Honesty, Gate to Trust in Relations - Part 2

Finally in the evening we reached to Nis in Yugoslavia, the country united under Tito’s leadership at that time. In other words, today’s Serbia was where we were going to have our first night stay.

According to my instructions at the reference file, I was going to check in the group with all the passports, coupling the singles according to the agreed on match at the passenger list. Then I had to make sure that I announce to the group the dinnertime and location while handing out the keys. The dinner should be 30 minutes after the check-in, not later, as the group needed the rest for the next day when we would be having a very tiring drive, the longest, crossing Yugoslavian plains through mostly corn fields all the way down to Italian border to have our 2^nd night stopover at Ljubljana, a beautiful green town within vineyards.

Here we go! To my surprise, as not mentioned in my reference file, nobody spoke English at the reception. Thanks God, the group was busy sorting and picking up their luggage at the bus while I was rushing to the reception with the passports in my hand. It was German, to unlock the communication problem that they can speak as foreign language! Again at my college days, I had one year of German. There I forced my memory to build a meaningful sentence to express my needs but found out that the reception was very familiar with our paperwork, passenger list as coupled. They immediately started to write down on the copy the room numbers and handed the keys over to me. Great! I moved in my mind to the next task of setting up the dinnertime. Then I asked the elderly guy auf Deutsch “Wann konnen wir zu Abend essen?. He looked at the big clock hung on the wall of the reception and replied “ Um halb acht”. It was a couple of minutes past seven and he was telling me, the way I translated in my mind, “At half past eight”. That was a problem! How would I negotiate to take it at most half an hour after the check-in? The group was already behind me waiting for the key distribution and the announcement of reasonable time for the dinner!

I decided to postpone the solution to the time when I would be alone with the reception hurdle. So, I made a quick announcement to my group “ I will distribute your room keys now, please have a rest, take shower. I know it has been very tiring day today for all of you. We have a slight issue for dinnertime; however, I will go and see the manager to sort it out. Currently, the dinner will be at 8:30. I know it is late and my aim is to get it as soon as possible. I will call your rooms to let you know if there is any change. Thank you.”

Once all are gone. I went back to my elderly reception supervisor and very kindly asked him with the best of my German mixed with “pantomime” “ Um halb acht! No!” indicating my stomach “Wir have hunger”, releasing my shoulders down with arms loosely hanging down “Wir sind tired” and begging “Wir mus abend essen um halb sieben, bitte”. He looked at me, looked at the wall clock behind and once again looked at me if I was looking at the clock with him! It was almost 7:20pm.

I nodded my confirmation of the time awareness. He looked confused and decided to use my way to communicate. He took a piece of paper and a pen, drew a clock. He then put the arms of the clock indicating 6:30 and said to me “Halb Sieben!” interrupting me to say anything, drew another clock showing 7:30, said loudly and slowly “ Halb acht!” and added “ Bosphor Tourism dinner! Um halb acht!” Smiled back.

I smiled back and said “Danke schon!” thinking that he was wrong at the time even auf Deutsch, nevertheless we have agreed on the same time on the paper as at 730 dinnertime!

Great. Of course, I did not know at that time the way to say the time is different than English in German which I learned later on.

I called the group rooms one by one telling them my success story and inviting them to the dinner hall.

It was about 17 hours day for me, but felt like never ending one! I had still 15 days to go with this group with my lies! I judged very quickly that it would not work out, to carry my duty with all the lies, trying to cover up at every moment, fearing that it will burst out any moment. No way!

Next morning, after breakfast, we all boarded our dear bus, Mercedes 0302, to head for the crossing of Yugoslavia. At my morning announcement, I gave the summary of our daily agenda and told my group that I have a personal addendum to my speech. I told them the truth of my first trip with Bosphor Tourism and more my first time abroad! However, I confirmed my commitment, accountability to make this trip a pleasant experience for them. I had got all the training from my manager, have all the empowerment from my company to assist them, lead them and help them.

That day onwards, I was my real self with the confidence, dedication to complete my task and achieve my objective of making the tour a marvelous experience for my group. We ended up having a great 16 days with no specific issues. This also showed up at the survey where the group rated me as well. On the way back, I told my boss that I told them the truth but completed my task. I added “if you will fire me because of this, you have all the rights to do so. At the end of the day, I’ve got a great life experience to lead people at a journey that I never had before but well equipped with the preparations and guidance references.”

I kept my job, became the most experienced tour leader with all happy groups and later learned the importance of networking at my last tour that had helped me to go back to my university studies. However, this story will be another episode later.

