Mr. Serdar Baykal, Trade Manager of Ören Kablo San ve Tic. LTD Şti: We are continuing our activities, as to brand and image investments as well as our brand awareness and accessibility foundation of which we have laid in 2017, also in 2018.
We, as Ören Kablo, launched a restructuring process in 2017. We aimed to change our family business identity which is known since almost for 40 years from our inception and grow by being institutionalized and ensure sustainability by transforming into institutional management. We made improvements and developments in all our commercial policies, our vision and our management staff. We continue to serve our sector with a modern, innovative, dynamic and young staff basing on the power we have acquired from our deeply rooted future.
Would you provide us with information as to your products and their usage areas?
We can list our main product groups as Coaxial Cable, Control Cable, Fire Resistant Cable, Information Communication Cable, Closed Circuit Camera System (CCTV) Cable, Fire Alarm Cable, Internal Phone Cable, Bus Cable and Special/Compound Cable. Other product groups such as coaxial cable, fire alarm, telephone, BUS, control-control cables are also produced under registration of Ören Kablo trademark.
Ören Kablo is Turkey’s first manufacturer of coaxial cables, and coaxial cables produced by Ören Kablo brand since 1979 are used safely and have a very important place in the sector. Our product has been used in both domestic and international projects. Our Closed Circuit Camera System (CCTV) Cables have been preferred through Turkey’s leading security companies for long years. Control-Command cables are one of our main product groups with the PVC and halogen-free versions thereof. Again, fire resistant cables we produce under registration of Ören Kablo trademark, are used in intelligent or semi-intelligent buildings and in systems tests such as flame retarding test, prevention of flame spreading test, 3 hour horizontal flame test, mechanical impact test under flame, water spray test under flame, smoke density test, corosive gas test and all other electrical and physical tests and have the ability to continue the function during the fire.
Ören Kablo, closely following the demands and developments in the world in this field has an important market especially abroad in fire resistant cables. Our fire cables have German VDE, Tüv Rheinland certifications while other product groups have TSE and TSEK certifications.
What is the final status of Ören Kablo’s infrastructure and technology?
Ören Kablo continues its production in Silivri, Ortaköy district of Istanbul in a closed area of 9 000 m2. Highest quality production is realized thanks to modern extruder lines. Spark tester devices are utilized in all of the production lines in order to detect surface faults and thinning of insulation and the outer sheath. All extruder lines are equipped with diameter measuring devices which measure by usage of laser and the diameter of the cable is produced with minimum tolerance by virtue of these devices. Most of the machines are PLC controlled. Transfer impedance and shield factor can be measured in shielded cables. Each and every piece of equipment is carefully defined, detailed and organized to maximize efficiency in the process in our insulated, sheath, bend, knitting, winding, armor, packaging and other lines.
We have serious investments in data cables; Cat cables, used for data transfer which are also called as ethernet cables, require acceleration in line with evolving technology. Cat6, cat 6a and cat7 cables, with different technical features to accommodate accelerated data transfers, are produced for this reason and the correct selection is important according to the usage area of these products. Our company, which has been continuously producing Cat 6 cables until the end of 2016, has brought its R & D and production investments to the level through which it can offer high quality Cat 7 and Cat 7A cable products by anticipating the needs of the developing technology. As of today, Ören Kablo has the capacity to meet the production conditions in the sector which will arise in the future in line with the technological developments.
Since Foam Polyethylene is used as insulation material in Cat 7 and Data/LAN cables, we have invested primarily in the Physical Foam Insulation line for the production of insulation of Data/LAN cables on Cat 7 and above. Ören Kablo achieves online tension control at all stages from the bending of the pairs to the last group bending in order to keep these parameters under constant control in its lines bending the cables at one stage, since as the cable category increases sensitivity also increases and therefore considering that the impedance of the pairs and resistance imbalance need to be well controlled during the production.
How did Ören Kablo complete the year 2017? Have you achieved your expectations and goals?
As Ören Kablo, we launched a restructuring process in 2017. We aimed to change our family business identity well-known in our established past almost for 40 years and grow by being institutionalized and ensure sustainability by transforming into institutional management. We made improvements and developments in all our commercial policies, our vision and our management staff. We continue to serve our sector with a modern, innovative, dynamic and young staff basing on the power we have acquired from our deeply rooted future.
Our company, Ören Kablo, which has an important position in Low Voltage Cables production in Turkey and the world, created a new corporate identity by reinforcing its leadership in the sector as Turkey’s first coaxial cable manufacturer. We renewed our visual identity to reflect our new position. We also redesigned our logo to announce our newly acquired visual identity and our new global brand position with all these changes and to express visually better that we provide value-added services in our market from end to end.
