Timur Karaoglu, who took over the position of Kaleseramik General Manager from Altug Akbas, is a manager who has spent his entire professional business life at Kale. While talking about Kale's values, Karaoglu emphasized the importance they attach to people and said, “For us, people always come first. Being useful and touching people has been our most important goal in every step we take and in everything we do for many years."
FATMA BATUKAN BELGE
Congrulations on your new position, which you started in March. We see that the senior managers at Kale, especially Ms. Zeynep Bodur, have received engineering training. Is this a coincidence or a particularly preferred feature? Do engineers have more analytical thinking skills?
In our company, we do not have an HR procedure that requires top managers to be engineers, but as you have noticed, engineers have a tendency to become top managers. If we want to explain it in engineering language, we can say that there is a high correlation between these two data. This correlation creates the result of analyzing the relationship between these two data. I also think that the profiles that are naturally taught by our business and social life after engineering education or those who improve themselves in social science fields with additional formation training are the most suitable profiles for senior management candidacy. There is a lot of data in our business environment and business life is rapidly progressing into a complex environment day by day. The analysis of this complex life and the analysis of dense data require a lot of engineering formation. The short answer we will give to the first part of your question with the explanations above is that this is not a coincidence.
You started working at Kale right after your graduation and you have been in the same group for almost 25 years. What values of Kale influenced your formation?
I have spent my entire professional life at Kale Group, with various job changes, and I think this is a great chance. My duties at both Kalekim and Kaleseramik made significant contributions to my knowledge and experience, especially in building product groups. It allowed me to improve myself much more in these areas. I hope to continue doing good work within the group until the end of my business life.
Your knowledge, experience, performance, creativity, development, solutions to problems, business and human relations determine the path you will follow under the roof of Kale. When you look at the employee profile within the company, you can see that there are many people like me who have been working for many years. We cannot say that the existence of such long-term collaborations in our industry, where circulation is so intense, is the success of a single party. Here, there is success arising from both the Kale Group and the employees. If you manage to internalize Kale Group's values, you can have a long-lasting business life. Overtime can be filled anywhere, but there is a concept called being happy and we work happily at Kale Group. Because since the day we were founded, we see ourselves as a family that adopts the principle of adding value to its environment, internalizes the corporate culture, integrates its own goals and values with the corporate vision, and prioritizes innovative thinking, creativity, improvement and developing new ideas…
As a group powered by its values, we always act with this understanding. Of course, everyone's values are very important, but as a Group, we attach special importance to our values that form a bridge from the past to the future. While we do our job in the best way possible in line with our goal-oriented leadership approach and values, we constantly think about how we can make our country and the world more livable. We see contributing to the development of our country and our people in all areas in which we operate as our main priority. As Ms. Zeynep Bodur Okyay stated, “Since the day we were founded, we aim to develop not only on production but also by sharing the values we produce with the society.”
Are there advantages as well as difficulties in working in a deep-rooted and large structure like “Kale” (Castle)?
My general view in business life is that difficulties are the reason we exist in these positions. The sentence of our founder, Mr. İbrahim Bodur, "seek the challenge" is the guide for this view. The challenges of our group also vary from company to company. The most important challenge is to manage our company in accordance with its high values, which have continued and developed since the day it was founded, and to exhibit behaviors in line with these values. Demonstrating these values to our colleagues and setting an example is, for me, the most important thing we have to achieve, besides the commercial difficulties.
The theme of “sustainability” has been prominent among your strategies for several years. What is “sustainable value” for you?
We aim to create value in every field we operate for a better world. In this context, Kale Group opened the doors to a brand new process and launched the 'Care For Your World' movement. As Kaleseramik, we prioritize investing in impact-oriented circular projects for a sustainable future within the framework of the 'Care For Your World' movement of the Kale Group, of which we are a part. Within the framework of 'Care For Your World' vision, we argue that everyone has a responsibility for a more equal, fairer and greener world, and we aim to raise conscious awareness and inspire everyone to take action. With our North Star Vision, we work to add new meaning to living spaces and shape many elements, from internal processes to business culture, within the framework of this vision.
The North Star vision, which forms the basis of our company vision as Kaleseramik, was built on the core values of "Human-Design-Innovation". As Kaleseramik, we act within the framework of a common goal and cause, from the smallest step we take to the investments we make, and we take the North Star vision as our bearing.
The DNA of Kale Group and Kaleseramik includes protecting production, design, our cultural heritage, values, artists and architecture.
For us, people always come first. Being useful and touching people has been our most important goal in every step we take and in everything we do for many years. We believe that we should be fighting on the field, not complaining about the global challenges we face today. We continue our initiatives to create permanent social benefit in Turkiye or beyond our borders with the 'Care For Your World' movement, which we carry out with the approach ‘Home is Your World, World is Your Home’.
We continue to support the steps we take in terms of sustainability with our projects that will provide social benefit.
As Kaleseramik, we believe that it is our responsibility to lead social transformation in order to continue our success in our business and to contribute to a sustainable future by managing our impact on the world. By focusing on Kale Group's # CareForYourWorld approach, we aim to trigger meaningful transformations that shape the future and improve the world. In addition to adding meaning to living spaces with our innovative products, we bring to life projects that touch social life with a social responsibility approach.
In this context, we see the work done in the fields of design, architecture and art as an investment in the future for a more developed society. In accordance with our responsible and sensitive leadership approach, we plan our social benefit-oriented work as a business model, not as social responsibility, and we act in cooperation with communities that feel responsible and have the courage to take action for a more equal, fairer and greener world.
Kaleseramik was recently opened to the public. Last Ceramics Festival, a gong was rung at Borsa Istanbul to represent this. Will we hear about new investments?
We celebrated two holidays together on July 27 Ceramics Festival, which is the 66th anniversary of our group. We went public in line with our goal of creating a larger and stronger Kaleseramik both at home and abroad. We put into service the 3rd Kalesinterflex Porcelain Plate Production Line, which we see as a turning point for our global brand journey and further strengthens our position in the global market.
We started 2024 with investment again. We took the first step of a new investment in the Iraq and Middle East markets, where we are strong. In line with our goals for international markets, we purchased 49% of Al-Sadaf Porcelain company operating in Iraq. With this new investment, which we made for approximately 17 million 699 thousand 564 TL, we also gained management control of Al-Sadaf Porcelain. We believe that this investment will create new opportunities for us in the region.
In addition, in order to further strengthen our position as a 'brand in demand' in international markets, we opened our new 400 m2 store in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Our new store, which we opened together with Shanta Holding, is the third pillar of our investments in the Asian market, after Pakistan and India. We have created a concept where our retail customers can meet all their needs in a single showroom. In this region, where there is great interest in innovative products, we aim to dominate the market in the porcelain plate channel, especially with Kalesinterflex. In addition, it was a source of pride and joy for us to fly our flag on Kemal Ataturk Avenue in Dhaka, named after our Great Leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in this far corner of the world on the 100th anniversary of our Republic.
As the Kale of these lands, we plan to continue our path in 2024 with our investments in people and the future by supporting our sustainable production technology with clean energy investments, especially SPP (Solar Power Plant).
These breakthroughs, which we implemented on the 100th anniversary of our Republic, further strengthened our position as a country in the global ceramics industry. In the new century, we will continue to work with all our strength to move Kaleseramik, Kale Group and our country further, with the vision of the Great Leader Ataturk, based on the principles and values of our Republic. We will continue to move forward for new and greater achievements in the new century of our Republic, whose 100th anniversary we celebrate with the pride and excitement of the first day.
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