Interview with Özgecan Işıltan, Marketing Director of Hilti Türkiye

We conducted an enjoyable interview with Özgecan Işıltan, Marketing Director of Hilti Turkey, on Hilti's past, present and future. Ms. Işıltan also touched upon the pandemic and the fires that have occurred in our country and around the world in recent times.

Could you tell our readers about yourself and your background?

I graduated from the Civil Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University in 2008. Following this, I completed my studies at the ITU Building Engineering Department. I started my career in the construction sector as a site engineer and design engineer. Subsequently, I continued with Hilti Turkey in the sales and marketing field as a Regional Sales Engineer. At the end of the sixth month, I took on the role of Fire Barrier Sales Specialist. I worked successively as Product Manager for the Turkey, Central Asia and Northern Iraq Region, Temporary Tool Service Manager, Regional Sales Manager, and Strategic Marketing Manager. Since April 2020, I have been serving as Marketing Director. As a Marketing Director with an engineering background, I continue my work on leading the marketing team, directing the business to achieve short, medium and long-term goals for products, services, software and solutions in Turkey, developing business strategies and plans that enable the company to achieve its objectives, profitability and market integration.

Could you provide information about the sectors you serve and the range of products you offer?

Hilti was founded in 1941 by Martin Hilti as a small family business in the Principality of Liechtenstein, one of the world's smallest countries with an area of 160 square kilometers. Today, it operates across 6 continents in 120 different countries with 30,000 employees worldwide. Hilti, which has been present in the Turkish market for nearly 40 years, offers advanced technology products and solutions. By making serious investments in research and development, Hilti develops superior-performance new technologies, innovative products and patented systems that protect users' health and safety. The main product range of Hilti includes breakers and drills, cordless systems, direct fastening systems, anchor systems, diamond drilling and cutting systems, powder and gas-actuated fastening systems, cutting and grinding systems, laser measuring systems, and passive fire-stop products used in buildings for fire safety purposes. However, Hilti offers much more than these products. Through equipment and machinery fleet management services, certified occupational health and safety training, and engineering services and software, we increase productivity for our customers and speed up their manufacturing processes. With our 250-person workforce in Turkey, approximately 10,000 products, 5 stores, and an education and technical service facility, we serve the construction, energy and industrial sectors.

Last year was a year in which pandemic effects were intensely felt, and these effects have not yet ended. How was your company affected by this situation and what measures did you take?

We prepared for the pandemic conditions affecting the entire world with our technology and infrastructure, thus activating our integrated service network to ensure that our stakeholders were not affected by the situation and to maintain continuity of business processes during the lockdown period. In addition to uninterrupted supply chain service, we continued our services without interruption using digital solutions. In addition to service solutions such as Ask Hilti, Customer Service, Live Chat, Website, Mobile Applications, Online Payment, Field Team, and Repair Center, we responded to the needs of all stakeholders forming the value chain of the sector through email and social media accounts.

Global warming and the fires associated with it have recently become the most important item on the agenda. If you have contributions to fire protection in your sector, could you briefly mention them?

As Hilti, we have produced many patented products as a result of our research and development efforts. Through our extensive range of fire-stop products tested according to the most demanding international standards such as ASTM and EN, we make a significant contribution to building safety by preventing potential fire damage. With our UL-listed passive fire-stop products developed using innovative technology, we combat fires that may occur not only in closed areas of buildings and industrial facilities but also in the energy sector, which is under major threat. According to research, during fires caused by insufficient precaution and various reasons, the rate of deaths due to smoke poisoning reaches 60 percent. 57 percent of deaths occur outside the area where the fire occurs. This situation shows that people escape to other areas to save themselves from fire, but lose their lives due to uncontrollable flame and smoke intensity. Based on all these data, with our UL-listed fire-stop products, we minimize possible risks during a fire. We design and implement systems intended to prevent the passage of fire, toxic smoke and gases. Our passive fire-stop products close the voids created in the structure during a fire and help confine the fire to the area where it originated. This prevents the fire from spreading, creating a safe environment for people to leave their homes, workplaces, factories or facilities, and creates a smoke-free air space. Our passive fire-stop products, which maintain their durability and functionality against earthquakes, are not affected by shock loads and impacts as they adapt to earthquake movements. Hilti passive fire-stop products prevent the spread of flames, smoke and toxic gases and temperature rise for up to four hours during a fire. In addition to being fire-resistant, our fire-stop products attract attention with their water impermeability from openings and acoustic performance; they help improve cable, pipe or joint connections at wall, ceiling or floor levels. This prevents the spread of fire, smoke and toxic gases. In our passive fire-stop product group, we include mastics, sprays, foams, clamps, wraps, bandages, paints, pillows, mortars, putties and cable protection paint among the products we have developed to maximize safety against fire.

What is the importance of R&D for Hilti? Could you tell us about the R&D projects you have recently undertaken?

