the first thing they would see
on their desks on Monday morning would be the Mazars Denge Sustaina-
bility Report. We also shared a PDF copy via e-mail in order to make sure
our colleagues who were out of the office at on-site audits or client visits
received their copies too. These three phases formed the first steps of our
in-office communication.

After publication of our report, we started social media sharing through
posts, each containing some particular feature of our report and some
which were completely new designs. Ease of access and diverse communi-
cation channels were two things we focused on. To enable easy access, we
designed each social media post to direct readers to our report. The goal
here was to ensure that our report reached more people. We highlight-
ed Mazars Denge's sustainability vision in the posts. In order to ensure
maximum diversity in platforms, we published all our posts on LinkedIn,
Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus and our Instagram accounts. In addition, we
published on Issuu, a free online publishing platform.

We sent our sustainability report in print and online to all our stakehold-
ers, especially our clients, NGOs, academics, competitors and the public
sector, simultaneously to sharing it with Mazars Denge employees. We

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added a link to our signature under Mazars Denge's tax circular, where our
stakeholders could access our report.

These communication activities took place in Istanbul on 14 June and 21
June 2017; sustainability training workshops were held in Ankara on July
21. At the workshops, Mazars Denge employees were given the opportu-
nity to discuss what sustainability studies would add to their work and
overall perspective, and what should be prioritized when conveying the
report to other stakeholders, in direct conversation with Professor Aras.
In addition, we used each training session as an opportunity to highlight
the agenda of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In order for our employees to grasp the subject more quickly, we arranged
for special photo and video shoots which would be published later. As our
in-office communication and social media sharing continued, we prepared
a mobile app. Our mobile app deployment took longer than expected due
to a series of difficulties in adapting the application to different platforms.
We were able to launch the app at the workshop held at our Ankara Office.
Thanks to our report, we were able to explain that sustainability formed
part of every step we take, in every piece of work we do and in all the firm's
processes; that the values that have carried us from our inception to the
present are at the centre of our corporate sustainability model and that
only our employees can protect and pass on these values to future genera-
tions. In short, using the report, we tried to ensure that everyone working
at Mazars Denge was able to distinguish the link between the work they
do and our corporate sustainability approach. We saw that Mazars Denge
could only fulfil its responsibility towards the Sustainable Development
Goals if the value we created for our stakeholders and our social and en-
vironmental impact could be reported within a corporate structure and
with measurable results. Naturally, at this point, our first and most obvious
achievement was to raise awareness. Our ultimate goal has been to create
sustainable value for all our stakeholders by germinating and growing this
awareness within a corporate framework.

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The Sustainability Reports that Followed

As stated above, first and foremost, we have tried to create an awareness of
sustainability within the firm. I can see that we have achieved this, at least
in part, by publishing our first report. At the very least, most of our em-
ployees found our report tangible and relatable to the work we do. Shortly
before publishing, we began organizing CEO breakfasts for groups of seven
every Friday with the participation of different departments. At these I'm
careful to deliver the following message: “To become aware of sustainabil-
ity is to become enlightened about the bonds that exist not just between us
as people, but also between all other living creatures and inanimate things.

This enlightenment brings with it a serious responsibility that we bear to
future generations. Wherever you work, at this firm or anywhere else, be
mindful of this responsibility and try to apply what you have learned. I
wish each of you to be a sustainability ambassador in your business life.”

In the second of our sustainability reports, our main theme was the respon-

sibility brought about by awareness, and in the third, the need for action.

In this process, instead of repeating the same facts we tried to improve the

report by taking different steps to develop it. We prepared a target and
achievement matrix with our HR department, especially on the Employ-
ee Development and Learning Organisation side. Using this matrix, we set
long, medium and short-term targets. For example, increasing the number
of female managers was a long-term goal, while increasing the number of

training hours per person to forty was a medium-term target. We created

a similar table for our Marketing and Communications department. We

prepared an action plan for client communication and client satisfaction.

We tried to set targets on issues such as increasing the number of foreign

clients, keeping client satisfaction at a 90 percent level and determining an

average service time for clients. The only thing missing was the innovation
section. As we were beginning our second report, Hayriye Ocak, a student
I had met through TUSIAD's 'These Young People Have Potential' (BGIV)
programme joined us. Despite her young age, Hayriye, took on the difficult
task of establishing our ‘intrapreneurship department’, won plaudits from
everyone with her 'ideathons', software training sessions, company-wide

competitions and the international relations she established. She also took

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a role in the sustainability committee, enabling the innovation projects
that were carried out in the firm to be deployed through the lens of sus-
tainability. By enabling different offices to collaborate on innovation, she
helped localise its development in line with the needs of different regions,
rather than keeping it consolidated in a single centre. While carrying out
this work, I noticed that measurement, improvement and goals are some-
times confused, and measurement is often pushed to the back of this list.