Honesty, Gate to Trust in Relations - Part 1

It was May 16^th 1977 in front of Bosfor Turizm office at Mete Caddesi Taksim, Istanbul. The group of people, tourists, gathered to complete their final registration before boarding the bus, Mercedes 0302, that will take them for the Central European Tour of 16 days. They were excited, anxious, and inpatient to get on the bus and meet their drivers and the tour guide who are going to take care of them during this trip and make it a happy memorable event.

Finally, they got on the bus at their first day seats; the seating would be rotating each day giving equal chance for each passenger to share the benefits. Ahmet Bozkurt, the Manager of the Tour Department, my boss, got on the front entrance of the bus with me next to him, in my brown suit and having my slim haircut. He introduced me within 3 minutes talking about my friendly, joyful and caring character; then my strong education at Robert College where I attained my very strong language capability; and finally, my touring experience in Europe with Bosfor Tourism for many trips that I had completed with a very good references from the previous guests that I had accompanied.

While I was building my self-confidence and trust during the first two parts of his speech, I suddenly got shocked and lost all at his last part. The truth was that I had never been abroad before and this would be my first trip as tour guide with Bosfor Tourism.

I jumped down the bus with him and looked at him with my fully opened eyes in shock! Confidently, he assured me of his trust by holding my shoulders and said, “ I trust you, and you have the right attitude to manage this trip. I taught you all theoretically to do at every step. You have your reference file with you and the best company captains –drivers- too.”

Then he hugged me tightly and added, “ Go on, get on with this” while pushing me up into the bus back.

As we were leaving on our trip having Yilmaz Captain at the steering wheel, I faced the group of 20, not full capacity as this was the first tour of the season, and started my “welcoming speech” with the microphone in my hand that I had memorized and know by heart very well. During my speech, as the words were automatically flowing out of my fully dried mouth, my mind was trying to digest the situation where I have to act.

In 1977, there was no highway from Istanbul to Edirne and to the boarder at Edirnekapi, crossing in Bulgaria. On the road, I had to read the touristic announcements as we passed through the towns and points of interests such as the old bridge built by Mimar (architect) Sinan in Silivri during 16^th century, the Army barracks in Corlu and Selimiye Mosque in Edirne.

At the boarder, I collected all the passports and the bus registration, insurance papers together with the passenger list and declarations (1977 was the last year that Turkish Citizens were travelling to European countries without visa with the exception of Bulgarian transit visa. However, they were only allowed to have maximum of USD 400.00/year as foreign currency for touristic purposes that they can purchase from the Central Bank at official rates). I knew from my boss’ teachings what to do in order to clear the bus and my group from the immigration and the customs. I rushed through the lines, used my tour guide outfit – I had been told to – to move front in the lines as our company was well known and recognized.

It was the last stage that I had to get the final signature from the officer on my papers for the final clearance to drive out of Turkey. The officer in the booth examined all the paperwork slowly and asked me if I am new at Bosfor Tourism. I nodded but immediately added that I had been taught to make all paperwork according to the requirements so there should not be any problem. He looked at me and said “yes, I agree no major issues to bother, however, I need to correct some wording at the declarations not to cause any problem if we have any inspection.” Then he asked my pen to do so. I gave my personal “Parker” pen quickly. He scribbled on some notes that I could not read at all and handed over the papers. “Everything is fine now. Have a good trip!” I waited for a moment to get my “Parker” pen back. He looked at me with a fatherly smile “So, you are new. I’ll keep your pen as a souvenir”. Well, I said, “Here we go. I’m learning” and waved bye to rush back to my group.

Back at the bus, I also learned that “when you leave the group unattended, it is a big hassle to gather them back in the bus together.” This was going to be a frequent fact to face, unfortunately.

Moving out of the Bulgarian border, I opened my file for the announcement sitting in the front and reminding myself that I am abroad for the first time in life out of Turkey at the age of 20!

Soon, I was out of my dreams back to the reality of the fact that I could not read the damned signboards! They were, of course, all in Cyrillic alphabet. My boss’s bible, my reference file did not have any explanation on that! So, I decided to read the announcements one by one as we passed through the towns. After all, the group did not where we would be. I also hoped that nobody would be able to read the Cyrillic.

As I started implementing my decision, I had read the announcement for Plovdiv, Filibe in Turkish, talking about the Ottoman roots back in the history for Filibe. To my wonder, the town was rather small compared to the extensive information given in my file. At that moment, I said fine. However, I got worried looking at the smiling face of Yilmaz Captain at the steering wheel. He turned to me and winked happily. I curiously asked, “Is everything OK?” He replied softly, “Yes but get ready for the storm!”

