We Conducted an Enjoyable Interview with Damla Alışan

Alışan Lojistik Vice Chair Damla Alışan shares insights on technology, R&D, social responsibility and sustainability  

Hello, could you tell us about yourself and your career?

After completing my secondary education at Saint Benoît French High School, I graduated from the Business Administration Department at Istanbul University's Faculty of Business Administration. I then spent some time in the United States to continue my education. I entered the business world in advertising. After gaining management experience, I left the agency. Since 1996, I have been working at Alışan Lojistik A.Ş., our family business. Since the early 2000s, I have been serving as Vice Chair. When I was planning my career, like many at the time, I envisioned focusing on marketing, which is why I initially started my professional life at an advertising agency. At that time, the logistics concept did not exist; we began our sector journey as an international freight company. I wanted to explore a sector that was not particularly appealing for women at that time, and by taking on roles at every level at Alışan Lojistik, our family business, I have reached where I am today.  

What would you like to tell us about Alışan Lojistik? Which sectors do you serve?

Alışan Lojistik was founded in 1985 with the vision of becoming an international logistics service provider that empowers its customers through innovative, flexible and integrated technological solutions in the local and global market. Our fully "domestic" and "national" company today serves customers in the chemical industry, fast-moving consumer goods, food, agriculture and many other sectors through international freight, warehouse and bonded storage, bulk dry cargo, bulk liquid and energy transportation services, including hazardous chemicals, with a fleet of 550 company-owned vehicles and 1,500 employees across more than 50 locations throughout Turkey. Alışan Lojistik structures customer demands from A to Z through integrated logistics services, also known as "contract logistics" in the sector, and develops high-value customized solutions tailored to specific needs.

Can you provide information about hazardous chemical logistics? What sets Alışan Lojistik apart in this area?

What differentiates us as Alışan Lojistik is that since our founding 37 years ago, we have continued to serve many sectors alongside fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and the chemical industry as our primary focus. For this reason, we have considerable expertise and infrastructure in handling, transporting and storing hazardous chemicals, one of the chemical sector's most critical areas. Our investments have always concentrated in this field. Our investments have also focused on R&D, technology and digital initiatives to design new working and business operation modules suited to the requirements of our time. For example, in our recent digital transformation journey, we have begun to benefit from the cost, security and innovation advantages brought by the cloud by working with Microsoft Azure across five different migration routes consisting of database and application services transition, server project, document management and SharePoint security level enhancement. We expect to complete this process in 2022.  

We know that R&D is important for your company and that you have work in this area. Would you share your R&D activities with us?

On digital transformation and effective use of technology, our R&D Centers based in Istanbul and Konya continuously develop new projects. These include integration with customer systems, artificial intelligence and advanced robotic process automation to conduct our business processes at high standards with zero errors and at high speed, among others.

Do you carry out activities within the scope of corporate social responsibility? How do these activities reflect on your brand and employees?

We consolidate our activities under a single umbrella project that we call "Succeeding Together with Alışan." Through this project, we became winners of the Women-Friendly Brands Award this year; on the other hand, as a result of the "2022 Rise to Challenge" competition organized by We Connect International under the umbrella of global female-led companies, evaluated in 9 different categories, we became world champions in the "Transportation & Logistics" category of the "2022 Rise to the Challenge Awards." Under this umbrella, within the framework of our commitment to women's employment, we are the only logistics company that has signed and adopted the Women's Empowerment Principles, one of the global and most important private sector initiatives pursued by the United Nations on a global basis, which aims for women to participate in and be empowered in all sectors and at all levels of economic life. We are also among the first members of the Together We Are Strong Platform. Women actively work at almost every point in the supply chain (white collar and blue collar), and if you ask me, I would say they are even more successful than men. Based on this, under our main umbrella, we have pioneered women's employment in the sector. For example, the first female forklift operator in the logistics sector was trained at our company. We will continue to be pioneers in such initiatives. On the other hand, as you know, women's participation in working life is unfortunately still far below desired levels. It is for this very reason that as a member of KAGİDER (Turkish Women Entrepreneurs Association), we are trying to develop projects that support women entrepreneurs, such as the "Carrying for Women" project, to support women entrepreneurs in our country first. Through this project, we aim to encourage women's participation in working life, especially during this difficult period, and to contribute logistically to their exports; we aim to move them beyond their current field as far as our expertise allows. In addition, with our "Succeeding Together with Alışan" slogan, we continue uninterruptedly to produce and/or support projects that support women's education. In this direction, we opened Ayşe Sıdıka Alışan Primary School in the Gebze region where our company is located. With the "Alışan Carrying Happiness" project we developed, we are creating support projects for girls in the East. Finally, we make efforts to support women in sports as a sponsor of VakıfBank Sports Club, which houses the VakıfBank Women's Volleyball Team, Turkey's most trophy-winning international team.  

We are also curious about your approach to sustainability. In this context, what measures have you taken to serve the sector for a more sustainable world?

Due to our expertise in the chemical sector, this is a very sensitive issue for us. For this reason, I would first like to point out that the chemical sector is Turkey's second-largest export sector, and its 2023 target is around USD 50 billion. To provide the expected quality in hazardous material transportation, carriers must aim for customer satisfaction while considering environmental and human health protection, based on established laws and regulations. In this context, when we examine the sector, the reliability of the service provided must be monitored through periodic checks and tests. Another way to ensure safety and improve sector quality is the human factor through training. The European Union's "carbon border adjustment mechanism" under the European Green Deal appears likely to force changes toward sustainability in many sectors including chemicals and logistics. Within the framework of corporate citizenship, major brands will prefer logistics companies making these changes. This is a very sensitive issue for us at Alışan. We have long conducted sensitive work on waste reduction and its proper disposal without harm to the environment. Additionally, last year we added 70 state-of-the-art low-carbon-emission Euro 6 motor tractor-type vehicles to our fleet. From 2010 to the present, while serving our customers, we have been careful to implement logistics practices most suited to environmental conditions both within our company and with our business partners in the supply chain. We opened Turkey's first tank cleaning facility, which enables cleaning of tankers carrying chemical substances without environmental harm, in 2005 in European Union standards. We simultaneously made it available to our country's logistics and chemical companies. Similarly, we have made important contributions to the formulation of relevant regulations. As a result of all these efforts, we were honored with the "Environmentalist Facility Award" by the 'Turkey Healthy Cities Association' established with the support of the World Health Organization. Additionally, we have been intensively involved in lobbying activities on this issue for a long time. For example, we are founders of KTTD (Chemical Transport Vehicle Cleaners Association) and, to continue monitoring this important issue, Alışan Lojistik continues to actively serve on the association's Board of Directors.  

What innovations will you introduce to the sector in the coming days? How would you evaluate the advantages these innovations will bring to your company, the chemical sector and our country?

We expect market growth and new domestic and foreign chemical manufacturing facilities to join the game. This will drive us and our corporate competitors to improve our service quality and technological infrastructure. By renewing our fleet, ensuring complete compliance with all international regulations, completing technological integrations, we plan to continue being at the forefront of all developments in this area as always.