The fact that our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) infrastructure falls
short, particularly when it comes to measuring, has placed a great strain
on us all and increased our dependence on people. Speaking for our firm, I
could see that if we were to innovate, our ERP infrastructure would benefit
from localisation, but that it remained important for the system to be cen-
tralised for measurement purposes. In time, the difficulties we continued
to experience set the stage for us to invest in our ERP despite the ongoing
crisis.

However, we also faced a serious human resources crisis during this pro-
cess. This led me to the following realisation. Whatever you set out to do,
when it comes to corporate sustainability, the HR Department is second
in its importance only to having senior management support. No matter
how good your HR manager's technical expertise may be, if he or she does
not possess people skills and is unable to reach out to every level of staff
in the company, then your job will be very difficult. If your first step is
to convince senior management to genuinely believe in integrated think-
ing and a sustainable approach, then surely your second step is to have in
place an HR manager with the competence to disseminate management's
decisions throughout the company's culture. It follows from this that the
third important factor is that your HR manager and the manager respon-
sible for marketing and communications should work well together. This
is because when the sustainability vision is formed, it must fully align with
the company's corporate identity and brand. Given that HR owns the 'iden-
tity' of the company whereas marketing and communications represents
the 'image', a lack of coordination between these two functions will inev-
itably create a disconnect between identity and image. Thus, if you want
to ensure the harmony between, and the effective communication of, your

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activities both inside and externally, remember that the managers of these
two functions should work hand in hand and support each other.

Here, I want to digress slightly and explain how we solved our HR crisis.
Our HR manager Mehmet Eronat was someone who had assimilated our
firm's culture rather well and had distinguished himself in managing our
HR department through his experience and technical knowledge. We were
very pleased with his contribution. However, after working with us for
three years, he stated that he wanted to move to a consultancy position.
Of course, there was nothing to be done in the face of this kind of request.
We were unable to re-establish the working chemistry and the efficiency
we expected with the subsequent HR managers we hired in the two-year
period after he left. Around the same time, I learned that Mehmet intended
to depart from his company but wanted to continue his career as a con-
sultant. Meeting with him, I asked him to consider acting as a consultant to
Mazars Denge and to establish a model that could combine HR restructur-
ing with our corporate sustainability vision. I offered to guide him by using
my own knowledge and expertise with the sustainability side of things. I
told him that he could spend some of his time at Mazars Denge, train the
internal team, and for the rest of his time, he could go on providing HR con-
sultancy services to other potential clients as he wished. I believe that this
has resulted in the creation of a virtuous circle where he can use external
expertise gained for our in-house function, allowing each to feed the other.
So far, all our stakeholders seem satisfied.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

It goes without saying that though preparing a report is an important step
in the corporate sustainability journey, it is definitely not enough. A report
enables you to:

1. Set goals,
2. Give information about targets met and missed in subsequent re-

ports,
3. Create additional benefits such as tying up loose ends in business

operations using a sustainability perspective.

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Perhaps the report's most important outcome was our list of -not simply
financial- KPIs which we presented at the first AGM after publication. We
created a total of 35 KPIs for each of the Mazars Denge Corporate Sus-
tainability Model's four categories of responsible income, employee devel-
opment and learning organisation, client relationship management and
processes.

I would like to share with you the KPIs on two of these: responsible income
and employee development and learning organisation.

