Erhan Göztas
Head of Sales Major Business
My main message to the outside world
If you're looking for a working environment that is fair and open-minded and where you will feel appreciated, have fun and connect with great colleagues, look no further than Konica Minolta.
Together with his team, Erhan focuses on achieving maximum success for our customers. Konica Minolta affords him scope to diversify on subject matter, to develop new solutions and to further his skills. Thanks to our mobile working concept, he is able to spend plenty of time with his children, despite the demanding nature of his role. People are always his focus, be they family, colleagues or customers.
I live in Munich, where I was born. After graduating from high school, I decided to train to become an information technology specialist and started working directly in the IT industry thereafter. Within a few years, I was able to acquire some initial leadership experience. I then moved on to Business Consulting and began advising companies on business service management processes. At the same time, I completed an extra-occupational course of study to become a technical business economist. When my son was born, I decided to find a new employer to achieve a better work-life balance. I started my career at Konica Minolta as a project manager and then spent many years in Strategic Sales for global customers. In 2020, I started a team manager role in the sales department in Munich and from 2021 until the end of March 2023, I was responsible for the entire South region as Head of Sales SMB South. Since April 2023, I am Head of Sales Major Business and responsible for sales teams across Germany with a focus on customers from the larger SME sector, the entire public business and the church & social business, as well as a sales team with a focus on the acquisition of new customers for our IT services. The job is fun, challenging, varied and offers freedom and flexibility. Thanks to Konica Minolta, I was able to participate in a Global Account Management programme at the University of St Gallen. Pursuing further training, undertaking a demanding job and balancing family life is only made possible through the mobile working concept at Konica Minolta. I can be reached at any time, yet I remain flexible.
This allows me for instance to keep appointments with my children at school or nursery. Regardless of the device, I have access to my information, files and email at all times and from anywhere, thanks to the latest collaboration tools. We make use of the benefits of working from home. This is underpinned by a high level of trust, which is essential for a functioning communication culture.
People at Konica Minolta are distinguished all around the world by their helpfulness, loyalty and above all, humanity, which is no mean feat for such a large corporation.
Loyalty means that we feel connected to our employer's vision and strategy in the good times and the bad. This is aided by very clear and transparent communication on the company's goals and plans. When you look at just how long some have been there for example, there is no doubting a large section of the workforce are certainly very loyal. The friendly, respectful and honest way people deal with each other certainly has something to do with this. Many people feel acknowledged at Konica Minolta, including at leadership level. People are appreciated and treated fairly. Humanity is at the heart of our work. Konica Minolta is a large corporation of course, so sometimes processes can get a little bogged down. But any problems you encounter can certainly be tackled. We have an incredibly open corporate culture where you can directly communicate with top management. We enjoy open dialogue at all times and on an equal footing.
If you're motivated and committed, and aspire to make headway, no options are off-limits. This is facilitated by an open-minded culture of feedback and continual dialogue going hand-in-hand with further development. Sometimes, however, daily challenges can get the better of us. Examining areas systematically that otherwise may go unnoticed in unstructured employee discussions can therefore prove helpful. Developing people is very important at Konica Minolta. I myself have been fortunate to go through the Grow2Shape programme for potential junior managers and also the Global Account Management programme at the University of St Gallen.
In my team, though throughout the company too, our people are very diverse. Intergenerational collaboration works very well. This mix of long-standing experience in core business operations with young colleagues bringing a different mindset around technology and innovation is very exciting and successful. Diversity brings new ideas and approaches, which is why we need different personalities in the team. We need some to be calmer and more analytical, and others more sceptical to reign in those getting too carried away. My impression is that everyone feels like family, despite being such a large corporation.
We scrutinise established solutions and find new approaches.
Konica Minolta helps customers achieve success in their business, especially in the areas of "digitisation" and "efficient information management". We are very well positioned to implement document processes and information processes efficiently and digitally. We also offer a very well-rounded IT portfolio, to a certain extent based on our core business in the areas of managed print service or digital workplace. Market analyses and awards at IDC and IDG on managed service for instance attest to our standing as an IT supplier and provider. And in this respect, there is no neglecting our social responsibilities. We play our part not just in serving our customers and ensuring their economic success, but also in the terms of sustainability and healthcare, i.e. for the entire world.
We scrutinise established solutions and find new approaches. Creativity is demanded in our corporate culture by our constant search for better approaches. We are expected to diversify and this comes with considerable tolerance for when things go wrong. I have been fortunate to play my part in one unorthodox way or another. Out-of-the-box thinking is a quality that is both called for and supported. For example, we had a very specific customer requirement once for a billing method based on "counting only what is actually used", something we did not have at our immediate disposal and which needed a solution to be implemented short term. This is not yet standard for us, but determines a blueprint going forward. We created billing processes such as these for us inside the circle in order to create added value for this customer.
When it comes to young professionals, I always ask them the following questions to make sure that they are aware of these responsibilities: What added value does the customer receive? Why should the customer ultimately go with us? This occasionally means revising their concept, though several iterations later, the customer as well as Konica Minolta are kept firmly in mind. The customer's success is our success, and this is the only way to succeed.
Customer focus is a must-have. You need to understand your client's business and this involves doing research and keeping yourself constantly informed of trends and implications in their industry. I regularly communicate with my clients and build a trusting relationship with them because there needs to be trust if my clients are to tell me about their pain points and projects.
My main message to the outside world
If you're looking for a working environment that is fair and open-minded and where you will feel appreciated, have fun and connect with great colleagues, look no further than Konica Minolta.
My main message to the outside world
If you're looking for a working environment that is fair and open-minded and where you will feel appreciated, have fun and connect with great colleagues, look no further than Konica Minolta.