Bringing A 165 Year Old Company Into The 21st Century: Upskilling Employees, Utilizing AI & Data, And Creating A Meaningful Culture

Judy Marks is President of Otis Elevator Company, a 165 year old company that helps move over 2 billion people a day. With 27 years of experience serving federal customers across multiple agencies, her experience spans multiple disciplines including positions in systems engineering, engineering management, business development, capture management, subcontract management, program management and executive management. She has also served as the CEO at Siemens.

Additionally, she was the President of Transportation and Security Solutions of Lockheed Martin Corporation. In total, she served 27 years with Lockheed Martin and its predecessor companies.

Otis Elevator Company began in 1853 when Elisha Graves Otis invented the safety elevator. Over the last 165 years they have delivered products and services for 2 million elevators, in 1000 offices found in 200 countries around the world - every day. The 12.5 billion dollar company's focus of their 68,000 employees is on their customers and working to keep them satisfied and safe day after day. The foundation of the company is to know their values and stay true to them. This is especially critical in this global company.

The population of the world is a little over 7 billion, so in three or four days Otis has the opportunity, and the responsibility to touch the world, and keep it moving safely. That's more people than fly, and so, it's a tremendous life safety responsibility. Of the 68, 000 colleagues, 33, 000 are mechanics who really live at the customer's facilities, who do multiple service visits, and repairs as needed really to keep cities moving, to keep buildings moving, to keep people safe, and having access to their homes, and to hospitals.

There are multiple types of data that is collected and used in elevators. In a typical elevator the data you collect is everything from door mechanism, and door openings, how many times, how many floors it's been to, etc... All of that's pretty standard information, and really as you think about the ability to use that brings you to preventive and predictive maintenance in the future.

But, the more exciting - in some of the elevators you probably see on the West Coast - have something in them called destination dispatch, which allows riders to get to their destination faster. It acts as a virtual concierge, directing passengers where they need to go. The rider enters their destination and then they receive an elevator assignment. The software groups passengers and stops together to ensure the fastest transport possible.

There are 5 culture statements at Otis:

1. We celebrate imagination, which means we encourage new thinking, and smart risk taking.
2. We are family. We believe in us.
3. We're many voices. The greatest ideas come from diverse teams of thinkers with different points of view.
4. We're better together. We align as one team, and collaborate to serve our customers
5. We strive to be the best. We set big goals, we rise to achieve them, and we win together as a team.

What you will learn in this episode:

• How elevators and escalators have changed over the last 165 years
• Trends Judy is paying attention to right now
• How they ensure that Otis has the right people in leadership roles
• How AI and data is being used in the elevator/escalator space
• How Otis is upskilling their mechanics
• What it is like to work at Otis

Links from the episode:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judy-marks-otis/
• judy.marks@otis.com