Responsible income
1. Net Income / Turnover
2. Stock Turnover Rate
3. Current Assets / Current Liabilities
4. Per Capita Gross Income k Gross Income/ Number of Operational
Employees
5. Per Capita Profitability k Gross Income / Number of Operational
Employees
6. (Social Responsibility Spend + (Sponsorships*0.78)) / Profitability
(SDG 9)
7. Per Capita General Expenses k General Expenses / Total Number of
Employees (Based on Location and Service Unit)
8. Actual / Budget Variance (%)
9. Average Hourly Earnings Per Client

10. (Uncollectible Accounts Expenses + Indemnities Paid + Penalties) /
Total Turnover

11. Pro Bono Service Hours / Total Hours (free consultations given to
NGOs and Universities) (SDG 8)

12. Largest Client's Turnover / Total Turnover (Client Concentration Risk)
13. Per Capita Annual Social Responsibility Hours spent (SDG 8 – SDG12)
14. CO2 Emissions/Tonne per Capita (SDG 12 – SDG 13)
15. Average Per Capita Paper Consumption (kg) (SDG 12 – SDG 13)
16. Average Per Capita Number of Trees Planted (SDG 13 – SDG 15)
17. Per Capita Energy Consumption/kWh (SDG 13 – SDG 15)

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Employee development and learning organisation
1. Ratios of Female, Male and Disabled Employees
(Ratio to Total Employees) (SDG 5 – SDG 10)
2. Staff Turnover Rate (SDG 8)
3. Per Capita Training Hours (Detailing Female, Male, Disabled Em-
ployees) (SDG 4 - SDG 5 - SDG 8 - SDG 10)
4. Per Capita Training Expense per Job Level (TL) (detailing Female,
Male, Disabled Employees) (SDG 4 – SDG 5 – SDG 8 – SDG 10)
5. Number of Female Managers / Total Managers by Level (Manager,
Director, Partner) (SDG 5)
6. Employee Engagement (Based on Level - and on Satisfaction Survey
Results) (SDG 8)
7. Number of Innovative Projects Per Annum (SDG 9)
8. (Partner + Director + Senior Manager Hours) / Total Operational
Hours (Client Service Quality) (SDG 8)
9. Number of Administrative Staff / Total Number of Employees
10. Average Years of Experience in Client Service (Years)
11. Average Years at Mazars Denge in Client Service (Years)
12. Per Capita (University, NGO, Individual) Pro Bono External Training
Given to Third Parties (hours) (SDG 4 – SDG10)
13. Per Capita Average Days of Leave Taken (Total Holiday Used / Total
Workforce) – By Female, Male, Disabled Employees) (SDG 5 – SDG
8 – SDG 10)
14. Per Capita Average Income (Female, Male, Disabled Employees)
(SDG 5 – SDG 8 – SDG 10)

All the data given in the tables above are gathered monthly from our Istan-
bul, Ankara, Bursa, Izmir, Gaziantep and Denizli offices and consolidated
at our general assembly in order to be included in our sustainability re-
ports. Some of these KPIs have their associated Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) next to them. You will note that the responsible income section
comprises both financial and non-financial data. Having collected this data
for three years allowed us to establish the right infrastructure to aid in the
preparation of our integrated report.

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The Integrated Report

The most important factor that prompted us to take the confident decision
to transition from a sustainability report to an integrated report was our
KPI tables. It took almost two years for the data in these tables to be adopt-
ed by different departments and offices. The accurate calculation of carbon
emissions, which forms a rather important component in the tables, was
not at all easy. At the end of each month, our intrapreneurship, reporting
and HR departments worked to automate the collection of the carbon, en-
ergy and water footprint and paper consumption data, and put in extra
working hours to consolidate the information in order to come up with the
per capita consumption numbers.

In addition to being the first of its kind in the industry, the integrated re-
port we published in 2020 also reflected the knowledge and experience of
the first three sustainability reports we had already published. This meant
we were able to use our time more effectively at each subsequent report.

I would like to share with you my preface to our 2020 Integrated Report
below:

Dear Stakeholders,

We face a deadly serious crisis of injustice in the world. I put
the word injustice ahead of the climate crisis because the cli-
mate crisis is an outcome of our unjust attitude towards nature.
In the midst of the crisis of injustice of human against human
and of human against nature, Covid-19 has sounded an SOS to
us all, perhaps to test our awareness and to allow us to turn
from an abyss without too much harm. In the end, will this
turn of events, which has led to our questioning of our irre-
sponsible behaviour and consumption models, and which has
clearly revealed that many things we thought were impossible
can actually be achieved, lead to lessons being learned and a
return to sustainability? Unfortunately, I don't have an answer
to this question on a macro level. However, our current state

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of affairs increases the importance of what can be done on a
micro scale by companies. I note that awareness of sustainable
development is rapidly increasing globally at the same time as
companies are either experiencing difficulty in taking decisions
on corporate sustainability or are indecisive on what action to
take or are slow to act. It is no longer that difficult to determine
whether the value created is actually beneficial or whether it is
only to the benefit of vested interests which then impose their
costs on society and the environment, as communities become
more aware, and the backlash against this begins to spread. For
this reason, I think that it is important to be part of the solution
rather than the problem. We have to be aware that every action
has an environmental and social consequence and measuring
the positive or negative effects of these results must be a de-
cisive cornerstone for every company executive going forward.

