Turkish Airport Services Company Chief İs A People Person
"The services business is about people. Understanding the customers, communicating with partners, building a great staff," says Mustafa Sani Sener, CEO of the Turkish airport services company TAV.
At the Financial Times Summit on the Turkish economy last Wednesday, Sener is eager to explain how his global airport services company was able to work in so many different markets, from Qatar to Houston, Texas.
"The Turkish humanistic side is good," Sener says. "We have been able to build on that as we work in diverse cultures. Happy employees make happy customers: you need one to have the other."
But there are other factors too. "In global business, human communication, finance and technical competencies are all important," Sener explains.
Today, TAV Airports runs operations in four of Turkey's largest cities, as well as in major airports in Georgia, Tunisia, Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, and Croatia.
TAV Holding also operates in other areas of airport operations including duty-free, food and beverage, ground handling services, IT, security and operation services. For instance, TAV Airports runs the duty-free, food and beverage and other commercial areas at Riga Airport in Latvia, and has similar operations in Houston in the United States.
In 2014, the company provided services for 743,000 flights and 95 million passengers. And TAV construction has $16 billion in contracts and is now rated by Engineering News Record as the world's second-largest airport contractor.
"There are international companies and global companies," Sener comments. "Ferrari is an international company; Toyota is a global company. We are a global company."
For Sener, global success is in people and connectivity: "You get the right strategy for the target, you get the right people in the seat, and then you get them to implement the strategy like crazy -- this is the formula for the success of TAV."
Having the best technology is also one of the drivers of this kind of success, Sener says.
"We've worked in airports since 1997, that's what we do," Sener says. "As a result, we have developed best-practice proprietary technology -- our CIO (chief information officer) was just named 'Turkey's Best CIO' at the International Data Corporation Turkey 2015 CIO Summit. Our solutions are used at airports all over the world. This makes us competitive in global markets -- running an airport in one country is not necessarily very different from doing it in another one, apart from regulatory issues."
Attention to detail is a key factor, Sener says. "They say, success is in attention to detail, but they also say 'the devil is in the details.' If you work fast, and you work hard, and you work carefully, then there's success in the details."
So, for Sener, it all comes back to the people. A carefully trained capable staff, one that knows how to evaluate the details, one that understands how to communicate across cultures, is what drives success, he says.
"Efficiency in itself is not important," Sener comments. "You can be fantastically efficient and still be doing the wrong things. What's needed is to do the right things, and then to become really efficient at them."
www.aa.com.tr/en
Kaynak: AA
"The Turkish humanistic side is good," Sener says. "We have been able to build on that as we work in diverse cultures. Happy employees make happy customers: you need one to have the other."
But there are other factors too. "In global business, human communication, finance and technical competencies are all important," Sener explains.
Today, TAV Airports runs operations in four of Turkey's largest cities, as well as in major airports in Georgia, Tunisia, Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, and Croatia.
TAV Holding also operates in other areas of airport operations including duty-free, food and beverage, ground handling services, IT, security and operation services. For instance, TAV Airports runs the duty-free, food and beverage and other commercial areas at Riga Airport in Latvia, and has similar operations in Houston in the United States.
In 2014, the company provided services for 743,000 flights and 95 million passengers. And TAV construction has $16 billion in contracts and is now rated by Engineering News Record as the world's second-largest airport contractor.
"There are international companies and global companies," Sener comments. "Ferrari is an international company; Toyota is a global company. We are a global company."
For Sener, global success is in people and connectivity: "You get the right strategy for the target, you get the right people in the seat, and then you get them to implement the strategy like crazy -- this is the formula for the success of TAV."
Having the best technology is also one of the drivers of this kind of success, Sener says.
"We've worked in airports since 1997, that's what we do," Sener says. "As a result, we have developed best-practice proprietary technology -- our CIO (chief information officer) was just named 'Turkey's Best CIO' at the International Data Corporation Turkey 2015 CIO Summit. Our solutions are used at airports all over the world. This makes us competitive in global markets -- running an airport in one country is not necessarily very different from doing it in another one, apart from regulatory issues."
Attention to detail is a key factor, Sener says. "They say, success is in attention to detail, but they also say 'the devil is in the details.' If you work fast, and you work hard, and you work carefully, then there's success in the details."
So, for Sener, it all comes back to the people. A carefully trained capable staff, one that knows how to evaluate the details, one that understands how to communicate across cultures, is what drives success, he says.
"Efficiency in itself is not important," Sener comments. "You can be fantastically efficient and still be doing the wrong things. What's needed is to do the right things, and then to become really efficient at them."
www.aa.com.tr/en