To protect the health and safety of our users, we make serious investments in R&D to develop new technologies and patented systems. Construction hand tools must be compatible with advanced technology from an occupational health and safety perspective, ergonomic and safe. As Hilti, with our patented, quality, long-lasting products, we continue our efforts to enable construction professionals to do their work easily, safely, efficiently and healthily, aiming to minimize accidents in the use of construction hand tools. For example, thanks to the Active Torque Control System in our breaker and drill products, when the machine encounters steel reinforcement during breaking or drilling operations, the motor shuts itself down. This way we eliminate risks such as workers on scaffolding falling or getting injured. The Active Vibration Reduction feature in these products greatly reduces the vibration generated during machine operation, allowing for healthy and prolonged work. A powerful dust collection system that directly and effectively eliminates dust also contributes to healthy working conditions.

Which production technologies does your company prefer and what is the importance of technological advancement and digital transformation for you?

As Hilti Turkey, we see technology as part of the solution, but we believe that what is really important is successfully implementing the technology and having the ability to manage change within the organization. In this context, we try to create a difference in our sector by helping our customers adopt new digital solutions. With the ON!Track Asset Management System, we enable monitoring of all inventories while allowing document tracking or consumables management on construction sites. With Hilti Connect, we enable repair requests to be created with a single click for all products, the ability to watch product videos when desired, and access to purchase information. We know that digital transformation requires organizational change management and focus on people, and with this awareness, we provide on-site implementation, training and support services for our customers and teams. This year, we aim to take the engineering and software services we have successfully maintained for years even further with the strength we gain from digitalization. As the first step in this direction, we will advance the journey we started with BIM (Building Information Modeling) further with MT Modular Channel Systems and PLT 300 Advanced Measuring Systems.

What measures have you taken in manufacturing for a more sustainable world? In this context, could you define Hilti's perspective on sustainability?

With our vision of "building a better future," we see sustainability not as a goal but as a fundamental force that dominates all processes. From our production processes to our organizational processes, we move forward with a sustainability vision, placing greater emphasis than ever on sustainability policies in the face of the ecological and social challenges the world faces. In line with our global sustainability strategy, we aim to lead the industry by neutralizing our carbon dioxide emissions by 2023. At the same time, we are planning a safe and healthy future for our customers, employees and business partners through different approaches. We have accepted as our priority the building of a better world, safer construction sites and healthier communities. Within the scope of our sustainability strategy, we aim to contribute to creating cities made sustainable through clean energy, access to water and innovation. We aim to be an organization that facilitates people's access to health and education, values gender equality, contributes to economic growth, provides solutions to unemployment in society, strives to create a fair order in access to education, justice and food, develops and is developed. For this, we guide our employees to be committed to Hilti's corporate culture, open-minded in communication and development, and sensitive to society's problems. We support collective projects that will emerge within the company to create awareness and a better future.

Does your company have any corporate social responsibility project that it has initiated or pioneered? If so, could you inform us about them?

Hilti's social responsibility has a long history extending back to the great personal commitment shown by company founder Prof. Dr. Martin Hilti and his family. Hilti's corporate social responsibility projects can be divided into two categories: local activities carried out by Hilti employees and projects implemented at the global level by the Hilti Foundation. The Hilti Foundation, under the management principle of "We are building a better future," supports activities and projects in the areas of "affordable housing," "disaster relief," "community development," "social entrepreneurship," "culture, science and education," and "professional education and training." As Hilti Turkey, transforming the sense of social responsibility into concrete benefit, we work to make this understanding part of our company culture by donating annually on our employees' birthdays in their name to a different civil society organization. Our cooperation with Koruncuk Foundation continues in 2021. We ran in the Istanbul Marathon with our volunteer runners for the KAÇUV-My Hope Education project and will continue to run in the coming years. Every year, to show support, we host the Hope Cafe, an initiative of KAÇUV, at our headquarters. Additionally, through our plastic cap collection project, we help provide wheelchairs to many people in need. We also deliver food packages to people in need before Ramadan. We have projects we are carrying out with TİDER in this context. And recently, we have had collaborations with AHBAP and TEMA, which work to heal the wounds of natural disasters that have deeply affected all of us. In Turkey, a country prone to earthquakes, numerous small and large earthquakes occur every year and we collectively experience their painful consequences. As Hilti Turkey, we are working with municipalities on building assessment and with ITU on projects to strengthen low-strength concrete. We will continue to work with all our effort to prevent losses in our country in the coming period.

What innovations will you be presenting to the sector in the coming days? How do you evaluate the advantages these innovations will bring to your company and our country?

As Hilti, we determine our targets and investment plans in line with our strategy of "being a sustainable, value-creating organization." In this regard, digitalization and products, services and software that will increase efficiency in the construction sector will continue to be our top priority in the coming period. We will continue to increase local production through the partnerships we have established in Turkey. As we have done so far, this year we will also support our business partners and customers on productivity through the solutions we offer, enabling them to save time and labor.