“When we look at it from this perspective, enterprises need to be able to operate very fast and flexibly,” Anadolu Efes CIO Murat zkan said, adding that we may talk about new normals that are expected to enter our lives in the next two years. In addition to speed and flexibility, becoming a fully data-driven firm is required. In addition to being data-oriented, it is vital to use data effectively, democratize, and be mobile-compatible.
Murat Özkan has been a professional fixture for many years. A successful professional with 26 years of experience in the FMCG industry. Throughout the 17-year period, he held numerous jobs within Philip Morris International. After that, zkan worked for 4.5 years at Yıldız Holding, including Ülker and Pladis Global, until joining the Anadolu Efes family in April 2019. Following this date, we spoke with Anadolu Efes CIO Murat Özkan, who spearheaded the company’s digital transformation and excellence journey, on technological transformation, the importance of data in the digitalization process, and the future FMCG sector.
How did you deal with the pandemic as a group? What steps have you done in your business?
As Anadolu Efes, we began our digital transformation and excellence journey in March 2020, which we planned for in 2019. COVID-19 entered our life almost immediately after we began this adventure. This was a phase that we did not anticipate, as it is in all other companies. However, as a result of our past investments in our digital transformation journey, we have adapted to working remotely in a relatively short period of time, not only in Turkey, but also in all geographies in which we operate. To summarize, we were prepared for this process. Of course, we had a number of hurdles during this time; but, we swiftly reacted to these issues, thanks in large part to our digital transformation journey and the investments we made in preparation.
Have any new technologies been used in this process? What steps did you take to incorporate existing technologies into this process?
We have eight separate transformation programs under eight topics as part of our digital transformation journey, which began in 2020. These are the pieces that work together like a gear, from finance to purchasing, planning to logistics. One of them, for example, is our Logos program. Our goal here is to be able to enable adaptable access to our systems and applications, regardless of time or location, while also taking security-related sensitivities into mind. We made the required preparations and launched Microsoft Teams in all geographies where we operate for this purpose. We supplied our employees with the essential training from the outset of the remote working paradigm during the COVID-19 period. Because of our investments, we were able to transition to remote working in all of our geographies within one day of the pandemic’s onset.
We were aware that this period, which began in March 2020, may be lengthy. As a result, we collaborated with our important business partners to satisfy our employees’ equipment demands and adapt rapidly to this new environment. We have enabled our personnel to adapt rapidly to the new scenario without compromising expectations as a result of our proper and appropriate activities. We monitored our productivity during the COVID-19 period using surveys we did twice a month with different control groups in different locations, and we were pleased to see that our production in terms of personnel and projects had improved.
Despite the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing, are there any gaps in your roadmap that need to be filled?
Everyone found the pandemic time to be a fascinating experience. He had never had a similar encounter in Turkey or anywhere else in the globe. We prepared certain checklists and updated our investments as the process began. In addition to the effort I outlined with our important business partners, we made all of the essential infrastructure preparations. We continued production while keeping human health and safety as our number one priority, and we developed new working techniques for our sales staff. We began using Microsoft Teams for internal messaging.
We had planned to unveil our digital excellence strategy in 2019, with a huge launch in 2020; we swiftly changed this to an online launch. As I previously stated, we gathered feedback that will help us make better decisions through frequent staff surveys. Using digital channels, we have developed effective and transparent contact with our stakeholders. We have actively benefited from the potential afforded by technology for this goal. One of the feedbacks received, for example, was our employees’ expectation to provide socialization opportunities within the framework of the new order. By focusing on this issue, we were able to build the Anadolu Efes Social Media Platform. As a result, we established a chance for people to socialize more with one another. The survey results, which we followed up with the provision of a social environment and the implementation of social activities, revealed the following: As a result of implementing these feedbacks, productivity in the remote working model increased significantly.
As CIO, how would you rate Anadolu Efes’ digitalization journey? Do you have any advise for other businesses based on your experiences on this journey?
