Tell us about the KONE India’s key strategies for 2021/22?
The pandemic has created a new reality that we must live with. And naturally, customer priorities and expectations have changed. Increasingly, customers are looking for not just smart but also sustainable urban solutions. They are seeking a perfect combination that blends both digital and traditional services seamlessly and sustainably.
These insights revealed three megatrends, which in turn helped shape our new strategy. To focus on increasing the value we create for customers with new intelligent solutions and embed sustainability even deeper across all of our operations, we have entered the new phase of our strategy: ‘Sustainable success with customers’ for four years 2021-2024.
Urbanization, sustainability and technology are three megatrends which continue to be key drivers in the development of the elevator and escalator industry. ‘Sustainable success with customers’ will address the needs of a digitally enabled world, where the ways people live, work and commute continue to change. We will focus on developing smart and sustainable solutions that adapt to future needs, together with our customers and partners.
How would you describe your style of leadership?
In one word, I would describe my leadership style as – empowering. However, a good leader has multiple traits. Care, collaboration, integrity, delegation, self-awareness, gratitude, learning agility, empathy, courage, respect, to name a few. There are many leadership traits that I have picked up are through the learnings from my superiors or peers as well as people who have worked with me.
I believe that leaders should completely trust their team, keep their cool and should not be stressed and stay positive. Leaders can sometimes become enamoured with new upgrades to their jobs. However, it is important that we all realize that everyone is working for common goals. Therefore, empathy and humility is extremely important to understand the organizational culture. Have a clear vision; it is important in an organization to build a clear vision consistent with overall objectives and vision of the organization, globally in case of Multinationals. However, elements may vary based on local needs and built collaboratively.
You face a high competition from international brands available in India. How do you combat that?
Sustainability is a source of innovation and a competitive advantage for KONE. We want to be the most trusted partner for our customers throughout their building life cycle and help them achieve their sustainability objectives, creating better urban environments. Our vision is to create the best people flow experience. In addition to the environmental aspects of our offering and operations, our sustainability focus areas include safety, quality, diversity and inclusion, as well as ethics and compliance. Conducting business in a responsible way with good corporate governance supports us in creating long-term value for shareholders.
With respect to planning and expansion what is your vision in the next three years?
We work very closely with our customers and we know for them the key advantage is the ability to adapt and upgrade the elevator experience according to needs now and in the future. Together with our partners, we constantly strengthen our position as innovation leader in our industry. In an increasingly digitalized world, everything is connected – and elevators are no exception. And as new ecosystems emerge around smarter cities and smarter buildings there is a huge potential with the integration of building design with elevators, escalators, services and other utilities, in the most sustainable ways possible.
The way we can meet the future needs and create better experience for the users of buildings, is through the way of adaptability, and KONE has positioned itself as part of this move with the recently launched ground-breaking invention, KONE DX Class Elevators- the world’s first digitally connected elevators, which will redefine the elevator experience. The rise of a new era in the industry, KONE DX Class is a game-changer, that is bound to transform how people experience elevators. With built-in connectivity for improved people flow, KONE DX Class promises an experience that connects at every level.
