We had a pleasant interview with Hilti Turkey Marketing Director Ms. Özgecan Işıltan
on Hilti’s past, present and future. Mr. Işıltan also touched upon the pandemic and the
recent fires in our country and around the world.
Could you inform your readers about yourselves and your background?
I graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Department of Civil Engineering in 2008. After that, I also completed the graduation program of ITU Structural Engineering.
I started my career as a field engineer and design engineer in construction industry. Afterwards, I continued my career with Hilti Turkey as a Regional Sales Engineer in sales and marketing. At the end of 6 months, I took the position of Firestop Sales Specialist.
I worked with various titles in Hilti; such as Turkey, Central Asia and Northern Iraq Region Product Manager, Temporary Team Service Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Strategic Marketing Manager.
And I have been working as the Marketing Director since April 2020. As a Marketing Director with an engineering background, I carry on leading the marketing team, guiding the business to achieve short-medium-long-term goals for products, services, software and solutions in Turkey, developing business strategies and plans that ensure achievement of company goals, profitability and market integration.
Could you please give information about your service sectors and products?
Hilti was founded in 1941 by Martin Hilti as a small family company in Liechtenstein, one of the smallest countries in the world with an area of 160 square kilometers.
Today, it operates in 6 continents around the world with 120 different 30 thousand employees. It offers high-tech products and solutions in Turkey almost for the last 40 years.
Hilti, which develops tools to encourage R&D, new technologies that can gain health and advantage, innovative products and patented systems; system-drills, cordless systems, direct fastening systems, anchor systems, diamond drilling systems, powder and gas actuated systems, cutting and grinding systems, laser systems and fire stop systems used for fire protection.
However, Hilti has much more than these products. With our equipment, tool park management services, certified HES trainings, engineering services and softwares, we provide our customers with efficiency in their processes and speed in their manufacturing.
In Turkey with our 250 employees, approximately 10 thousand products, 5 stores, and a training and repais service; we serve construction, energy and industry sectors.
Last year was a year in which the effects of the pandemic were felt intensely, and these effects are still not over. How was your company affected by this situation and what measures did it take?
We were handled the pandemic conditions that affected the whole world with our technology and infrastructure, so we activated our integrated service network in order not to be affected by this situation and to ensure the continuity of business processes during the lock down period.
In addition to uninterrupted service in the supply chain, we actively continued our services with digital solutions.
In addition to service solutions such as Ask Hilti, Customer Services, Live Chat, Website, Mobile Applications, Online Collection, Field Team, Repair Service, we also responded to the needs of all stakeholders that make up the value chain of the sector through email and social media accounts.
There are global warming and related fires that have become the most important item on the agenda lately. Could you briefly talk about your contributions to your industry for fires?
As Hilti, we have produced many patented products as a result of our R&D studies. We make a great contribution to building safety by preventing possible damage from fire, thanks to our very large-scale firestop products that have been tested according to the most demanding international standards such as ASTM and EN.
With UL-listed passive firestop systems which we have developed with our innovative technology, we fight against fires that may arise in the energy sector, which is under great danger, as well as in closed areas of buildings and industrial facilities.
According to research, the rate of those who lost their lives due to smoke inhalation during fires caused by inadequate precautions and various reasons, reaches 60% percent. 57% of deaths occur outside the areas where the fire occurred.
This shows that people fled to other areas to get rid of the fire, but lost their lives due to the uncontrollable flame and smoke density.
We minimize possible risks during a fire with our UL-listed firestop products that we have developed based on all these data. We sign systems designed and implemented to prevent the leak of fire, toxic smoke and gases.
Our passive firestop products inflate and close the gaps also help to contain the fire to the place where it originated.
In this way, we prevent fire from spreading out, create a safe environment for people to leave their homes, workplaces, factories or facilities, and create a smokefree air space.
Our passive firestop systems, which maintain their durability and functionality during earthquakes, are not affected by shock loads and impacts by adapting to the movements of the earthquake.
Our Hilti Passive Firestop systems prevent the spread of flame, smoke and toxic gases and temperature rise for up to four hours during a fire. In addition to being fire resistant, our firestop products attract attention with their water tightness and acoustic performance from openings; Helps improve wall, ceiling or floor levels, cables, pipes or joints.
In this way, the spread of fire, smoke and toxic gases is prevented. In our Passive Firestop Systems; there are products that we have developed to maximize safety during fire, such as sealants, sprays, foams, clamps, dressings, bandages, paints, pads, mortars, putties and cable protection paint.
How important is R&D to Hilti? Could you tell us about your R&D projects that you have carried out recently?
In order to protect the health and safety of our users, we invest heavily in R&D and develop new technologies and patented systems. In terms of occupational health and safety, construction tools must be compatible with advanced technology, ergonomic and safe.