The digital transformation journey is more than simply a chore for IT or digital departments. This is a journey that everyone should take, especially top management and the most vulnerable parts of the business. It will be impossible to achieve success if this ownership is not shared by everyone, but is only led by IT or the CIO. In this regard, beginning with the board of directors of Anadolu Efes, all members of the executive board have embraced this transformation journey. One of the most important factors was our CEO, Can aka, who enthusiastically accepted this voyage. He is the architect of our digital transformation path, in my opinion. We meet with all of our executive board members, not just our CEO, to discuss where we are in our journey, what difficulties we are facing, how we might solve these problems, and to disclose our support requirements in full openness. As a consequence of this collaborative environment and the assistance we received, our process is proceeding as intended.
As the IDS team, we have begun to work on adapting our culture and employee competences to the post-digital transformation period. We touch individuals, listen to them, and discuss transformation. We ensure that everyone welcomes this transition by informing them and sharing the results on a regular basis. Not only senior management, but all of our teammates and employees throughout the business, believe in this digital change and see themselves as a part of it. I believe we have arrived at a tipping point, as they recognize the benefits of digital transformation in their own added value.
Many studies have been conducted as part of the digital transformation path. What do you believe will be the most significant technological change in the industry?
In the approaching future and under the new norms, businesses must be extremely fast and provide the appropriate responses immediately. For example, during the COVID-19 era, we’ve observed people’s expectations shift. We’re currently discussing new normals that we haven’t encountered before; perhaps in two years we’ll be discussing other normals. Companies, in this regard, must be able to move rapidly and flexibly. In addition to speed and flexibility, they must become a data-driven organization. Aside from being data-oriented, it is also vital to use data effectively, democratize it, and adapt it to mobile environments. In this context, it is critical to digitize not only the team or department in which we operate, but also the entire ecosystem, because transformation is incomplete if we simply focus on value-added tasks. It is critical to act as an ecosystem in this manner. Processes are prominent here as well. When only one region is focused on and the process(es) for it are developed, the adaptation of the processes can be quite long-term when new normals occur. As a result, simple, straightforward, but quick and flexible processes are required. If I were to give an example from our own processes, we overhaul all departmental procedures of two programs from beginning to end in our digital transformation, and we supply this for the entire ecosystem. That is, “what are the best market practices?” and “what can we do for this application(s)?” We question ourselves, and we evolve. This modification will help us to adjust to potential new normals more swiftly.
Another aspect to consider is the rapid adoption of new technology. For example, if we order any server now, it will take at least 2-3 months to arrive. When it comes to speed and flexibility, such delays generate issues that must be addressed. We intend to leverage hybrid (many) cloud technologies in order to profit from current technology’s breakthroughs and to make our processes faster and more flexible. Our goal is for Anadolu Efes to transition to a fully hybrid (multi) cloud within a year, so that nothing remains in its data center. To comply with current rules, we have planned to convert to a hybrid (multi-cloud) structure, and we are updating all of our application infrastructures to that end.
It has become more necessary in the “democratization of data” to make sense of the data in a timely, accurate, and suitable manner, as well as to open the data to users of various sorts and capacities at the same time. Analytics and artificial intelligence come to the fore at this stage. These technologies, we believe, have the potential to totally transform our firm. In this regard, we enhanced our program with analytics and artificial intelligence. For instance, we have so far shifted 16 of our normal and repetitive activities to robots. For example, we were able to finish a 50-day project using the robot in 10 days. The productivity of our staff will improve even more with the completion of the projects at full capacity. We will be faster and more agile. We will use artificial intelligence and data analytics to automate our decision-making processes. Another example is that, thanks to the system’s planning and guidance, our sales representatives can cut the operational time they spend at sales points in half and use the saved time in sales development consultancy and business development processes that will benefit our business partners commercially at the point of sale.
These tools allow us to swiftly use and direct our own data in the correct place, as well as democratize the data so that everyone may benefit from it. We have modified all technologically relevant processes, cloud structure, hybrid integration platforms, workflows, and mobile advances from this perspective; we have also established our own digital assistant in terms of data analytics and artificial intelligence.
