~ understanding people when it comes to elevators ~
India, 27th October 2010: Global leading Elevator & Escalator Company KONE today celebrates its centennial anniversary. To commemorate this significant milestone in the company’s history, KONE organized People Flow Day that took place in over 20 countries worldwide with over 600 KONE employees participating in the event. KONE’s employees visited over a hundred target sites around the world to meet with building users, observe the buildings during typical usage and met customers from six different building types, viz., hotel, office, medical, public transportation, residential and retail. In India, the program was held across 17 cities.
People Flow Day 2010 is an innovative concept in the industry introduced by Kone with a strong objective of strengthening customer insight by engaging customers and employees in an interface mode. It is an attempt to develop extensive understanding on the end user.
Commenting on this occasion Mr. Neeraj Sharma, Managing Director – Kone India Pvt Ltd said – “over the years, KONE has demonstrated an ability to adapt to a changing world and to create new opportunities for growth. Urbanization, aging population, and the increasing importance of safety are the challenges societies face today and would face even more increasingly in the future. KONE wants to contribute to sustainable urban development with eco-efficient solutions that offer energy savings in buildings and enable the best user experience to all its users.”
“KONE’s vision is to offer the best People Flow experience. The experience of the People Flow Day was an opportunity for our employees to see in action what our vision stands for. It was them to play the role of researchers, gathering information on users, customers and markets. The data generated from this activity will help us improve the future objective of developing relevant solutions that meet the current day needs of building owners and users alike,” added Ms. Sreelakshmi Menon, Director Marketing & Communications – Kone India Pvt Ltd.
With this endeavor KONE made the attempt to understand the people’s psyche when it comes to the usage of elevators, because it is them who matter at the end. The objective of this exercise was to develop a deeper bond with the end users furthering the core mission, vision and values of the company.
KONE, started as a tiny machine shop in Helsinki, Finland, and today it is a company with annual net sales of close to five billion euros, with approximately 34,000 employees and operations worldwide. It is at present an acknowledged technology leader and has established itself as a major player in the world’s fastest growing markets as well as solidified its position in its traditional markets also.
About KONE:
KONE is one of the global leaders in the elevator and escalator industry. The company has been committed to understanding the needs of its customers for the past century, providing industry-leading elevators, escalators and automatic building doors as well as innovative solutions for modernization and maintenance. The company's objective is to offer the best people flow experience by developing and delivering solutions that enable people to move smoothly, safely, comfortably and without waiting in buildings in an increasingly urbanizing environment. In 2009, KONE had annual net sales of EUR 4.7 billion and approximately 34,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd in Finland. Founded in 1910, KONE celebrates its centennial anniversary in 2010.
About KONE India:
KONE started business in India more than 20 years ago and is today one of the largest elevator company’s in the Indian elevator market. It employs about 2800 people in the country, today.
KONE’s factory in Chennai produces elevators for the Indian market with some exports to Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Chennai additionally forms a base for modernization in other Asian-Pacific markets such as Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. The factory has a training center where KONE’s installation engineers and field mechanics are trained to meet KONE India’s strong reputation for high quality and non-compromised safety, as well as the expectations of Indian customers, when installing and maintaining elevators and escalators.
KONE operates all around India through its 40 branches. The main business opportunities are in the big metropolitan areas such as Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai.
Although KONE’s Indian operations were established to meet local demands, KONE Elevator India’s role in growing year by year and India clearly has a lot of potential to develop into an export base for other Asian markets. In terms of engineering and global software, KONE India already forms an integral part of KONE’s global business network, providing services for KONE business units in Europe, North America and Asia.
KONE actively contributes to local social development through its community involvement. KONE supports a child-care center and a consulting service for local mothers in Ayanambakkam Village that provides information about children’s diets and other important issues including vaccination programs. KONE also sponsors one local secondary school and participates on a needs basis in emergency and local infrastructure improvement programs together with other local companies.
www.kone.com
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Sreelakshmi Menon, Director Marketing & Communications. Tel : +91 8056041205