• How many years have you been a member of the Sika Family?
I have been working for Sika for 26 years. I started my job in January 1995. And the first new member of my family was born during the first day I started at Sika. He grew up as a Sika baby and now has participated in the business life as a lawyer.
• What did you feel when you first started at Sika? What were your first impressions?
When I shifted from the construction site to the office, I encountered a more elite environment, where the employees were in polite and open communication with each other and the senior management with their employees, and which was orderly, clean and with specific rules. Mr. Müfit Kanuni (RIP), one of the shareholders of the company at that time, was personally showing interest, talking to and valuing the employees. Such modest approach of our General Manager and boss made me very surprised and meanwhile very happy.
• Can you please share your most emotional moment in Sika?
Between 1995 and 1997, I was following up the Berke Dam (Osmaniye -Düziçi), and our competitor was providing material to the project due to its mutual good relationship with the project management/principal. In addition to our disadvantage due to our competitor's facility being located too close to the construction site, I was having a hard time turning the good relationship in our favour. Moreover, this project was one of the most important and popular projects in our country at that time, and I had to win it on behalf of my company. So I focused on. I developed intimacy with the decision maker by paying visits frequently. Just during those times, they had started with the body arch concretes and again, they had made the first purchase from our competitor. When I visited the Project Assistant Manager for Purchasing in his office, he said "It is dogged that does it", and said that he gave me the order, and instructed that the tanks be emptied and filled with Sika products. When the project was completed by ÇEAŞ and especially when I saw the body arch structure in the commercials on TV, I thought that with determination anything could be achieved, I got so emotional and I was proud of myself.
• What is the moment when you have been most proud of being a member to the Sika Family?
As I attended meetings abroad and established one-to-one friendships, I saw more clearly that great importance was attached upon selection of high quality people both by Sika Turkey and the Group. It makes me very proud that my colleagues consist of high quality people, that we have an open communication and that I am a part of the valuable family. Also our successes being seen and being appreciated by the senior management make me feel satisfied.
• We all face challenges in our professional life. Can you share the most difficult situation you have been in Sika and how you overcome that situation?
I had designed the technical specifications of the factory construction of Man-Ankara one-by-one with the project owner, and the names of our products were identified in the specifications. The contractor wanted us to give the product and implementation guarantee, and said that they could work with us only this way. After the contract was signed and the work was done, defects were experienced on the implementation due to the failure of taking the required measures, and we were imposed penal sanctions including being charged for all the claims in bus manufacturing. Thanks to the warning note I served, the photo evidencing the cold weather during implementation at that time, and my management of the incident well and planned, we avoided a huge amount of penalty and maintained our trustful relationship with our significant customer. Our General Manager at that time also stood beside me and supported me by giving me considerable confidence and morale.
• What has your greatest professional success been at Sika?
The technical support we have provided to Yusufeli Dam, which is the third largest dam in the world in its field, and the dams, hydroelectric power plants and transportation tunnels in the region from İspir Valley to Artvin, and the significant sales figures we have achieved for 15 years. It is also a source of happiness to in some way touch the tunnels built in Turkey in the last 17 years.
• How has Sika changed from the day you started up to now?
From the company, which was aiming for a modular growth, which looked a little scrappy and for which I was disappointed when I first saw in my job interview in Kaynarca, it has reached to a point of having two production facilities, one of which is established on an indoor area of 17,000 m2, and the other one in Tarsus, meeting a significant amount of needs for production. The company has also gone through a change/transformation with reaching the top point in understanding.
• Is there a moment when you really realise that you are a team?
I am constantly feeling that I am an important player in the team, both in the Concrete Group and throughout the company.
• What do you think about Sika's and your future?
Sika is 111 years old today, and I believe that it will be existing in the industry for a couple of centuries more. Both locally and globally, it is a good managed company. On my account, I hope my business life will not last a couple of centuries :) I find it right to pass the job to the young after a certain time.
• Finally, is there anything you would like to add?
I would like to thank my co-workers with whom we have worked together both on the customer side and in my working life, for the value they have added to me.