As Hilti; with our patented, high quality, out-lasting products, we continue to work so that construction professionals can do their jobs easily, safely, efficiently and healthily, and we aim to minimize accidents in the use of construction tools.
For example, thanks to the Adaptive Torque Control System in our hammer and drill products, the engine stops itself when the tool collides with rebar during the crushing or drilling process.
In this way, we eliminate the risks such as the fall or injury of the craftsman working on the scaffold.
The Adaptive Vibration Reduction feature, which is also included in these products, ensures a healthy and long-term operation by reducing the vibration that occurs while the tool is running.
The powerful Dust Removal System, which removes dust directly and effectively, also contributes to healthy working conditions.
Which production technologies does your company prefer and what is the importance of technological development and digital transformation for you?
At Hilti Turkey, we see technology as part of the solution, but we believe that the most important thing is to successfully implement technology and have the capability to manage change within the organization.
In this context, we try to make a difference in our industry by helping our customers adopt new digital solutions.
With the ON!Track Tool Management System, we enable tracking of all inventories and enable document tracking or consumption management at construction sites.
With Hilti Connect, we enable one-click repair request for all products, watch product video or access purchasing information when requested.
We know that digital transformation requires organizational change management and focusing on people, and with this awareness, we offer on-site application, training and support services for our customers and their teams.
This year, we aim to take our engineering and software service, which we have been successfully running for years,to much further with the power we derive from digitalization.
As the first step of this, we will take our journey that started with BIM (Building Information Modeling) further with MT Modular Support Systems and PLT 300 Advanced Layout Systems.
What are the precautions you have taken while producing for a more sustainable world? In this context, could you describe Hilti’s perspective on sustainability?
With our vision of “building a better future”, we see sustainability as the main force that dominates all processes rather than a goal. From our production processes to our organizational processes, we proceed with the vision of sustainability at every stage, and we attach more importance to sustainability policies than ever before in the face of ecological and social challenges the world is facing.
In this direction, we aim to lead the industry by neutralizing our carbon dioxide emissions until 2023 within the scope of our global sustainability strategy.
At the same time, we plan a safe and healthy future for our customers, employees and business partners with different approaches.
We have made it our priority to build a better world, safer construction sites and healthier societies. Within the scope of our sustainability strategy, we aim to contribute to creating cities that are transformed and made sustainable through clean energy, access to water and innovation.
Our goal is to be a developing and improving organization that facilitates people’s access to health and education, cares about gender equality and contributes to economic growth, solves unemployment in the society, strives for a fair order in education, justice and access to food.
For this, we guide our employees to be committed to Hilti’s company culture, open-minded in communication and development, sensitive to the problems of the society, and support the collective projects that will emerge to create awareness and a better future within the company.
If there is a social responsibility project initiated or led by your company, could you give us information about them?
Hilti’s social obligation has a long history that goes back to the great personal devotion shown by our founder Martin Hilti and his family.
It is possible to divide Hilti’s social responsibility projects into local activities carried out by Hilti employees and projects carried out by the Hilti Foundation at a global level.
Hilti Foundation follows our main principle stated as “We are building a better future”; It supports activities and projects in the fields of “affordable housing”, “disaster relief”, “social development”, “social entrepreneurship”, “culture, science and education” and “professional education and training”.
As Hilti Turkey, which transforms its understanding of social responsibility into tangible benefits, we donate to a different Non-Governmental Organization on behalf of our employees on their birthdays, so that this perceptive is a part of the company culture.
Our cooperation with the Koruncuk Foundation continues in 2021, and we have run for the KAÇUV-My Hope Education project with our volunteer runners in the Istanbul Marathon -we will continue that in the upcoming years.
Every year, we host Umut Cafe, an initiative of KAÇUV, in our head office to support, and we also provide wheelchairs to many people in need with the plastic bottel cap collection project.
In addition, we deliver food packages to people in need before the month of Ramadan. We have projects that we carry out with TİDER in this context.
And we have also cooperated with AHBAP and TEMA, which have worked hard to heal the wounds of natural disasters that occurred in Turkey in the last few months.
In Turkey, which is in seismic zone, many large and small earthquakes occur every year and we all experience the painful consequences of them. As Hilti Turkey, we work with municipalities for the evaluation of structures and with ITU (Istanbul Technical University) on projects for strengthening low-strength concrete. We will continue to work with all our strength to prevent losses in our country in the coming period.
What innovations will you present to the sector in the coming days? Could you evaluate the advantages that these innovations will bring to your company and our country?
At Hilti, we set our targets and investment plans in line with our strategy of ‘Being a sustainable, value-creating organization’.
In this context, digitalization and products, services and software that will increase productivity in the construction industry will continue to be our top priority.
We will continue to increase local production with the partnerships we have established in Turkey.
We will support our business partners and customers in terms of efficiency with the solutions we offer this year, as we have done so far, and enable them to save time and labor.
