04:05 GLOBAL
For this reason, the business world is not simply a race; it is a long journey that demands the right strategy, the right pace, and the right endurance. Türkiye’s elimination from the 2026 FIFA World Cup saddened all of us. But it wasn’t just the scoreline that made me think. Before the tournament, there was enormous excitement: commercials, social media posts, star players, rising expectations. But when we looked at the pitch, we couldn’t see a game mature enough to carry those expectations. It reminded me of a clip that went viral a few years back. Fatih Terim, one of Türkiye’s most celebrated football coaches, stood in front of the cameras after a loss. “We had the control,” he said. “We had the chances, the big occasions, something like that. But what can I do, sometimes? That’s the football. Something happened.” People laughed at the time. But the real question it raised wasn’t funny at all: When results don’t match
expectations, do we look hard at why, or do we just shrug and move on? In business, “Something happened” doesn’t cut it; this is not a situation unique to football. We see a similar mistake frequently in the business world. We make large investments in marketing, visibility, and communication. But are we making the same investment in the product, in competence, in the organization, and in continuous improvement? Because marketing creates expectation, the product creates trust. Marketing wins the first customer, and the product wins the second. And this is exactly where leadership begins, not in raising expectations, but in building a system capable of carrying them. Around the same time, we watch another of our national teams: the Sultans of the Net, Türkiye’s national women’s volleyball team. Just days ago, they did it again, defeating Brazil 3-1 in the final of the 2026 FIVB Volleyball Nations League to claim their second VNL title. And they did it the hard way: losing the first set, then coming back to win the next three. Watching them, we didn’t just see the matches they won; we saw a culture built on years of
One cannot help but ask the question: Is success the sum of star players, or the natural outcome of a strong system?
28 I 04:05
GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 26
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online