Zeyfi Ceyhan navigates 12 777km between family and work

What kind of a man would accept a job placing him on an 11- hour flight and 12 777km away from his family?

That man is Zeiss South Africa MD Zeyfi Ceyhan.

His work commitments have seen him being able to travel from Johannesburg to the company’s German-based international headquarters – only for a few days of attending to business meetings.

Work commitments allow travel from Joburg to Germany

This is when he gets an opportunity to sparingly spend “quality time” with his wife and children.

The reality of work demands and pressure is what Ceyhan’s family has become accustomed to.

The South African subsidiary is responsible for all direct-to-market affairs of the Zeiss Group in the sub-Saharan Africa region, with SA focusing on medical technology, microscopy for medicine, research and industry, industrial quality solutions and consumer business.

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From Zeiss, consumers procure spectacles, binoculars, spotting scopes, sports optics and lenses for film and photography. The company’s major focus is on ophthalmology.

“We are a market leader in ophthalmology technology, diagnostics and solutions for conditions such as cataracts,” Ceyhan says.

“We offer complete surgical solutions ranging from surgical microscopes to intraocular lenses for our customers and their patients.

Offering to patients

“On the diagnostic side, we have a full suite of solutions, such as optical coherence tomography and Humphrey field analysers, to enable treatment of conditions such as glaucoma.

“According to the World Health Organisation, visual impairment is a significant issue in Africa,” he says.

“About 26.3 million people in the African region have visual impairment, with up to 15.3% of the world’s blind population living in Africa.

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“There are 550 million people in the world who need glasses to correct refractive errors.

“Cataract surgery is not difficult to treat and is low-cost. To overcome this, we work closely with other organisations.

“We also support other regions with our equipment and service setup,” he says.

Toll on Ceyhan and his family

But overseeing gigantic operations and a huge staff complement far away from home should be taking a heavy toll on Ceyhan and his family.

“It is difficult in this role to maintain a balance between work and family. Before I took this position, I spoke to my family.

“What is important is utilising to the maximum the time you have with the family. In the inadequate time you have with your family, you have to enjoy it 100%.

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“If you do not have enough water, you will value a bottle of water. It is the same with everything in life – understanding the value of something when it is limited,” says Ceyhan.

Like all major multi-nationals, the multi-billion-rand turnover of Zeiss is not just profit-driven, but about ploughing back to communities where it operates.

“Zeiss is involved in several activities, one being the education part – training young people and making them employable by offering them opportunities to increase their knowledge in areas where we are active.

Activities

“We also have lots of activities around eye-care, where we are quite strong. We support doctors who do cataract surgeries with our equipment and our lenses.

“In this regard, we work with different organisations where we are sponsors of equipment and lenses for free cataract surgeries, performed in outlying areas.

“Currently, we are working with the University of Johannesburg, focusing on children and showing some benefits for young people.

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“Wherever we can support communities with our products, we are willing to walk the extra mile.”

The SA Zeiss training centre caters for southern Africa and the continent.

“There are roughly 400 doctors who come here for training.

“We are committed to make it possible for people to gain more practical knowledge. We have a young, dynamic and motivated team here in SA, who’s work is comparable to Germany, France and the rest of the world – international level on the quality of work produced.”

The company has been present in South Africa for over 80 years. Today, it has over 152 employees and 25 distributors across sub-Saharan Africa.