At the heart of a sustainability approach lies an awareness of
the bond between all beings. This bond carries relationship and
communication beyond superficial distinctions such as animate
and inanimate, artificial lines drawn by people like borders on a
map and differences in language, religion and race. Melting gla-
ciers in Antarctica, record-breaking temperatures, wildfires in
different continents, or the injustice suffered by a person on the
other side of the world represent our common problems. The
17th Sustainable Development Goal calls for solutions to these
problems through the application of a shared wisdom.

When the subject is considered from the point of view of busi-
nesses, this bond can best be understood and measured through
integrated reporting. By this, I don't simply mean showing fi-
nancial and non-financial data together, but rather that we need
to examine the cause-and-effect relationship between them.

In our first report, which began our corporate sustainability
journey, Mazars Denge's goal was to raise awareness on this
subject. Our second report aimed at assuming the responsibil-

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ity brought on by this awareness. In our third report, we have
focused on the actions we need to take. In this latest report, we
have tried to present the relationship between financial and
non-financial data from a holistic perspective.

I would like to characterize our report as a new beginning. An
integrated report prepared via integrated thinking can only
produce the desired outcome through a thoroughly effective
and continuously developing measurement mechanism. This
means a long process of growth and cultural adaptation. I would
like to thank all of our stakeholders in advance for your valuable
support during our journey.

Dr. Izel Levi Coskun, CEO and Corporate Sustainability Ambassador

Based on the foundations of the Nautilus model described in our first sus-
tainability report, in this next step towards an integrated report we need-
ed to be able to explain how we would create value for all our stakeholders
through this model by revealing the relationship between financial and
non-financial data more clearly. For this, we used the following model in
our integrated report.

As you will note, all the capital items that make up the company are listed
as inputs on the left side of Figure 14. This is where the biggest differ-
ence is apparent. Because when we say capital in accounting, we are only
talking about a monetary or material value. Here, in order to explain why
integrated reporting is needed in addition to accounting records, it is nec-
essary to briefly describe the internal logic of accounting. Accounting is
based on the balance of debits and credits, and it arises from the assump-
tion that any operation or transaction performed in a company has a mon-
etary value. Every action taken is placed against the balance of payables
and receivables. This balance is based on the logic of “There is a record of
every action taken regarding the business” and a double-entry debit and

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Value Creation Model

RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES

OUR INPUTS

FINANCIAL Generating C R E AT I N G
CAPITAL Sustainable and SUSTAINABLE VALUE
Responsible
HUMAN Revenue Responsible Income
CAPITAL
Sustainable Customer OTHER STAKEHOLDERS
SOCIAL AND Development Relations CLIENTS
REL ATI O N A L Management
CAPITAL EMPLOYEES

INTELLECTUAL VALUES
CAPITAL
Digital Employee Development &
PRODUCED Transformation Learning Organization
CAPITAL

NATURAL
CAPITAL

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM

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FIGURE 14

OUR OUTCOMES / 2019 PERFORMANCE

REVENUE DIVERSITY 2019 2018 Change*(points)
Tax services 44.9% 44.3% 0.6
Accounting services 31.6% 33.7% -2.1
Audit services 16.9% 17.1% -0.2
Consulting services 1.7
6.7% 5.0%

Sustainable FINANCIAL RATIOS Net Profit / Sales
Service 2019 10.3%
Approach 2018 10.4%

Processes Supporting Ratio of female employees 46%
Sustainable Ratio of female managers
Employee Employee turnover rate 32% (directors +
Development managers)
and Employee Average training hours per 28% ! (30% in 2018)
Satisfaction employee
26% (voluntary
terminations)
,(26% in 2018)

33 hours

Rate of Increase in Collaborations/Activities 237.5%
67%
Rate of increase in client and employee
activities

Total number of certificates and licenses held 262
by employees
Client
Experience and
Satisfaction

Change in total energy consumption* 0.44% **
Change in carbon emissions* -0.02% **
Change in paper consumption* 0.45%
Rate of increase in the followers of digital 60%
communication channels
Rate of decrease in paper consumption for -13.04%
communication activities

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PRINCIPLES

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credit record is created based on this logic. Every entry to an account re-
quires a corresponding opposite entry to another account to establish a
control mechanism. The sum of debit and credit entries should be equal to
each other so that it can be cross-checked. For example, when we say that
we are putting capital into the company, this is an action. So, there will be a
corresponding opposite action. The capital account is in the equity section
of the balance sheet. When we make a capital entry on the credit side, we
need to make a balancing record on the debt side. We can use the ‘cash’ or
‘banks’ account for this ledger entry.