We aimed to simplify our brand identity and make it consistent in all the geographies in which we operate by rearranging our brand identity, We moved our central sales office located at the 11th floor of Perpa Trade Center to a bigger office at the second floor of the Perpa Trade Center. We aim to consolidate our expertise and consequently increase our income by developing our product groups and making our products and services more visible for our present and potential customers. We started 2017 with a road map covering all these factors. When we evaluate the results of all these activities compared to past years in the light of measurable data, I see that we have left behind 2017 as the most successful year of the recent years. In this sense, I can say that we had a very successful year in 2017.
Ören Kablo has gone to institutional structuring with you in the last years. What are the images and goals you want to give here? Could you achieve what you desired?
I consider institutionalization as creating a structure which allows a business to maintain and improve its activities without being dependent on the presence of individuals. Of course the main purpose of this is to make the company, independent from the boss, manager, critical staff and similar individuals and ensure continuity. This does not mean that there will not be individuals at the crucial points of the business but it means ensuring that everything can continue to work without any interruption when they are not present. It is a fact that the boss-oriented management approach is insufficient in enterprises in our day and an approach in which the weight is in team work and dependence on individual is minimized is strengthening.
Institutionalization is that the business becomes a system. Institutionalization is not the abandonment of the company entirely to the professionals and elimination of control but it denotes the company has rules, standards, procedures, unique values and methods and procedures of performing business as well as a way of working and being independent from individual, distribution of authority and responsibilities, transition to a professional management and separation of family and business relations from each other.
Businesses, which grow fast with a founder and small number of employees to a specific size, face bigger problems as they grow. In the beginning, the problems are resolved one by one when they arise and the business continues on its way because there are no plans about when the growth will happen and what will be done in this situation.
However, because the business does not have a holistic and systematic approach, the enterprise becomes fat and even “obese” over time and its control becomes difficult. Moreover, a business which maintains its life depending on the founder experiences crisis when the founder is away or if the business loses the founder. Some cannot get out of the crisis and their lives end. Institutionalization removes ambiguity, improves productivity and provides professionalism and transparency. This situation, naturally, is very important in career plans of the employees and the largescale organizations working with the dealership system are in terms of the confidence and continuity of the internal and external stakeholders. Of course it is not easy to go through this structure suddenly but it is not also impossible; you have to start from somewhere and be patient, but at the very beginning you have to be aware of this necessity. We have had a very challenging year and taken big steps and our greatest advantage is the fact that we try to create a structure in which we all believe from the very top to bottom. Believe is half of your success.
Would you talk about the role and importance of your company in Turkey and international market?
Ören Kablo, known as a manufacturer of Turkey’s first coaxial cable, continues to meet its esteemed customers with high-quality cables by adding new generation products it produces with its dynamic and creative team-mates who are experts in their field by extending its high-quality product line which it has created by making customer satisfaction top priority over the years.
Ören Kablo has been serving in the sector for almost 40 years. I have witnessed many times in the cable industry that companies are in trouble to protect their place rather than growing. I believe it is the most important issue to achieve sustainable growth here. Being a brand, establishing and managing an institutional structure, being a trusted and preferred reputable company and gaining success as a result of all these activities and making all of our stakeholders gain constitute our priority titles. At the point reached, Ören Kablo is the first and only Turkish company which has created a strong brand name in Germany which is a very strong country technically and which is a very hard market to enter at the same time and has obtained technical approval from the cable operators operating in Germany and has proved itself in this market with its own brand. Our company, which has been in Germany cable TV product segment since 2009, is now “leader” with 60% market share. Our being the only approved Turkish brand in Germany Vodafone is again one of our success stories which brings our company to the forefront . We export a total of 40% of our turnover to 65 countries, mainly Europe and 85% of our export is made under our own brand.
What are your goals for 2018?
We are continuing our brand and image investments as well as our brand awareness and reachability activities foundations of which we laid in 2017, in 2018. We aim to continue our path in a stable, visionary and systematic way in 2018 and the following years. It can be seen obviously that we have a capable team, a technological infrastructure, a visionary perspective and a strong capital structure to achieve this target.
Examining the data for the first 3 months that we have left behind in 2018 we observe that our existing customers increase their share in the total turnover, while a significant portion of the total Ören Kablo is created by new customers. A significant increase in turnover and customer base compared to 2017 is the result which motivates us.
What would you like to add finally?
First and foremost, we would like to extend our thanks to your esteemed side for giving us the opportunity to talk about our company and the developments in our company.
We have started works on the Customer Relationship Management model and CRM fields. They include measuring customer perceptions, customer expectations, satisfaction and complaint levels, and comparing competitors and our company. And in this context we need a great deal of feedback from our customers.
