Miller Magazine Issue 107 / November 2018

65 MILLER / NOVEMBER 2018 INTERVIEW duction as well as exportation. He stressed that Turkish flour sector can sustain its pioneering role in exports with products of high added value and overcome the current hand-wringing period. He talked about the ways to be followed for Turkey to become a country that is a net grains exporter. Ozmen Un CEO Erhan Ozmen is a highly active figure not only in the business world but also within non-go- vernmental organizations. He is also the chairman of the board of Southeast Turkey Flour Industrialists’ Associati- on (GUSAD), member of the High Advisory Board of the Young Businessmen Confederation of Turkey (TUGIK), member of the board of Gazisehir Gaziantep Football Club. He is also a columnist for daily Sabah newspa- per for nearly 15 years and a volunteer for a number of NGOs. According to Ozmen, the secret of his success in both business and volunteering activities can be formu- lated as “Right system, efficient responsibility, qualified human resources”. He expresses that synchronized re- sults by the help of these principles make him forget his tiredness and brings him an incredible joy, happiness and energy instead. Erhan Ozmen now enjoys the pleasure of investing in technology and R&D with his son Oguz Ozmen, the 4th generation who has started to carry their flag. Erhan Ozmen’s dream is to witness a “developed Turkish nation” soon. Here are sincere answers of Erhan Ozmen, one of the doyens of Turkish milling industry for which he spares no efforts in order to develop further. Mr. Ozmen, we know you well. But we want to introduce you to our readers. Would you please talk about yourself? How did you get a start in business? I found myself in the industry as a flour manufacturer thanks to my grandfather Hursit Ozmen. He entered this sector and my father Sakir Ozmen kept the business go- ing. The most important element that attached me to this industry was the creative and innovative potential I foresaw. My son Oguz Ozmen as the 4th generation has been carrying our flag for the last 4 years. You took over a family-owned company that was incorporated by your grandfather and brought it to these days. Would you please tell us about challenges of a family-owned enterprise? Unfortunately you don’t have the opportunity to bring your projects into action in short period of time when you manage an enterprise with a number of different perspe- ctives, a small capital and marginal capacity. However, you have to come through a period of time with some challenges in order to improve and gain experience. When you overcome all these challenges, you realize that they are indeed opportunities to improve yourself. You are the CEO of Ozmen UN, Chairman of the board of GUSAD, member of the High Advisory Board TUGIK, member of the board of Gazisehir Gaziantep Football Club. You are also a columnist and a NGO volunteer... How is an ordinary day of Erhan Özmen? I allocate most of my time for my family and compa- nies. If you want to lead companies and NGOs you are responsible for to success you have to make them nati- onal brands and also integrate them to the world. Beco- ming professional and going further in a short period of time is something hard for Turkey since we do not have many qualified professionals. Therefore you have work hard to set up a system in order to follow your projects and tasks you delegate. If you achieve to do this proper- ly, you can make those NGOs successful organizations in fulfilling their tasks. How can you achieve to manage this busy pace? A sustainable working environment can be created anywhere by designing and implementing rules and sys- tems in the right way and undertaking responsibilities in a serious way. In addition, the positive impact of quali- fied white and blue-collar workers will make it easy for managers to lead a company or NGO. Right system, ef- ficient responsibility, qualified human resources and syn- chronized results by the help of these make them forget their tiredness and bring them an incredible joy, happi- ness and energy instead. Would you please give us detailed information about the new factory of Ozmen Un which is equip- ped with Industry 4.0 technology? Our newly inaugurated Industry 4.0 mill has the most advanced technologies, the highest food safety environ- ment and the opportunity to meet customer expectati- ons with the ability of applying one percent mixture. Less than a dozen of blue-collar workers are employed in our mill where Kraft packages are done by automatized mac- hines and robots and delivery can be done from 6 points simultaneously. That is to say we do not require human force in our manufacturing environment. Only white-col- lar colleagues take part in product development, quality check and food safety documents. Ambient temperatu- re level for the 22 thousand square meter closed area is stabilized in all seasons thanks to isolation applied to all