Technology is evolving at breakneck speed; we have simplified and standardized our processes. We started using data and using it faster, more openly. We are rapidly becoming a mobile and digitalized organization. We are developing our dealers and sales outlets while doing so, but we also have another ecosystem: our strategic partners, entrepreneurs, and colleges. We are unable to keep track of everything on our own. We actively monitor what is going on outside and obtain frequent input on added value thanks to our strategic business partners.
So, how do you make use of the information you have?
One of our digital transformation strategies is to truly leverage data, become a data-driven organization, and democratize data. In this context, we initiated an initiative that would allow us to make better use of data. We developed a hybrid data architecture that, rather than a traditional data warehouse, makes advantage of big data and cloud technology. Our goal is to entirely eliminate the need for Excel in our business for up to 1.5 years, followed by the necessity for reporting, because in our day and age, swift action is required. Our goal here is to augment the data using artificial intelligence and present it as an input to the appropriate personnel. For example, in order to boost their trade, we can supply the most appropriate product and product volume to our roughly 70 thousand sales points. All of this is powered by artificial intelligence and big data. This technique dramatically accelerated the employees’ sales planning. We provide recommendations and help our ecosystem in terms of sales improvement as we employ data, artificial intelligence, and analytics. We have enabled our dealers’ shipments to achieve an efficiency of 255 thousand km in gasoline usage in 2019, naturally in the distribution distance, resulting in a reduction of 29 tons of CO2 emissions. In other words, we accomplished something that could be repeated six times around the world. We have also obtained a significant benefit in terms of sustainability.
We have established a plan to change all of our departments in Turkey in this manner by the end of 2021. We’d like to take the data a step farther here. We will supply data and assistance to all of our personnel, from sales representatives to all units, using our artificial intelligence-based digital platform. We’ve even started doing it gradually. We now have a decision-making helper, and he will support and guide our coworkers at future decision-making points. In this manner, it will be possible to operate fast and without the need for anything.
The route to digital transformation and data is long. However, every three months, we build a product, implement a project, and give it to our relevant units. As a result, we reinforce their trust in us and digital transformation, ensuring that they embrace the enthusiasm and reflect the new values to them. Using data, we have completed a variety of tasks ranging from finance to human resources and sales. As a result of seeing the added value in themselves, people come to us with new ideas, and we add new initiatives to our digital transformation path.
In the FMCG business, it is not enough to focus on yourself; it is also vital to build the entire ecosystem!
How do you see the FMCG industry and the role of the CIO evolving in the future?
I’ve worked in the FMCG industry for 26 years, and experience is everything. Customer experience is just as crucial as brand and awareness when it comes to success. In particular, the social responsibility work of the organization, which will provide such experience, is prized by the Z generation. It is not enough to focus solely on yourself in the FMCG industry; you must also build the entire ecosystem. This is related to social responsibility. Furthermore, I believe that the future CIO role will be obsolete very soon if it focuses solely on IT infrastructure and application support. I now refer to CIOs and CDOs as ‘CIDOs,’ since they must focus on these areas extremely well, understand the company really well, and recognize the added value extremely well.
A brief with the CIO…
What is your most important motive in business?
Creating, achieving, and sharing value as a group
What advice do you have for professionals who will follow you in your field?
Continuous learning, establishing relationships with others based on trust and honesty
Can you tell us about an experience that would be valuable to individuals in your industry and field? Learn about the values and cultures of the individuals you work with, and try to perceive obstacles as opportunities.
When I originally arrived in South Africa and asked my team when it will be completed, I was constantly told “now now.” I’ve always considered this to be right now. Later in South Africa, I discovered that if the solution to a job is “now now,” it will never be completed. ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast,’ claimed Peter Drucker.
What are your three unique interests that you cannot give up in your leisure time as a CIO?
I enjoy golfing, boating, and playing video games with my children.
How do you use your one hour of free time at work?
I strive to adhere to the agenda as strictly as possible, and I coach my colleagues as much as feasible.
What questions would you ask yourself for us in our interview?
Is there somebody that inspires you? My response: First and foremost, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the creator of our Republic, and Aristotle, the father of free thought.
