I was in the spotlight of Philip Morris International Business Solutions Newsletter for August 2022. I answered 7 key questions so that my colleagues had the chance to know me better. You can find the answers and questions below. Also, a video content about it is here:
1. To start with, can you tell us something unusual about yourself?
Generally, people think about finance professionals as solely analytical persons who are strong at working with numbers, not the words. Yes, I also like to work with the numbers and take actions based on data but working with words, telling stories and experiences are what I am passionate about. I am currently writing for four blogs and creating contents is my favourite spare time activity. Creating interactions with people upon sharing content is like a mystery. I love to share my perceptions, feelings and experiences, and when people read and react, that makes me feel heard and highly satisfied!
2. What was your first job?
My first job was an associate position at PwC. Just after completing my MBA, I started to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and I learnt a lot there in three years. Having the opportunity to see various companies from different sectors and working in cooperation with different team leaders opened the way for learning on the fly. PwC added some key experiences like acting as a well-disciplined professional, becoming a team member and then leading a team. On top of that, I invested in myself and gained CPA certification and passed Capital Markets exams when I was working in PwC. When I was a senior associate, I received a job offer from General Motors (GM) and then I moved from audit to automobile sector. I started as an Accountant in GM and it was a move from one side of the table to the other side: I started to exercise the profession that I audited before, I got familiar with the tax declarations, CRM systems for financial reporting and worked cooperatively with different functions of the business. When I was leaving GM, I was the Internal Controls Coordinator, and this role enabled me to have a presence against the Management Team.
3. How long have you been at PMI and what is your current role here?
When I check my LinkedIn profile, it says that I am working for PMI for the last 9 years and 3 months. Instead of counting the years behind, I am much more focused on the gained experiences and the success stories that we will have altogether. PMI’s smoke-free future vision is so broad, and I believe that each and every colleague has a special role in achieving this objective.
When I joined PMI, it was 2013 and I started as a General Ledger and Tax Analyst in Philsa (production company in Turkey, now it is called PMTM). The key challenge in those years was adapting our financial statements to Turkish Financial Reporting Standards which was a new requirement starting from 2013 fiscal year. Those early days in PMI were so hard with adaptation to a new company, new people, new way of working but also it was one of the best times of my career because we really had fun when we worked together till the midnights. Then in 2017, I was promoted to the Senior Tax Analyst position in the newly found Tax department in Philsa. One of the key skills this role taught me was storytelling or in other words narrating with insights. While tracking the new tax legislations and their impacts on our business, I had to present it clearly to the management team on time and provide not only the highlights but also potential actions to be taken. While I was working as a Senior Tax Analyst, I had the opportunity to work as a Guest Auditor in Corporate Audit during Romania taxation audit. That experience made me find out that working in an international environment was a perfect match for me. Then in 2020, I moved from domestic affiliate to duty free affiliate in Turkey (PM Travel Retail Turkey, PMTR-T) as Manager Finance Legal Entity. All job experiences gave me the opportunity to come out of my comfort zone, meet new people and enrich my perspective. In Manager Finance Legal Entity role, I was able to learn about a unique business-like Duty Free from different angles. The move was a transformation because I not only moved from Domestic affiliate to Duty Free affiliate, but I also moved from my hometown to Istanbul during the hectic pandemic period. For the first time in my career, I reported to a non-Turkish manager who is not located in Turkey and my responsibilities made me start to work in a global environment with different teams from all over the world.
After the Finance transformation within Duty Free, I was promoted to the Manager Finance LE & R2R. I started to supervise the finance analyst in Hong Kong Duty Free affiliate so that I also started to learn from her experiences. Now with Finance as co-pilot, I am as close as possible to the business. I attend regular weekly meetings with Eurasia commercial team and have a space to deliver my expectations and reminders but also provide my comments and guidance on key issues to my stakeholder. Besides, this role teaches me to negotiate and talk with other heads of functions, and provides exposure to other departments like Commercial, Legal, Procurement, Business Solutions, CoE Finance, etc. I am so happy to be a part of PMI Duty Free and I feel “space to deliver” here, thanks to our DF Finance team for showing their full support to the initiatives I bring. That makes my efforts meaningful.
4. Lately, you have submitted an initiative to the Innovator’s Club. Can you please tell us what drove you to come up with your initiative and what was the final result of your submission?
In Turkey, we need to document contracts which are subject to stamp tax calculation and then before the closure of the year, we need to notarize this list of contracts. Previously this process was followed up in ordinary stamp tax book by handwriting. Managing a stamp tax book required a lot of manual actions. It was not possible to share certain pieces of information with other colleagues without taking pictures of the pages. A repository was created for all contracts initiated in PM Turkey with the help of Microsoft Lists. In the newly created list, we can easily maintain key information such as contract date, name of the party, subject, start and end dates, tax base, tax amount and status. In addition, MS Lists has a feature to embed links, so we can maintain the link to the soft copies of contracts or CLM where we can see the approval status in the contract lifecycle management platform.
As a meaning creator, I like to share my key learning with my teammates and colleagues. The Innovator’s Club opens the way for knowledge and experience sharing and it motivates followers by the success stories of other colleagues. This motivated me to share my quick win with a wider audience through the Innovator’s Club. When I saw that my submission was prized in R2R that made me extremely happy.
5. Would you recommend other colleagues at PMI to take part in Innovator’s Club and if so, why?
Certainly, I would recommend my colleagues at PMI to take part in Innovator’s Club so that they can create meaning for other colleagues as well. The Innovator’s Club is a great tool for spreading the good examples and let our colleagues know about them! It is a living repository where people can be inspired from while benefiting from the wins of their colleagues.
6. If you could have lunch with one person ever living in this world - who would it be and why?
I would like to have this special lunch with Jeff Bezos. Although I read the book “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon”, I feel like there are still a lot that I can learn from his mindset. The skillset he applied in his leadership is so brave and uncommon. I would also like to ask him about the negative feedback (on his management style) he receives from his employees. And possibly, I can’t stop myself asking which areas to invest in both for personal growth and financial freedom.
7. After hours, what are you passionate about?
I love to walk by the seaside. Thanks God, İstanbul is a lovely city with great walking paths. While I am listening to my favorite podcasts, I walk and reach my daily walking target. Apart from its positive impact on my well-being, I also have space to think about my projects and plans while walking. When I am at home, I read books from my e-book reader. Since 2019, I am mostly reading from e-book reader because I can take notes and highlight sections of the books. After completing the book, I work on these notes and convert them into blog posts. Writing is my passionate hobby. You can read my notes from the books I read in my blog dedicated to such contents: MyHighlightz.blogspot.com
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