Accounting is like filling the two pans of the scales. These pans should
always balance at the end of the day. The point to remember is that any

transaction that will take place on one side of the scales has its counterpart
on the other corresponding side. When the business makes a profit, the
company's assets have increased on the left-hand side of the balance sheet.

Corresponding to this increase, in order to balance out the right-hand side
pan, there is another section inside which is equity. It contains retained
earnings and income for the period of the accounts, if these have not been

distributed. The weight of the scales on the debit side and the total weight
of the scales on the credit side must equal each other at the end of the day.
Otherwise, there is an error in the records.

In my opinion, accounting is a common mathematical language which all

companies share. It is rather dangerous to do business without knowing
how to speak this language. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for you to
steer the company financially. However, the basic principles of account-
ing have not changed since the 15th century when it was invented. Let's
now discuss what's lacking in this record keeping system. For example, a
company sells goods and will receive payment for the sale of these goods.

The accounting process which represents this action is an increase in as-
sets due to the cash inflow from the sale on the one hand, and the sale
on the credit side. At the same time, accounts such as cost of goods sold

and deducting the goods sold from the inventory account should also be

entered into the journal, but I don't want to go into details and confuse the

reader. Let's come to what's missing in all this. Let's say the goods were
sent by truck. Of course, this also has a monetary value representing the

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fuel spent. What about the carbon emissions created by the truck which
have not been included in the financial statements? Or the micro-plastics
strewn into the environment as the tires wear out? Where is their corre-
sponding record? Regrettably, the real cost of business activities to the en-
vironment is ignored and no accounting is made for this. Similarly, looking

at the social side of the same issue, the gender of the truck driver, their

working conditions or whether they can afford to educate their children
with the salary they receive is not reflected in these financial statements.
So long as the delivery is made as requested and the financial transactions
of the sale are completed, the remainder is not a matter for the financial
statements. As I have stated before, a calculation of equity is needed in
order to account for the environmental and social impact of companies.

For each action of an enterprise, it is necessary to record a credit (+) or
debit (-) on these equity accounts for a corresponding amount but using
parameters other than money. For the environment equity account, car-
bon emissions, use of plastics, the energy and water footprint; for social
equity gender equality, education, justice, ethics could be used as exam-
ples for what I propose.

In the near future, if a company wants to transact with or an investor con-

siders an investment in, or if a bank is thinking about lending to, a com-
pany, then not only will they want to assess the financial capital of that
company but they will also need to evaluate that company's environmen-
tal, social and other accumulated equity. It follows that when calculating
the value of companies, a calculation based simply on financial data is not
enough. Other impact areas like the environmental and social, positive or
negative capital values should also be included. Creating and keeping a re-
cord of such non-financial parameters is not easy. However, an integrated
report is an excellent tool for measuring these step-by-step, for reporting
them within the framework of certain standards, for communicating them
to stakeholders and for linking them to financial data.

In addition, the integrated report serves as a compass for companies by

providing a basis for keeping these accounts. This is the reason why the
integrated report has information on inputs k activities k outputs k out-
comes. While recording our calculations, we only go so far as ‘outputs’ in

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a horizontal fashion. If we produce cars, our output may be a car, if we
provide a tax audit service, our deliverable may be a certified audit report.
But if we look at the environmental and social impacts of our outputs in
a circular way, what kind of ‘outcome’ might we end up with? It might be
that for a car, the consequences could be social well-being, convenience,
efficiency, carbon footprint, traffic, accident risk, consumption of natural
resources, or, at an extreme, the climate crisis. What about outcomes for
a certified audit report? In my view, the most important result is the trust
created for stakeholders. Nevertheless, the energy we use to produce the

report, the paper we consume and the carbon emissions we emit into the

atmosphere might also be considered.

