We had an enjoyable interview with Mr. İhsan Necipoğlu, President of Dow Turkey and Central Asia. Necipoğlu, answered our questions about Dow Turkey’s innovations and initiatives.
Dow continues its operations fully in line with Turkey’s national development objectives that target infrastructure effectiveness, increased economic activity, and energy efficiency.
Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself?
I joined Dow in 1983 and I began my career as Sales Manager in the plastics business of our company. During my career that has spanned more than thirty-five years, I held various positions in the company’s commercial and geographical organizations both in Turkey and internationally.
Prior to my appointment to my current role, I was previously the plastics sales director and then performance materials sales director of the Middle East, Africa, India and Eastern Europe.
In my current role as Dow Turkey and Central Asia President since 2012, my responsibility is to determine and execute geographic strategies, while ensuring the most efficient and sustainable solutions are delivered to our customers in cooperation with the businesses and administrative functions.
Could you tell us about the progress of Dow Turkey from its establishment until today?
Founded in 1897, our company has a rich history that has surpassed 120 years. Today, Dow offers a wide range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in high growth markets such as industrial and infrastructure, packaging and consumer solutions.
Dow has been operating in Turkey since 1971 and this year we are looking forward to completing our 48th anniversary in Turkey. Our company first launched its operations on a business model based on efficient logistics in Gebze, with the goal of becoming the market leader in Turkey.
Gradually, Dow increased its businesses and gained the confidence and the business of the companies that are at the forefront of their industries. Later, Dow built upon these accomplishments by investing downstream through the establishment of the Polyurethane Systems House and STYROFOAM manufacturing sites.
With the acquisition of Rohm & Haas in 2009 and the establishment of the DowAksa joint venture in cooperation with Akkök Group in 2012, Dow has solidified its position in insulation, coating materials, construction, wind energy, automotive and other sectors.
Dow continues its operations fully in line with Turkey’s national development objectives that target infrastructure effectiveness, increased economic activity, and energy efficiency.
Could you give information about Dow Turkey’s policies and principles?
Our company was founded by American entrepreneur Herbert Henry Dow, and today we still globally follow his philosophy of “If you can’t do better, why you do it?”. In addition to our founder’s philosophy, we embody three basic values in all of the geographies we operate in.
Primarily, we act with respect towards people both within our company and in the communities that we work in. We contribute to protecting the environment in all our production processes and the solutions that we manufacture. Finally, we present all these approaches to our stakeholders with integrity.
At
Dow, inclusion and diversity are at the core of our corporate culture. We aim to provide solutions to some of the most important problems of the world.
In order to address these problems, it is necessary to bring together the best minds of the world and their combined knowledge to sustain innovation.
For this, we need to create an environment where all of our employees can feel respected and appreciated, and provide our employees equal opportunities for their career development and progress. Our employee resource groups in our company are the backbone of advancing this understanding.
These groups are established and managed by our employees and focus on many issues ranging from the rights of people with disabilities, to women’s empowerment in the workplace.
Our company was founded by American entrepreneur Herbert Henry Dow, and today we still globally follow his philosophy of “If you can’t do better, why you do it?
Could you tell us about your environmental policies and sustainability activities?
Chemicals industry has an unlimited potential to create social and environmental value. In this sense, we are in a very special position as Dow to provide value both to the business and to our world. 95% of the products manufactured in the world are produced with the inputs of the chemical industry.
In order to make the most of the potential of chemicals, we believe that making sustainability a core and common part of our daily operations is the only way we can operate. Comprehending the full value and potential of the chemicals industry in the society is critical for building trust in chemicals industry.
As Dow, we provide significant contributions to the value chain of many sectors with our customer centric and innovative solutions and we increase the competitiveness of their value chains every day. Our responsibility towards the sustainability performance of our customers is of particular importance.
While we continue to improve our solutions in line with the demands and guidance of our customers, we also achieve results that affect and improve their sustainability performance.
We have been providing solutions that are both competitive and sustainable to the society and the businesses in every geography where we operate in through our sustainability strategy, which first started with our environmental, health and safety targets in 1995.
Today, we are working in line with our 2025 sustainability goals. Within the scope of our targets, we will continue to reduce our carbon footprint, add increasing value to our customers and the society with our products and solutions, and create a model for a sustainable world and society.
