Celebrating our colleagues who 'Lift Our Communities'

Throughout several decades in senior leadership roles in the technology industry, I have come to believe that the most successful companies are those guided by a set of deeply held cultural values – including an unwavering commitment to advancing the common good, especially during times of disruption. Companies and their leaders need to be on the front lines when it comes to tackling society’s biggest challenges.

Companies are increasingly recognizing their responsibility to be good corporate citizens – and embracing the idea that financial performance and corporate social responsibility go hand in hand. A recent global survey by Deloitte found that among 350 business leaders surveyed, 93% believe that companies have a responsibility to be “stewards of society.”

To ensure that colleagues feel empowered to give back, it’s critical for leaders to demonstrate their own personal commitment. This requires leading with empathy and compassion, accounting for the challenges colleagues face, and creating the pathways that allow for connecting around the issues that matter most to colleagues and our communities.

Amid all the changes my own colleagues had to navigate during the last year, their passion for giving back never faltered. They embraced the opportunity to make the world a better place, contributing their matching gift donations to COVID-19 relief funds, embracing Our Commitment to Change, continuing to support local communities, and devoting thousands of hours of their own time to the successful launch and implementation of our new global Corporate Social Responsibility program, Made to Move Communities.

We created Made to Move Communities to advance youth STEM education and support inclusive mobility in underserved communities, two areas we identified where we could have the biggest impact – given our own expertise in engineering mobility solutions and our longstanding commitment to closing the STEM skills gap.

In our inaugural year, students from 14 schools in nine geographies worked with Otis mentors to research and creatively design technology-based solutions to address mobility challenges in their local communities. The first year’s theme appropriately focused on mobility solutions for communities deeply impacted by COVID-19.

The final student projects were brilliant. It’s clear that something magical happened in the collaboration between these young innovators and their Otis mentors. Their ideas and solutions were inspirational, sophisticated and impressively practical for the real world.

To help revive the economy at a popular tourism destination, the students from the International College of Technology in Japan developed a “people’s mobility” smartphone app for monitoring crowd density in real-time, enabling travelers to schedule their visit accordingly. Other solutions involved improving mobility for aging populations, simplifying grocery delivery and shopping in local markets amid the pandemic, and making city infrastructure more bicycle-friendly.

The success of this program shows that it’s always the right time to give back to our communities – and even more so during trying times like these. I was recently moved by this New York Times article on how the need for mentors is greater than ever. Here at Otis, even as we stayed focused on ensuring business continuity and the safety of our colleagues and passengers, our commitment to the larger good and giving back remained as strong as ever – as core to our values and part of our DNA.

Every year, my Otis colleagues volunteer thousands of hours of their own time in service to causes they care most about. This includes Made to Move Communities and many other programs around the world, including Special Olympics and FIRST. Through these activities, they support one of our own deeply held cultural values: #WeAreBetterTogether.

I want to extend my personal gratitude to our colleagues – and all others across the world – who made a tremendous effort to step up for their communities during the past year.

For me, mentoring the next generation of leaders and encouraging young scientists and engineers along their career paths has long-lasting impact – and is rewarding in immeasurable ways.

We’re committed to doing our part to give back and to lead. I am eager to see the creative problem solving that continues to emerge from our businesses and communities as we move forward to a brighter future – together.

Learn more about Made to Move Communities here.