'Our goal is, how do we disrupt ourselves'

Judy Marks, Chair, CEO and President of Otis Worldwide Corporation, talks about how the hoistway company is disrupting itself, piloting new products and the way forward for it

- Krishna Gopalan

Judy Marks, 59, Chair, CEO and President of Otis Worldwide Corporation, has dealt with a host of challenges in her long career. After stints at IBM, Lockheed Martin and Siemens AG, she joined Otis in 2017, where she helped the pioneer of elevator tech become a publicly listed company, following its spin off from United Technologies. In a freewheeling conversation with Business Today’s Krishna Gopalan at the company’s design centre in Hyderabad, Marks outlines how her company is positioned today, the difficult period it faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, and why it is a good time to be in the business. Edited excerpts:

Q: You first dealt with customers at your father’s store. You were really young then…

A: I am the youngest of three children and we all worked in the store. This wasn’t a big chain, but it was meaningful. I started with gift wrapping and still haven’t mastered it! Then, I worked behind the counter and made that connection with customers—listening to what they want, what they are interested in, and then trying to fulfil all of it. Be it that one transaction or leading a [big] company with a global customer base, it’s that same connection and fulfillment that I have tried to instil in our teams. Our customers understand we’re not going to be perfect, but it’s that ability to continue to communicate, to share our progress and really listen to what they need that is important.

Q: You are a big believer in informality, especially within teams. Why is that so important?