Profile
An award winning professional by a multinational company with 8 years of multi-functional experience. Recognized for successful marketing strategies and implementation, and also several brand and product launches. Initiated several structural changes within a company increasing efficiency, saving costs, and increasing profits. Being involved in all kind of value creating functions of the company, able to see the whole picture, and influence the processes. Executive MBA from Top European business school, and Master’s Degree of Marketing is a strong academic background.
Career Summary
AUTO AZERBAYCAN” LLC: Leader of Azerbaijan automotive market. Official distributor of Hyundai, Jeep, Dodge, Peugeot, and Hyundai Commercial Vehicles in Azerbaijan. Involved in both, distributorship and retail, with more than 20 dealership facilities.
Deputy General Manager, Vice-Chairman of Executive Board
Nov 2012-Present
Reporting to BD, and Chairman of Executive board. Coordinating Marketing and Business Development. Sales, Marketing, Dealer Network Development and IT directly reports to me. Because of vice-chairman role, and general managerial responsibilities involved in all business operations also. Managing P&L together with Chairman of Executive Board.
· Initiated and Implemented Structural change: Seeing the delays in decision making processes, and a need for managerial board to have better analysis of the increasing portfolio, suggested a structural change. Executive Board created with my initiation by the Board of Directors.
· Initiated and leaded the optimization of After Sales Operations: Service and Spare Parts were two separate departments. They have had their own KPI’s, and business interests. I’ve initiated the merging of After Sales Operations. Calculated financial benefit of the company from this change is more than $900 thousand. And, also customer satisfaction increased from 78% to 92%, and warranty claims per units decreased by 51%.
· Coordinated and Implemented new bonus system for sales force in retail network: Previous bonus system relied only on sales, which has been affecting service quality negatively. By adding another qualitative variables we’ve been able to increase the precise data collection by 64%, and increased the Mystery Shopping results by sales consultants from 83% to 91%.
Marketing Director
March 2008 – Nov 2012
Has been responsible for all kind of marketing activities, including commercial marketing, marketing research, marketing communications, digital marketing, new brand distributorship projects, marketing strategy development, media relations, PR & Events, Agency relations, Sales promotional activities
Launched the marketing Department: Till 2008 marketing was a function reporting to Sales composed of “me only”. I took responsibility and launched the separate marketing department reporting to GM, and shareholder directly.
More than 4 brand, and 23 product launches: Among them 1st luxury by Hyundai, Genesis, OOH creative was the 1st and still the only implementation by using the competitor brand names in ad. Unaided awareness increased from 0% to 67% within 4 weeks of outdoor implementation, increased the sales plan by 4 times.
Best Marketing Department: My department has been awarded as the “Best Marketing Department” by Hyundai Motor Company in 2009 for fast increase rate of Unaided Brand Awareness in Azerbaijan, from 62% to 89% in 1 year.
Increased saving of 200 thousand USD: After an effective negotiation with Media Buying agency, and local TV Channels changed the media purchase format from “Discount” to “Cost Per Point” which resulted in 400 thousand saving. This is 10% of total ATL budget.
Local TVC for premium model: This was not 1st commercial for a premium model, but also the 1st locally produced TVC for a car which increased unaided awareness from 0% to 41% within 4 weeks. After a successful negotiation with supplier I’ve granted 50% of total budget spent.
Initiated the CRM project: First time in Azerbaijan automotive market we’ve implemented professional CRM process. I was the initiator and insisted in control by marketing department in order to maximise the effectiveness by collecting more customer insights.
New Brand Distributorship projects: I was part of Chrysler Group distributorship project responsible for market research, and sales analysis. Leaded the Geely, and Peugeot brand distributorship projects. Leaded Hyundai Tajikistan distributorship project, successfully signed the contract.
Implemented “Moving the World Together” CSR project: In 2009 we’ve started one of the biggest CSR projects in Azerbaijan with more than 150 thousand USD budget. This was the first in automotive market. Successful implementation, granted extra 150 thousand USD support for the next year. More than 450 children benefited from this program.
Hyundai Sonata Launch: I’ve planned and controlled every single step of implementation in 2010. Not only we have oversold the planned 150 units by 50%, we have created a trend, and created probably the most successful product launch in Azerbaijan.
“Brand Tracking Survey” project: This project is designed to run in major markets only but I’ve persuaded HMC and Synovate to include Azerbaijan also. This is a 100 thousand USD budget project with extremely important insights.
Marketing Specialist – “Hyundai Auto Azerbaijan” LLC*
May 2007- March 2008
Joined NAB Holding, which is a mother company, as an intern during Master’s Degree, after a short period started as a Marketing Specialist reporting to Head of Sales, and General Manager. Was mainly responsible for competitor analysis, and advertising.
Employee in Logistics – NAB Holding, Istanbul
February 2007 – May 2007
Additional Activities & Roles
• Member of HR Committee of NAB Holding Azerbaijan
• Member of IT and Innovation Committee of NAB Holding Azerbaijan
• Strategic Management and Marketing Management Guest Lecturer at Azerbaijan State Economic University (2009-2011)
• Volunteer Guest Lecturer in Different Educational Organizations in the field of Marketing
• Internal Trainer (2008-2009)
Education & Qualifications
• 2014-…(July 2015): Executive MBA – IE Business School, Madrid, Spain
General Management, +Marketing Module
• 2005 – 2008: Master’s Degree – Istanbul University- Social Sciences/Marketing
Master Thesis: The Role of Country of Origin on Car Buying Behaviour. Quantitative research applied in Baku.
• 2000 – 2004: Bachelor’s Degree – Azerbaijan State Economic University – International Economic Relations (Course language: English)
Bachelor’s Research: Effective use of long-term infrastructure development credits by WTO in Azerbaijan.
International Experience
Participated in more than 30 international conferences, and seminars. Have a daily communication with different people from different cultures which are mostly work related, and also education related. 3 years permanent live in Istanbul together with international students, and Executive MBA program with an international students is also a great experience.
