Success is the result of teamwork
On July 5th of 2003, Çelebi Holding celebrated the 45th anniversary of its founding. As the holding company continues to pursue solid growth through new investments, its main subsidiary, Çelebi Ground Handling, has also been undergoing organizational changes while carrying out its own investment program.
We talked about this transformation and the professional approach to management with A. Cemil Erman, who was made Çelebi Ground Handling (ÇGH)'s general manager last May. Mr Erman prefaced his remarks by saying that he was happy with the picture that Çelebi Ground Handling presented when he took up his new position. Noting that both the company's founder and the second generation that succeeded him identified strongly with the system and defended its existing values, Mr Erman said that he believed this fact was the most important asset that ÇGH possessed.
Here are Çelebice's questions and General Manager A. Cemil Erman's answers to them.
Çelebice: Could you describe your approach to management?
A. Cemil Erman: Generally speaking, the people I work with think that I'm a tolerant manager. But there are limits to that tolerance where the issue is one of insupportable losses being sustained by myself or by the company.
Because I don't like losing, I prefer to move forward within the framework of a plan and strategy. When you've identified your goals, everybody understands you more easily and it's easier for everyone to work together.
In addition, I believe in delegating authority in the conduct of business processes. If it seems to me that the tasks under my control are proceeding normally, I don't interfere. I'm one of those who believe that good managers should be able to tell where the boundaries of their responsibilities begin and end. I myself dislike querying superiors about routine matters and problems and for that reason I don't want my own colleagues at the company director or manager levels asking me about everything item by item. That's because management partly entails assuming risks within those boundaries.
Because of my own background in sports, I also believe in teamwork. I've never had a communications problem with anyone. My door is always open to everybody.
Çelebice: Tell us about your arrival at Çelebi Ground Handling and could you give us your assessment of the company and its sector?
A. Cemil Erman: In a professional sense, I think that I have come here having overcome many of the issues that people are required to prove first to themselves and then to others. After my experience in the Zeytinoğlu Group, I'm not sure whether or not I would have continued my career as a professional manager unless it was a company like Çelebi approaching me. Its involvement in a different sector, its substantial turnover, and a staff of 2,500 people were the factors that steered me towards Çelebi.
Here at Çelebi you're working with 250 different customers 24 hours a day and in that collaboration, some very serious responsibilities are incumbent upon you. You're working in a business that is unforgiving of any mistake. If you're going to administer a mechanism that runs 24 hours a day at a dynamic tempo, you absolutely have got to have a good team. Çelebi's 45 years of experience is the best indicator that it does possess such a team and store of knowledge.
Çelebice: Where do you see Çelebi in the future?
A. Cemil Erman: What I've seen in my first three months at Çelebi is that what I am going to be doing is will be at the level of minor adjustments. I do believe however that my experience will contribute to Çelebi's efforts, which got underway before I came aboard, to move into markets abroad.
Just as in every business, so too in this one there are competitors with whom we share markets. Nevertheless it's a fact that everyone acknowledges that Çelebi is the best in the business. My job therefore is to increase the lead over our competitors that we already have. When you're already Number One, what you need to do is to compete with yourself and raise the bar a little higher. Our goal is to be able to say "We're the best at this business worldwide" when this interview is conducted a year from now. Right now we've got projects running simultaneously in half a dozen or so countries. Competition is not something Çelebi needs to be afraid of. It's already got a very good standing among its competitors and behind it are forty-five long years of experience.
Çelebice: Is there any message you'd like to give to Çelebi employees?
A. Cemil Erman: Proving that Çelebi is the best company in its business in the world and making everyone acknowledge this is not a goal that I can accomplish on my own. It is a goal that we and senior management can set out but accomplishing it requires that everyone believe in it and work towards a common ideal. I believe that everybody in the company will sincerely believe this and give me their support.
A. Cemil Erman
Born in 1956 in Eskişehir, A. Cemil Erman entered Middle East Technical University's Department of Industrial Engineering after graduating from Eskişehir Maarif Koleji. Because of student boycotts and unrest during his sophomore year, he continued his studies in England at the Department of Civil Engineering of Stockport University. After receiving his bachelor's degree he completed his masters in two years also in England. Mr Erman returned to Turkey in 1982 and began his career at Toprak Dış Ticaret AŞ, a general trading company, in 1984. Starting out as a product manager, he advanced to exports manager and then to assistant general manager before moving on to Terraco AŞ, a Swedish company, and then to Eston AŞ, a construction company in the Zeytinoğlu Group, where he served as general manager for five years. Mr Erman became a group manager for Zeytinoğlu Holding in 1997, a position that he continued to hold for six years.
While still a student at METU, A. Cemil Erman was a player on the Youth National Volleyball Team and he says that he still does sports to relax, playing squash twice a week and basketball on the weekends.
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