Turkcell打造世界最快网络的秘决

    作为土耳其移动运营商Turkcell Group的首席执行官，苏瑞亚•瑟利夫执掌着欧洲最重要的电信巨头之一。同时，他也是飞速发展的土耳其经济的重要参与者（土耳其的GDP增速今年早些时候甚至超过了中国）。因此，这位53岁的高管完全有资格给眼下焦头烂额的欧元区邻居们以及更远一些的、停滞不前的西方大国们一点建议。他的建议？鼓励私营公司投资基础设施领域。

    以瑟利夫的影响力，他的建议不容小觑。自从四年前他就任首席执行官以来，Turkcell在土耳其及周边八国的用户总数从4,490万增至了6,170万。瑟利夫率领Turkcell开拓新市场（最近新进入的市场是德国），并通过Fintur和其他子公司强化市场地位。总的来说，Turkcell已经在土耳其、哈萨克斯坦、阿塞拜疆、格鲁吉亚和北塞浦路斯占据了市场领先地位，在乌克兰、白俄罗斯和摩尔多瓦也已站稳脚跟。8月份的一次网速调查中，电信业巨头爱立信（Ericsson）发现在包括北美国家在内的53个工业化国家中，手机下载数据速度最快的还是Turkcell的土耳其3G网络。

    如今置身于土耳其权力中心的瑟利夫曾在美国生活多年。1983年从哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）毕业后，瑟利夫和他人共同创办了信息管理服务公司Novasoft Systems。1997年，他离开Novasoft，开始执掌微软（Microsoft）的土耳其业务。到2000年，他已升任微软全球营销高管职位，并回到了美国，常驻位于华盛顿州雷德蒙德的微软总部。他从2007年1月起出任Turkcell首席执行官，常驻伊斯坦布尔。

    瑟利夫的话听起来与公司高管在对投资者的说辞大同小异。谈到土耳其令人瞩目的发展，瑟利夫说：“土耳其相当简单，但却相当相当聪明。”取得如此高速发展的核心是什么？基础设施项目——而且是大量的基础设施建设项目。他是基础设施建设的狂热支持者，项目从公路到医院无所不包，当然还有光纤。他掰着手指历数种种益处：提振国民经济、拉动国内相关产业发展和促进就业。瑟利夫正在大力宣扬被称之为“建设—经营—移交”（BOT)模式的有效性。

    很多美国人可能都在开车时接触到过BOT项目。美国有些州方兴未艾的私营公司收费公路经营体系就是典型的BOT模式。私营公司获得项目特许权后进行融资、建设并经营一段时间，然后交回给公众。作为回报，政府把原本可能不会得到改善的公共资产交给私营公司。私营公司从中可能得到的好处是收回投资并获得利润，而政府可以避免动用公共资金。这种模式在很多行业都可得到有效应用，从比较简单的桥梁项目到复杂的医疗或数据网络项目。虽然BOT模式在土耳其、澳大利亚和日本都取得了成功，但在欧洲和美国的应用仍然滞后。

    瑟利夫认为，这一模式能让政府更亲企业，保护企业的全球竞争力，同时促成直接提升公众福祉的项目。这样的战略接下来还会鼓励类似Turkcell这样的大企业随着信心的增强进一步扩大基础设施建设。比如，Turkcell虽然语音业务平平，但对土耳其迅猛发展的智能手机和高速互联网市场进行了巨额投资，瑟利夫认为这些市场有更多的成长空间。从“丝绸之路”到“光纤之路”的转变，依托的是总长28,000公里且还在不断延伸的光纤网络以及BOT项目数亿美元的大胆投资。瑟利夫的信念也正来源于此。

    As the CEO of Turkcell Group, Sureyya Ciliv sits at the helm of one of Europe's most important telecom giants. He is also a key player in the roaring Turkish economy. (Turkish GDP growth even outpaced China's earlier this year.) And that has put the 53-year-old executive in the position of offering some guidance to neighbors in the much-troubled Eurozone as well as to stagnating Western powers farther abroad. His idea? Privately funded investment in infrastructure.

    Ciliv has the clout to be doling out advice. Since he was made CEO four years ago, Turkcell has grown from 44.9 million subscribers to 61.7 million in Turkey and eight other countries in the region. Ciliv pushed Turkcell into new markets, most recently Germany, while building on positions through its Fintur subsidiary and others. Overall, Turkcell leads the market in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Northern Cyprus. It also has toeholds in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. In an August study, Turkcell's data download speeds in Turkey for phones on its 3G network were rated the fastest for those of 53 industrial nations -- including ones in North America -- by telecom giant Ericsson.

    Now plugged into his home country's centers of power, Ciliv spent many years in the United States, graduating from Harvard Business School in 1983 before co-founding an information management solutions company, Novasoft Systems. He left Novasoft in 1997 to head up Microsoft's (MSFT) operations in Turkey. By 2000, he'd risen to an executive role in worldwide sales and marketing back in Redmond, WA. He's been CEO of Turkcell, based in Istanbul, since January 2007.

    Ciliv's pitch doesn't sound so different than something an executive might deliver to investors. "Turkey is something very simple, and yet very, very smart," Ciliv says, describing his country's remarkable development. At the center of that progress? Infrastructure projects -- and a lot of them. He's an ardent supporter of building everything from roads to hospitals and, naturally, fiber optics. He ticks off the main values on his fingers: boosting the national economy, driving local businesses and spurring employment. Ciliv is selling the efficacy of so-called build-operate-transfer (BOT) operations.

    Americans are most likely to have encountered BOT projects in their cars. The emerging system through which private companies maintain toll roads in some states is a classic BOT model. Private firms get a concession to finance, build and operate the project for a period of time before giving it back to the public. In return, the government turns over otherwise unimproved public assets. Private companies benefit if they can recoup their investment and turn a profit; the government, meanwhile, avoids shelling out public funds. The model can work with many sectors, from the more straightforward, such as bridges, to complex projects like health clinics or data networks. Despite the success of BOT in Turkey, Australia and Japan, adoption in Europe and the United States still lags.

    According to Ciliv, the system allows a government to be pro-business and keep its corporations competitive globally, while producing projects that directly help the public. Such tactics then encourage major players such as Turkcell to pursue additional infrastructure as confidence grows. Turkcell's voice business, for example, is flat, but the company is investing heavily in Turkey's booming smartphone and high-speed internet markets, where Ciliv's found more growth. That transition from "Silk Road" to "Fiber Road," depends on a fiber infrastructure 28,000 kilometers in length and growing, through aggressive investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in BOT projects. Hence Ciliv's faith.