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KONE 2016 | SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
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INTERVIEW WITH THE CHAIRMAN
AND THE PRESIDENT AND CEO
better ways for instance by reducing energy
consumption and waste.
We will for example maximize all that
digitalization has to offer. It can make our
equipment smarter, and help our customers be
more successful.
How would you summarize KONE’s
sustainability performance in 2016?
AH:
Our whole industry – not only KONE
– faces change on a number of fronts. But
change means opportunity.
We have taken positive steps in providing
sustainable technological solutions for the
whole equipment life-cycle. Here it is important
to be efficient with resources and we have done
this wisely. There are many examples of where
we have become more effective and efficient,
which ultimately means we are saving our
customers’ resources.
HE:
Yes, it was a good year in terms of
sustainability performance. We continued to
develop our solutions in terms of their eco-
efficiency, for instance, we now have more
products in the A Class category according to
the ISO 25745 energy efficiency standards.
Secondly, we have also actively developed our
services business, to bring better solutions to our
customers. In 2016 we tested and piloted many
new services, which helped our customers to
improve their business. As a result, we have seen
strong growth there and a clear improvement in
our customer loyalty scores.
It’s also important to note that 2016 was
the last year of our development programs,
which were part of our strategy - and I am
pleased to see that we made good progress
SUSTAINABILITY FOR AN URBANIZING WORLD
Has sustainability become a more significant
trend during 2016?
Antti Herlin (AH):
Sustainability is as
significant as it always has been for all of us at
KONE. We live in a world where markets and
technologies are changing fast, competition
is intensifying and urbanization is expanding.
There are many economic, environmental and
social aspects to this. But there are also many
opportunities.
I believe at KONE we have done a good
job in being more visible and clear about our
mission and vision and how we create value
for our customers and users, and society at
large. That not only means better people
flow; but also smarter ways of doing business.
Sustainability is a huge part of achieving that.
Henrik Ehrnrooth (HE):
There are also other
trends which have accelerated, and which we
have addressed in concrete ways. First is the
move towards customer centricity and delivering
more value to our customers. Our customers
need us to provide solutions to problems,
to provide outcomes that are based on their
business success. Because when our customers
succeed then we benefit. We need to be able
to understand these needs better than anyone
else, and offer flexible solutions which benefit
customers and users in the best way.
Second is the urbanization and the
continuing development of cities, buildings,
populations and infrastructure. For KONE,
this means it is no longer enough to have
products and services that perform a single
task. We need to be able to meet the needs
for changing demographics, different types
of accommodation and use technologies in
“We need to be able to
understand customer
needs better, and offer
flexible solutions which
benefit customers and
users in the best way.”
-Henrik Ehrnrooth
A conversation with Chairman Antti Herlin (on the right) and President and CEO Henrik Ehrnrooth on our progress in
2016. Picture taken from KONE’s Annual General Meeting in Helsinki, Finland, in March 2017.