I think the real accounting here lies in the answer to the question of wheth-
er the result we will reach is ‘climate crisis’ when we add up the total out-
puts of all companies in the world. Which brings us to the question of
whether, if each activity is evaluated within its circular domain and effects,
this will alter the decisions of both the producer and the consumer? In tak-
ing these decisions, the mentality that directs decision makers also shapes

the kind of world we will live in. That's why I attach great importance to

the integrated thinking perspective and the integrated report as a conse-
quence of this kind of thinking. The integrated report, dealing as it does
with the relationship between financial and non-financial data as a whole,
includes awareness, responsibility, action and a roadmap, together with

forward looking commitments. In other words, we, as a company, aim to

reach such and such result in this or that period of time and we have to fur-
ther state which steps we will take to reach the targeted results. Or to put it
another way, this approach, which includes society and the environment in

the outcome reached, assumes responsibility for the outcome in a circular

mode, moving the focus to the beginning, that is, to the inputs phase. Right

from the outset, integrated thinking places the awareness of the outcome

that the company will create as a responsibility that the company's man-
agers must bear. If the result does not match the targeted expectation, the
input, activity and output sections need to be redesigned to achieve the

targeted result.

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When I look at the results side and at CEO decisions, I can see that the
number of companies that keep faith with this idea is still very few. On the
other hand, I know that we don't have much time to achieve a systemic
transformation for a habitable future. While mulling over this dilemma,
the Covid-19 epidemic burst into our lives as if to give us an SOS signal
and say, “enough is enough”. I hope that the leaders of nations, companies,
and organisations can learn a lesson from this and find a way to keep the
‘existence ledger’ required by integrated thinking without wasting much
more time.

Another feature of the integrated report concerns risks. According to the
International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) standards, the report
should include a section on risks and opportunities. Using an entrepre-
neurial point of view, we tried to explain how we might be able to change
existing risks into opportunities rather than discussing the two as separate
issues in the report. We assessed the risks of professional responsibility,
economy, technology, operational risks, climate crisis, politics, earthquake
and Covid-19 through the lens of long-term integrated thinking in relation
to the inputs and outputs in our business model. We saw each as an oppor-
tunity to learn lessons and promote our firm's development.
In our second integrated report published in May, I've noted that the KPI-
based measurement model is more entrenched. However, I think we need
some more time to explore the impact of non-financial data on financial
data. In particular, I believe that many of the critical decisions we have
taken, especially during the period of social chaos created by the epidemic,
will impact financial data such as per capita profitability, accounts receiv-
ables periods, and hourly rates only after a certain amount of time has
passed.

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CHAPTER III: Corporate Sustainability during Covid-19

Uncertainty

By the end of February 2020, it had become increasingly clear that Cov-
id-19 was heading to Turkey, but I could not have predicted that the dis-
ease would turn into an epidemic and that our lives would be locked down
as a result. At first, I thought the Trump administration was trying to use
the epidemic to weaken China's rapidly growing economic power, espe-
cially by using social media. In fact, in a short speech I gave to my col-
leagues in March I recall saying that, though we needed to be very careful
about the disease, this issue was being exaggerated for economic reasons.
I quickly realized how wrong I had been. We decided to take action as soon
as the first case was reported by the Turkish Ministry of Health in mid-
March 2020.

Our first move was to set up a Crisis Management Desk on March 13th. In
addition, we set up a WhatsApp Hotline Group called Covid Urgent Action,
including our Chairman Leon Coskun, as well as our partners and senior
executives. This group also included our CFO Sarah Coskun, our Outsourc-
ing Leader and Board Member Taylan Baykut, our Istanbul Tax Services
Group President and Executive Board Member Mustafa Tan, our HR Part-
ner Mehmet Eronat, our Marketing and Communications Department Di-
rector Barlas Hunalp and our IT Department Director Gorgun Ucar.

Taking Action

The members of the Crisis Desk were in agreement that when taking swift
decisions in a time of uncertainty and insecurity posed by the health crisis,
we needed to focus on people not economic interests.. We all agreed that
our firm's management principles of being fair and transparent should
manifest itself in our duty of care to protect every employee and stake-
holder.

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Effective communication was going to be vital. We shared the decisions
we took at that first meeting with all our firm employees via e-mail at the
close of business on that same day.

The outcomes of these decisions were:

1. An announcement to our clients that due to our decision to limit
our employee’s office hours to only those that were absolutely nec-
essary, we were also restricting client visits and that client contact
would be online by e-mail and by phone unless there was an emer-
gency. We intend to continue this policy.

