Meeting Gulmirza Javadov from SOCAR

The interview

Mobility has always played a significant role in my exciting but stressful life as an international businessman, diplomat and globetrotter. When you work in the energy sector, as I do, and chair a state-owned, national oil and gas consortium, you are all too aware of how great the global demand for mobility is today and will be in the future. I believe that humans are naturally mobile and curious, exploring and acting. Since the beginning of my career, I have been travelling all over the world. I travel to business meetings, conferences and congresses in cities like Dubai, Vienna, Prague, Budapest and Baku - sometimes even in one week. Thanks to planes, trains, cars and sometimes helicopters, I am mobile and can get to any place in the world quickly. So my mobility is becoming more and more flexible and is still evolving.

Only 15 years ago, there was something that nowadays seems to be disappearing at breakneck speed: periods of repose. These are short periods of time during a busy day when you can switch off and reflect.

- You drive your car and contemplate on the negotiations and important conversations of the last important event.

- You wait until the plane takes off and have 30 minutes to yourself.

- You sit in the taxi and enjoy the view while being taken to the hotel.

This has changed a lot in the 21st century. These moments of reflection and solitude are being replaced at lightning speed by computers, mobile devices and smartphones. Nowadays, people read their emails and listen to their voicemails while waiting for the plane to take off or for them to be allowed to disembark.

The combination of the rapid pace of mobility and the ability to access the internet at any time makes me much more effective than I used to be. When I think about my company SOCAR, I can't imagine my working life without the internet.

There is no doubt that we all benefit incredibly from this development and that our international business activities become easier every day. But it also causes me to lose those moments during the day that I need to recharge my battery. That's why I create my own time frame when I can reflect, let my creativity run free or pursue a passion. So sometimes I sit in a beautiful old Viennese coffee house, drink coffee and talk. Or I sit down at the piano in the Hotel Sacher and play classical pieces or Azerbaijani music for my friends. It is in moments like these that my mind gets going and provides me with creative ideas for the next challenge.

And that is exactly what I love about mobility.

Gulmirza Javadov (MBA, PhD)

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