“Without empathy, a leader is missing a key ingredient to success.” – Ahmet Zeytinoglu, CEO at Sodexo Onsite Services Turkey, speaks to us about developing a career in Leadership.
As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some CEOs and business leaders to share the secrets of their success.
This week, we had a great conversation with Ahemt Zeytinoglu at Sodexo Onsite Services Turkey, who began his career working as an engineer and Production Manager. In 1998, Ahmet became the Assistant Technical Office Manager at GAMA Holding A.S. where he stayed for three years before joining Ingersoll Rand as Production Manager in 2001. In 2003, he joined 3M as their Production and Outsourcing Manager where he worked before becoming Industrial Operations Manager at Perfetti Van Melle in 2006.
In 2006, Ahmet became Factory Manager at Ülker. In 2010 he switched to the services sector and became General Manager of Catering Services at ISS A/S. After three and a half years at ISS, Ahmet left to join his current company, Sodexo, becoming their CEO for Turkey in September 2014.
Can you tell us what your organisation is working towards / stands for?
I’ve been the CEO of Sodexo Turkey onsite services since 2014. We are an integrated facility management company with around 5,000 people working for us in Turkey, and over 400,000 globally. Sodexo started operations in Turkey in 1992 and we are one of the largest integrated services companies. Primarily we provide catering, cleaning and facility management services including maintenance, technical and electrical aspects.
What are the biggest challenges in your industry right now?
In my opinion, the most important thing for any company is people. Since I started as CEO I have really focused on the motivation and engagement of our people. As a service company, our employees are at the centre of everything. We have lots of innovation however, the clients understand our company through our people because that’s who they interact with, hence face to face communication is so important. In order to understand our people we conduct engagement surveys. In 2014 engagement was around 44%, today it is around 76%.
Tell me about your journey into Leadership – how did it start, when did you know or when did someone tell you you’d be a great leader?
I have a mechanical engineering background and when I started working my aim was to be a factory owner. I began working in a small manufacturing company with around 15 people that was a sub-contractor of New Holland Tractors. After the economic crisis of the 2000s, I switched my career to working with corporates rather than trying to be an entrepreneur. I began working at a British company that had a factory in Turkey producing car parts. I worked as a production manager before becoming a factory manager and then managing multiple factories.
In 2006, after 13 years working in production, I decided I wanted to move away from the factory environment. I was ready for a change and discovered I would be well suited to the service sector, which was booming in Turkey. I convinced ISS, a competitor to my current company, to hire me as General Manager. Although it was a big change, I was able to show them that at my factories I was managing 600 people, I was familiar with food production and other aspects of general management, like cleaning.
I was the first general manager with an engineering background in our sector in Turkey. I worked hard and had a lot to learn. I was very successful at ISS, I grew the business by 300% in three years. Sodexo heard about my achievements and invited me to work with them in 2014.
How do you define a great leader?
In Turkish culture, and the Mediterranean region, leadership is very important, but we also treat each other like brothers. I do not behave like a CEO, I behave like a regional manager or operations director – everyone can reach me. Anyone working for us can contact me by phone or messenger and I solve all problems that I can solve.
I believe a leader should be available and open. At Sodexo we have a very effective ethics committee that I’m a part of and we communicate with our people directly. I drive 5,000 km per month to visit our sites and speak to our people. Every site will receive a visit from me once in six months and my managers can communicate transparently with me so we can see what the problems are.
In our organisation, I do the final interviews for white-collar jobs. I don’t ask them about their experience, rather I ask about their character and their ego. I tell them three things are very important in our sector: health and safety, food quality, and diversity and inclusion.
We are very strict about sexual harassment and any issues that might arise on our sites. In Sodexo Turkey, 40% of our people are female. I am a professional women’s network equity ambassador and I will do everything I can to make everyone feel safe and included in our workplace. It is going well and we’re seeing positive results in our people engagement and happiness levels.
What’s the best piece of advice anyones ever given you?
My father worked at construction companies and it was because of him that I became an engineer. He told me that you have to behave as you are. Don’t change yourself to suit a role. For me, communication and good relations with people are really important.
What’s the best piece of advice you could offer someone in a leadership role?
Firstly, work hard. Secondly, experience different things and when you see something new that you can learn, jump in. A combination of experiences is important and valuable.
Thirdly, communication is priceless. You can have the highest IQ but in business life if you don’t have communication skills and a network it is meaningless. Empathy is also very important. Without empathy, a leader is missing a key ingredient to success.
Who’s one leader (past or present) you admire and why?
The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, is someone I admire. When there are big problems I follow him because he’s achieved a lot of things, especially in education.
Sodexo’s ex-President is someone whose behaviour I also admire. He came to Turkey and recruited me for the job. He graduated from a French university and he has a very deep knowledge in business leadership. The combination of those is very beneficial for me and I’ve learnt a lot from him.
What are you reading right now? What are your book recommendations?
The Life of Bill Gates was very striking for me. Before I read it I thought of him only as an IT man, but there was a huge amount of strategy and thinking involved in what he achieved. In addition, he’s always working to improve himself and now he’s one of the richest men in the world he is working to cure illnesses. Mainly I read books about CEO and business owners’ lives, but I also love the Godfather!
What will be happening in your business over the next 6-12 months?
Since the start of 2022 we have had busy days because of high inflation, which is usually good for our company. Firstly, we will continue to invest in people, this is never ending. We support around 2,500 female students to attend secondary school, and have also recruited some of them into our business once they finish school. That’s priceless, it’s the best thing I’ve done in my life.
We also have a Stop Hunger project. Rather than giving money we provide training so they can earn their own money. This year we are also launching several D&I projects. And of course we will continue to grow, hopefully aggressively. Financially, the CEO responsibilities are always there and since I started we have tripled our volume. We will keep on increasing our efficiency, investing in people and leading our competition.
Ahmet has been the CEO of Sodexo Turkey since 2014. The company operates in 55 countries and has over 400,000 employees worldwide.