2. We called our regional offices one by one and informed our employ-
ees about this new modus operandi. We were careful to inform all
our other offices about the changes we were making at the central
office. This helped us to obtain feedback from the regions on wheth-
er there was a new structure that needed implementing which we
had not yet considered.

3. A disinfection plan and emergency supply procedures were put in
place. Although the office was to be used on a limited basis, we de-
cided to disinfect every 15 days.

4. An internal online training was immediately set up. Our HR depart-
ment sent out a presentation with detailed information for all our
employees in the form of a training module to prevent any misun-
derstandings arising from the use of e-mail.

5. The HR department was tasked with tracking days off for illness
under an Employee Rehabilitation Tracking application and all em-
ployees were asked to report any ill health to the HR department.
Thus, we were given the opportunity to warn any employee who had
come into contact with an employee who had been infected with the
disease.

6. The authority to approve remote work for employees was delegat-
ed to their team managers. Even though office and client visits were
restricted, we left it to team managers to use their initiative since it
would have been impossible for us to track each and every employee.

143

7. The standard meal allowance which is normally paid by our clients
during team on-site visits was covered by Mazars Denge until March
31 of that year as a gesture of good faith to facilitate our employees
transition to working from home. This support which we offered

with the aim of building employee trust was later to create a big

problem. Given the fact that we did not apply for the government's

short time working allowance or impose unpaid leave, I could not
have predicted that, although we continued to pay salaries and taxes
on time and to provide internet assistance, this one issue could turn

into a crisis in such an environment. Even at the point where we

might have had problems with collecting receivables, we guaranteed

that senior management would forgo its own salaries but promised
our employees that “we will pay you your salaries on time". Moreo-
ver, it was clear that working from home would go on for a long time
and at that time it was not financially possible for our Independent
Audit Department to continue to pay the meal allowance indefinite-
ly. However, after we stopped paying this support on March 31, we
faced serious criticism from within the office. Some of our senior
employees were aware that the firm was doing its best in terms of
financial support and that an expense previously covered by clients
during on-site audits could potentially put the firm at financial risk
if we were to keep covering this expense from our own resources.
However, as the criticism and the push back from employees in-

creased, towards the end of the year, we revised this decision by

agreeing to pay half of the meal allowance for home workers in the

form of a deposit into their accounts. As of 2022, this has become a

full meal allowance regardless of whether an employee works from

home or on-site.

8. Laptop computer demands from all departments were met prompt-
ly and these were delivered along with training sessions. Since we

anticipated that we would be working from home for a long time,
our existing computer stock was overhauled rapidly by our IT de-
partment and distributed to our employees. In addition, we ordered
additional computers to ensure that all of our teams had equipment

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that they could use from home. A serious investment has been made
to achieve this.

9. Mobile WIFI modem devices were purchased for all colleagues who
had internet problems at home. In addition, due to the increase on
the internet load at home, a monthly 50 TL internet support and 50
TL telephone support was given out to each employee.

10. As of March 16, team managers were asked to produce work plans
for their employees' office, remote work and client on-site visits on a
weekly basis and we began tracking these. Unfortunately, I cannot say
that we have been completely successful. Our employees did not want
to prepare and approve a work plan, as they felt they spent a signifi-
cant part of their time in front of the computer during their work from
home and felt that they were being overly monitored. After a while, as
the issue created a seriously tense atmosphere, we chose to leave this
to them to decide rather than making it mandatory.

11. We used WhatsApp groups administered by HR to broadcast an-
nouncements through work groups for each department. These
groups, which were deployed on March 14, functioned both as a call
centre for announcements, but also allowed urgent questions from
our clients to be answered quickly through the system.

12. By March 17, shift work began on critical internal service units such
as accounting, HR, data processing and floor assistants. Although we
were working at an average of 10 percent capacity in the office, we
estimate we reduced the risk of transmitting the virus to our other
employees by at least 50 percent, especially from employees who
caught the virus externally, thanks to the shift work we put in place.
In no small part due to these measures between March 2020 and
May 2021, the rate of infection in the office was limited to just one
single case.

Looking back, I can now see more clearly how the effect of those areas
touched by sustainability such as long-term impacts, benefiting the whole,
and profit optimisation which have been incorporated into our firm's
culture, contributed to our ability to decide quickly and form consensus.

