Making it all work smoothly
The arrival of Matti Alahuhta in the KONE president’s office issued in the latest era of KONE’s development. The distractions of the Partek acquisition and Cargotec’s devolution were in the past. KONE was profitable but had fallen too far for comfort behind the industry’s leader in many key indicators.
Matti set out to streamline KONE’s organization and improve its performance across the board. He involved key levels of management in defining KONE’s vision and values. He launched the KONE Way, which clearly defined KONE’s key processes as Customer, Delivery, Maintenance, Solution Creation, and Management & Support. The management team began defining key development programs and issuing regular reports on KONE’s progress in achieving the desired outcomes.
Since 2005 KONE has outperformed the competition in terms of growth and profit margin improvement. KONE has established itself as a major player in the world’s fastest growing markets and solidified its position in its traditional markets. It has been the acknowledged technology leader since the introduction on KONE EcoDisc®.
KONE has come a long way in the past century. From its start as a tiny machine shop in Helsinki, it has become a five billion euro company with approximately 33,800 employees and operations worldwide with the exception of South America. Today KONE looks to its past with pride and to the future with confidence and enthusiasm.