Soon, I realized what the storm was! Here we go! We were driving into a big city with a signboard that Bulgarian authorities bothered to put in “Latin Alphabet” too. It was “PLOVDIV” in Latin of which I had made the announcement that we passed through! Quickly, I decided to keep silent and wait the reaction from the group. If nothing would come out then I could be back on track!

Unfortunately, a lady sitting at number 2, the first row on the right of the bus, with a full front view of the signboard, realized that we just arrived at “PLOVDIV”. First, she kindly asked me “But this is Plovdiv! Did we not pass through this town before?” I ignored. Then she asked louder second time “Fahhan bey, is this Plovdiv again?” Trying to think a quick way out, I pretended that I was studying my file. When the gentleman behind her also joined in the protest, I had to stand up, turn around with the mike in my hand, facing the group with all questioning face, gained a few more seconds as if I’m adjusting the sound level to make sure that everybody can understand the solution to the puzzle of “PLOVDIV” – by that time, the murmurs of the front row had assured all fellow passengers to know about the “Plovdiv” dilemma, including our second captain who was catching a nap on top of the last 5 seats -.

I said, “The story of Filibe is very interesting showing the mighty power of Ottomans. When Ottomans built Filibe, it was at the original place that I have made the announcement, the one we passed through already. The city was green, small, cozy and beautiful to live in. Here, Bulgarians built the big, concrete, gray and ugly city, the New Filibe, or called “PLOVDIV” after their independence from Ottoman Empire. They wanted to demonstrate that they could build better “FILIBE” than the Ottomans. I am happy that our dear lady passenger sitting at number 2 noticed the signboard of “New Filibe”, giving me a chance to explain to you this historical fact!

Now, let’s be patient to observe this city as we drive through and then I will ask your opinion on which “Filibe” is more beautiful”

Thanks God, those were the days of “No Mobile” and “No Internet”! This gave me the option to open a debate, interact, walk through the bus, and chat one by one with my group as I had broken the ice between the lies and me! Then I ignored all the rest of the announcements until Sophia where again the city name was clearly written on the signboard in Latin!

Introduction,

My name is Fahhan Ozcelik, born in Ankara Turkey on March 29, 1957. 

My brief description of the professional career is;  a Senior Business Executive with 20+  year career driving growth,  profitability & operational excellence in  multinational companies as a highly skilled professional with extensive operating experience in start-ups, acquisitions and turn around in multinational and multi industry environments who achieved consistent delivery of profitable growth behind strong strategies to the vision, best of the best organizations, execution excellence, and developing a sustainable and dynamic product portfolio.

This honestly sounds like bragging! However, one needs to brag at this stage rather than being modest in our World today.

Since my birth, I can say that I had gone through critical passages in my life where at the end I had to make critical decisions for my pathway to move forward. I believe, this statement  is very valid for anybody else around me.

So, in order to be able to brag as above, I can point out these critical milestones for me as;

-      My forced entry to Robert College at High School by my mother’s wishes in 1971 (never regretted her decision on my behalf after my graduation though before I used every opportunity to terrorize her with my discomfort that I regretted a lot)

-      My decision to become a Tour Leader after my University gone on indefinite closure due to student activities in 1977 (been a turn point in my life building self-confidence and learning my talent for leadership)

-      My balanced choice of continuing my education in spite of a wonderful tourism lifestyle that I had been enjoying a lot in 1977 (I learned that the coincidences and networking can help individuals a lot)

-      My direction to complete my studies for the business life-entry invitation in 1980 (I learned from a great teacher of mine after he failed me that there are things that you have to do even you don’t like to reach your ultimate aim)

-      My ambition to become an entrepreneur and learning curve to learn how naïve I am in 1983 (I took the dire territorial choice to speed up building my capital but learned one can still make the best out of the worst with the right will)

-      My awakening to for what I enjoy in professional life combining the talent I have and the challenge I face in 1986 (I found the dynamic environment with people interaction is what I am looking for)

-      My floating in emotions in 1992 (I ended up in vacuum of my career but managed to put my course back in order, good learning for the future that I did not know at that time)

-      My life and career moved into the accelerated growth path in 1994 (met my future wife and my tough but fair boss)

-      My serious industry change in career in 1999 (never dreamed to be in FMCG & ended up there)

-      My financial hit forced me to swallow my self-promise in 2001 (learned to say never again and be open-minded for the opportunities)

-      My soft landing to another industry change in 2008 (again networking worked for me)

Currently, we are going through another phase of the change management both in our personal life and the career decision. So far, we moved in Belgium, I also have Belgian citizenship, for our daughter’s education in the direction she would like to have. I went through a chaotic phase of my life, that I can count as an added experience now. As for the career side, I am testing myself this time not in a different industry but on a different platform.

