rmin Arslanagic is late for an interview.
He doesn’t say why, only that something unexpected happened.
Later, he explains: While riding his bike to work, he got a flat tire.
Arslanagic, 35, is an account executive with Johnson Controls
Inc. in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a role that requires him to convince municipalities
such as the city of Geneseo that they can save money by installing energy-efficient
utilities and control systems, switching to wind and solar power, and renovating
infrastructure in line with standards certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Given his vested interest in being green, he might have used
his morning mishap to his advantage. But Arslanagic isn’t your typical salesman.
A Bosnian-American, he studied economics in Turkey during
the Bosnian War, earning an undergraduate degree from Bosphorus University in 1996,
then moved to the U.S. a year later.
Once in the States, Arslanagic worked in Boston, first at
a bank, then selling vinyl siding and windows before taking a job selling copiers
for Xerox Corp. in Atlanta while working on his MBA at Georgia State University.
“No one recognized my degree from Turkey,” he says.
A Georgia State professor referred Arslanagic to IBM Corp.,
where he sold mainframe equipment until he moved with his new wife to Chicago in
2003. He finished his MBA at Loyola University and posted his résumé with online
job sites.
When a recruiter called about the Johnson Controls job, which
Arslanagic would begin in 2004, the position was still being shaped. Since then,
more account executives in Illinois and nationwide have been doing similar work—selling
government entities on sustainable solutions.
Sometimes that means selling Johnson Controls products, such
as automation or cooling systems, but often it means selling other companies’ products—wind
turbines, for instance—then installing and managing them.
Johnson Controls says it plans to hire 50,000 people worldwide
in the next five years to meet surging demand for energy-efficient buildings, growth
driven by high energy costs and a rising awareness of global warming.
“So many regular jobs are being recast through retraining,”
says Kevin Doyle, a Boston consultant who advises companies on how to hire and train
green workers to install and sell this new technology.
“Think of me as a quarterback,” Arslanagic says. “My deal
is to engage the mayor and the board, the county executive, the city administrator,
and say, ‘Let’s look at your crumbling infrastructure. There’s a good chance we
can fix that and finance it with operational and energy savings.’ They like that.”
Not that it’s a cakewalk. Sales can take 18 months from first
presentation to closing (versus just a couple of months with conventional energy
systems). Projects then take up to another year and a half to design and install.
“It’s like herding cats,” Arslanagic says.
But the process is still an improvement over traditional energy
practices. “We used to deal with the lowest-bidder concept—that’s how governments
buy,” he says. “Now they’re more open to green and sustainable projects.”
So is he. He’s recycling and conserving energy, and encouraging
friends and family to do the same, though Arslanagic did have to convince his wife
that biking 11 miles each way to work was safe. It might have been his hardest sale
yet.
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