Chinese market lifts Schindler to success

Thomas Oetterli

Local talent to play key role in sustaining growth, says Thomas Oetterli, China head of Swiss elevator-maker

Thomas Oetterli, CEO of Schindler Group China, began his career with the leading Swiss elevator and escalator company in 1994 as an accountant.

"Usually accountants are very quiet and very serious," he said. But apparently, Oetterli is a cheerful and humorous person with an extremely amiable and down-to-earth disposition.

Oetterli heads the China operation of Schindler, which has a rich track record of over 141 years in the country and is headquartered in Lucerne, Switzerland. It has more than 10,000 employees in China, one-fifth of the global total, and the percentage is increasing.

"When I look at our growth plans for the future, which are far above the market rate, we will have close to 20,000 people in China in a few years," Oetterli said.

The elevator giant recently released an innovative technology to integrate the elevator management system with a smartphone app. With the pre-programmed app installed, residents, visitors and employees can freely enter their residential and office buildings and get directed to specific elevators and floors, without swiping cards or pushing buttons.

Thanks to the rapid rise of skyscrapers in China, Schindler saw 25 to 35 percent annual growth of its business in China in the past decade. The company has its second-largest research and development center based in Shanghai, and it is moving more and more R&D projects to China. Here Oetterli talks about the company's plans in China.

What are Schindler's competitive advantages vis-a-vis other elevator makers?

Five years ago, Schindler launched the innovative PORT technology, which seeks to provide intelligent and comfortable travel experiences for passengers. Users only have to tap their access card, pre-programmed with their identification and destination information, and the PORT takes care of the rest. The PORT technology calculates the most efficient route and sends an elevator to transport passengers to their destination in the fastest time possible.

Schindler has continued the innovation with the intelligent end-user application called myPORT, which fully exploits the potentials of the PORT system.

This is a solution that allows every resident to control, navigate and travel through their smartphones.

Any building occupant who has installed the myPORT app just needs to unlock their smartphone and show it to the myPORT reader to gain access.