So far so good for my first writing, I will continue sharing in depth my life and work experiences with a focus on the character traits in social life and leadership imperatives in management.

Out of the Box, moving out of my comfort zone

It was April 1977 in Istanbul, Turkey. I think, giving a background of those days might be helpful to understand my courage and commitment to make my move out of the comfort zone. I was twenty years old at the end of the March and a university student at METU (Middle East Technical University) in Ankara, studying Electrical Engineering. The school was closed down indefinitely during February as the result of student boycott extending the demand to change the rector, known as, for the people familiar with those days, Hasan Tan (the rector) boycott. 

Back in Istanbul, I enjoyed my freedom away from the politicized days of METU for a while. Then the bare fact of being idle and useless at the age of twenty struck me. I had to do something at least work to be productive, learn the life experience while waiting for the school to be opened again. The reality of my grades during the last semester before the school closed down being awfully bad was another factor for my need to focus on having a job. If we were to go back to education, I would be failing the classes at that semester. 

Anyhow, I thought of my situation and put down my strengths and weaknesses from a job opportunity perspective. I had a good language capability of English due to my studies at Robert College at high school level. Secondly, I managed to get through the inter-university exams to enter at METU Electrical Engineering, so I can put being a smart person at my strengths. A healthy, young, physically normal individual was another point. However, no job experience, other than the obligatory summer vocational trainings that I had to complete, was the weak part.

So, relying on the fact of my language capability and the approaching summer touristic season, I decided to start knocking on the doors of the tourism & travel agencies at cold-calls. In Istanbul, almost all of them were having their offices at those years on Elmadag Avenue. I got on the bus with a smart outfit and reached to Taksim square where Elmadag Avenue starts. After a couple of calls, not even managing to talk to anybody to explain my capabilities and willingness to work and contribute up to my utmost energy to their mission, I had a discouraged motive. I started wandering at Taksim Gezi park. Finally ended up in deeply demotivated mood on a bench overlooking at Mete Street, I had to review my speech and find a way to get their attention to listen to me.

I started thinking from their point of view. What do they expect from a person walking in to their office? Only one thing; to be a potential customer to buy a ticket, or a tour! So, that's what I have to do, in order to get the attention! Wow, I was impressed with my innovative approach for the new strategy! Now the question was how would I change the direction of the conversation to what I need, to ask for a job? Definitely, I should be asking for an out-going tour information and ask for the quality of the attention, care, and knowledge of the foreign lands that will be provided by the accompanying guide who will also be in charge of the tour. Then I should jump into the prospect for that job that actually fits me. This way my story would be completing the picture of a win-win formula. I would be able to go out with the tour abroad, they would be having a good tour guide to make the group happy! 

Sounded good, attractive and exciting! I raised my head and saw the signboard of "Bosfor Tourism" right across the street.

Though it was noon time, lunch break, there was a young, tall and friendly looking man in there and nobody else! Good environment to try out my approach, I thought, moved out!

He welcomed me very friendly manner, that I had thought of. Of course, being a customer prospect, helped my situation to be welcomed there too. As he was explaining of the up coming summer bus tours to Europe, I jumped into my job request speech, a bit earlier that I had planned. He paused and waited for me to finish my hurried up long sentence that ended up as "I believe that I am the right for your tours as the tour guide". The more nervous I was getting, the calmer he asked "So, tell me why do you think you are the right fit?" I explained all my strengths that I had already listed in my head.

He listened and asked again "Not being abroad once in life, without considering even the route that we have for the tour, how would you believe that you could manage to take a really good care of the group?" That was the point that I had not listed on my weakness area, and caught awkwardly bad! He continued by changing the subject to METU "so tell me about your METU story and the closure of the school" I calmed down at a comfort area question that he asked. I had been very informative in explaining the case of the boycott. He told me that he was an graduate of METU, Business Administration Faculty. He said "you have the right attitude and willingness for the job that you don't know at all. I will talk with the other managers here and call you back. Give me a contact number, and don't worry we can make you ready for the task and teach you all about the job". What a relief, I had, by being not obliged to go back to the most difficult question he had asked previously! So, I gave my number and walked out!

Next day, he called back asking me to come to their office on Monday and start the job as the trainee for Tour Guide of Out-going tours. He said I had to work hard for two weeks to come to learn all about being one.

I had managed to get the job but the challenge was to be successful as I promised to him and to myself!