145

These important decisions that we were able to take one after the other
without second guessing ourselves and the ease with which we adapted to
a new situation as a firm in the first days of the Covid-19 epidemic, have
been positively received by our employees.

Learning Together and Ensuring Mutual Trust

One of the most important lessons of the pandemic was that sometimes
you have no choice but to learn by trial and error. Therefore, in considera-
tion of the interests of the ecosystem we inhabit and not just our own in-
terests, we have been careful to share our successes and also our failures.
To this end, we collaborated with the managers of different companies and
shared the best practices we instigated at our firm. It seems to me that,
in times of crisis, being able to learn from each other is very important
not only for institutional and sole benefits, but also mutual and collective
gains. The other thing that stands out now compared to the initial phase
of the epidemic, was that the decisions we took collectively, despite the
ever-present risk of error, and the fact that we implemented them immedi-
ately, helped build crucial trust within the firm.
Our epidemic management prioritised people and their health. Our em-
ployees and their families were inevitably our top priority group who re-
ceived our contribution quickly and positively. As of March 18, 2020, we
began preparing and sharing dedicated content compiled from different
sources by our marketing team, especially for those employees who had
children, so that they could continue their education and development in
the most enjoyable and productive way during the quarantine and keep
both their and their children's morale and motivation high. We shared this
content using e-mails that we particularly focused on keeping short and
clear, at predetermined intervals, as part of our epidemic communications
strategy.

We knew how difficult it was for mothers who were working for us and car-
ing for young children forced to stay at home instead of going to kindergar-
ten or school. Getting feedback that Mazars Denge's working mothers felt

146

themselves to be secure in their jobs during this period has been the most
encouraging and important indicator that the Crisis Desk got things right.

We also held a webinar series jointly with the Cocuklu Dunya Grubu, a
children’s education group, in which parents were able to listen to expert
advice on how to take care of their children at home and on how to ensure
both their and the children's psychological safety. In the survey we con-
ducted we found that parents faced difficulties in three key areas:

1. Positive discipline and setting boundaries for their children,
2. Attention and concentration in children,
3. Do’s and don’ts for TV and digital media use.

Our aim was to establish a more relaxing and informative environment
where a discussion of the main issues and solutions to childcare could take
place for working parents during the Covid-19 epidemic.

I was aware that in my role as CEO I would need to communicate with
employees more often than usual in order to re-establish trust and make
them feel that they were not alone. As I thought about how best to do this,
I decided to communicate more informally as 'Izel' rather than as the CEO.

On March 19, I sent the following message to all of our office staff.

Dear Colleagues,

Along with the rest of the world, we are going through an in-
teresting and difficult process, likely, I think, to last a long time
and which will require us to leave our comfort zones sometimes
against our wishes. I say the whole world because the corona-

virus does not differentiate between people, companies, institu-
tions or countries. The virus has spread to over 150 countries so
far and everywhere, we bear witness to the chaos it's creating.

The fact that each country is implementing different measures,
people's panicked behaviour and the inadequate and contradic-

147

tory attitudes of our leaders in the face of unfolding events, is, un-
fortunately deepening this chaos. As each day goes by, we view,
as if watching a TV show, the fragility of the giant system we have
put our trust in.

Like you, I often find I'm asking myself the same question "When
will this crisis and uncertainty end?" As new questions pop into
our minds, it's obvious that there are many institutions that will
disappear because they have been unable to take the necessary
precautions in time, have not prioritised science, have acted with-
out reason and logic, have panicked and made the wrong deci-
sions, who cannot chart a route in a planned and organized way.

I believe with all my heart that our firm, which has overcome nu-
merous difficulties in its 43-year history, will survive this process
with the patience and sacrifice we have all shown together. So,
how I am getting through my day?

1. When working from home:

As you know, we have generally switched to an online system
in our offices. Consequently, we have been able to reduce the
numbers of staff coming to our offices. But working from home
is not something that we are very used to. Especially if we're not
alone at home. So, I've prepared a personal plan to adapt to my
new working environment. Every detail, from the time I'll wake
up in the morning, to the time I intend to eat, to when I will ex-
ercise, or read a book and spend time with my family, has been
planned ahead.

As for my working hours, I get up as early as possible and be-
gin work. I have added these early quiet hours of the day to my
work schedule. I also prefer to work late at night.

You might be asking does he work eight hours in total? The an-
swer is that these days I don't. But I can complete my work in
a shorter time by working in a focused and productive way. In

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