We Believe In the Sustainable Future of Our Business!
For already fifteen years Borusan Makina Kazakhstan has been an official dealer of the Caterpillar brand machine and equipment in our country. Incorporated by the Turkish Holding Company Borusan, today this company can rightfully be considered a Kazakhstan company. Of 850 of its employees, only 12 are foreigners. According to Borusan Makina Kazakhstan’s General Director, Ozgur Gunaydin, mainly investments in development of local human resources make it possible for the company to retain its leading position.
This year, Borusan Makina Kazakhstan celebrates its 15th anniversary since the date of foundation. What has been achieved over this time?
First of all, I want to emphasize that this year is a landmark for the entire Borusan Group. The latter celebrates its seventieth anniversary. Incorporated in Turkey, today it is a large conglomerate, whose business is presented in a variety of industries in many countries. We engage in business in the Middle East, Europe, CIS and Central Asian countries.
As for the Borusan Makina Kazakhstan, we started our operation here in Kazakhstan almost immediately after the perestroika times. Over this period, Kazakhstan has considerably strengthened its position as an independent state, and our business was developing together with the growth of the economy. Today, we have leading positions in all sectors where Borusan Makina Kazakhstan represents its technique and equipment of the leading world manufacturer – the Caterpillar Company. We help our clients in the mining and metallurgy, oil and gas, and construction industries who need our equipment to improve the productivity and profitability of their businesses. But our main task is not sales, but the high quality and timely service of the equipment in order to ensure its smooth operation.
Of course, this requires investments in development of warehouse, service and production infrastructure. But the most important asset is the talented and professional staff. I think our most important achievement is that we were able to create a team of like-minded people. When we founded the company, our team was composed of just 5 people, but today it numbers 850. The greater part of them are professionals, whose training was provided both by us on our own and with the help of Caterpillar. They invest in their development and are ready for further growth today. The majority of our employees engage in the area of service: of 850 people, only 40 are engaged in sales.
The level of employee turnover in the company is the lowest in our industry not only in the region but also internationally. Borusan Makina Kazakhstan is like a big and happy family. This greatly helps us to meet the expectations of our customers, partners and shareholders.
What kind of market position is Borusan Makina Kazakhstan holding today?
We hold more than 50% of the machine market in the mining industry, about 60% of the generators market in the oil and gas industry, which is very important for Kazakhstan, as well as about 30% of the excavators market in the construction industry. These are very high figures, even in the world. The main reason for such success is that we very actively invest in development of our business in Kazakhstan. We built a component rebuild center (CRC) in Karaganda, covering an area of 50,000 m2, including 15,000 m2 of indoor space. It currently employs 280 people. There are only 4-5 centers of such scale in the world. Caterpillar regularly monitors similar centers, and after testing, our project was given the highest grade of quality - "five stars". Moreover, 4 production processes of Karaganda CRC are recognized as a model to follow and are recommended by CAT for the use of185 dealers of the company worldwide.
An important achievement for us was that we were issued a certificate of compliance with the industrial safety standards, OHSAS. All this helps to further strengthen our leadership and makes us the No.1 supplier for our customers.
The year 2014 proved to be quite rigid in terms of the business environment. The devaluation of the tenge and the external instability in the region were factors affecting us. However, we are not much behind on our sales plan, mainly due to the supply of machine and equipment for the Boschekul and Aktogai projects of Kazakhmys Corporation.
In general, we can say that our business is cyclical, having its ups and downs, but we always focus on the strategic development priorities. For example, in 2008 at the height of the crisis, we not only did not cut jobs, but even opened a new branch. In a similar way we are acting now. Very soon, the company will move into a new head office, which was built in record time - 6 months. We also continue expanding the component rebuild center in Karaganda and are planning to open new branches. This year, we have hired more than 100 new employees. For the staff training alone, more than $1 million is allocated annually. It is a great deal of investment, but we deliberately spend this money to keep our lead over competitors.
Your company was always focused on the provision of service. What innovations in this area can Borusan Makina Kazakhstan offer at the moment?
In general, Borusan Group put a large emphasis on innovations and, of course, our company is no exception. Suffice is to say that Borusan Makina Kazakhstan three times became the winner in the contest organized by the American Chamber of Commerce "Best Innovative Achievements". The significant project in this area is the CRC on Web. Owing to this initiative, our customers, wherever they may be, may track in the on-line mode the progress of service of their machines and equipment in the component rebuild center. It is also a priceless tool for monitoring our internal processes in real time in order to further improve the performance of CRC and increase the level of service to our customers.
Another example is the equipping of supplied machines with special devices that allows the client via satellite communication to monitor the operation of the units and components, fuel and oil consumption, to fix the cause of the malfunction, and sometimes to remotely eliminate it. To date, more than 300 items of CAT equipment equipped with this innovative system have been operating in Kazakhstan.
In general, the active use of GPS and the Internet makes it possible for us to raise the level of service, facilitating the work of the customers. For this, we have a separate department that deals with the development and implementation of innovative solutions based on the ideas of our service engineers and customers, as well as the best international practices.
The CRC has become one of the largest investment projects in our country. What is the progress of its development at the moment?
Today, the CRC uses the latest technology. The product line includes the latest equipment for machining, assembly and testing of engines, transmissions, hydraulic components and fuel pumps, as well as a workshop for disassembling and assembling of hydraulic cylinders. Moreover, in the auxiliary shop operations are carried out to rebuild blocks, cranks, heads and cylinder packs, and other components. The CRC also has laboratories for analysis of oils and calibration of tools, analysis of oil samples for oil oxidation, nitriding, sulfur availability, purity, water content, and suitability.
One of our main achievements, in my opinion, is the launch of the program of Cat Certified Rebuild (CCR), which allows you to turn old and worn-out equipment into a new one. Moreover, it sometimes takes less time compared with that required for ordering a new machine. Commercial advantages of the programs are also evident: the cost of CCR does not exceed 70% of the price of a new machine. This is a unique service not only for Kazakhstan and the CIS, but also on a global scale.
What are the plans of Borusan Makina Kazakhstan for 2015?
The coming year is likely to be a challenge for the global economy and Kazakhstan. But as I said, our business is designed in such a way that the strength of the BMK is to provide service and spare parts. Therefore, even if there is a drop in sales of machines and equipment, we are able to successfully cope with it.
In fact, I do not expect any big crises and hope that the current tensions between Russia and the West will be overcome.
Regarding Kazakhstan itself, this country has very good performance. We are a Kazakh company and although I am Turkish, partly I feel myself a citizen of this country and I am proud of its achievements. I believe in the future of Kazakhstan, which has a great human potential in the face of a talented young generation. I like the local youth. I also like the policy of the state aimed at the development of processing industries and infrastructure, not just trade in raw materials.
Therefore, in the mid-term, we will continue to invest in production capacity and technology, but most importantly, in our team and the development of intellectual capital. Our corporate color is orange, symbolizing optimism and faith in the future. I am sure that Borusan Makina Kazakhstan will face the same brighter future!
