Leveraging his profound experience in digitalization and enterprise transformation, Jiafeng Bao, Executive Vice President of KONE Group and President of KONE Greater China, has led KONE and the entire industry through a transformative revolution. He has been selected in the ‌2024 Forbes China Top 100 Most Influential Chinese Elite Selection‌.

 

In 2022, during his very first week at KONE, Bao Jiafeng put on a safety helmet and went to construction sites to conduct on-site research on elevator maintenance. The frontline maintenance staff visited the site every two weeks, usually with senior technicians guiding apprentices. They followed established routines, analyzed on-site conditions based on experience passed down through generations, and recorded maintenance data with pen and paper.

 

Everything seemed orderly. However, for Bao Jiafeng, who had served at Microsoft for 18 years, digitalization and intelligence had already become the "infrastructure" of many industries. As a typical traditional manufacturing sector, the elevator industry was in urgent need of an internal and external transformation. Bao Jiafeng was unwavering in this conviction.

 

"Everything flows, nothing stays still." This summary of the laws of the world by the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus also embodies the principle of seeking change and innovation that Jiafeng Bao, Executive Vice President of KONE Group and President of KONE Greater China, adheres to in leading the development of the enterprise and the industry.

 

01 Transformation: Reshaping the Industry with Digitalization

During his 18 years at Microsoft, from hardware to software, from cloud services to artificial intelligence, Bao Jiafeng personally participated in and led the wave of the digital revolution, gaining deep insights into how digitalization reshapes production paradigms.

 

In 2022, he made a resolute career shift, moving from Microsoft to KONE. The two industries are vastly different, with huge gaps in their respective digitalization progress. He had to rethink what digitalization truly means for traditional manufacturing.

 

Bao Jiafeng believes that KONE's digitalization must be thorough, diversified, and cross-organizational, rather than being limited to the product level.

 

After in-depth research into the market landscape, he carried out profound adjustments to the organizational structure, announcing the establishment of a dedicated software center. He positioned KONE's digital transformation as a shift from a product-centric model to a market and customer-oriented one, aiming to build an open, innovative, and shared digital ecosystem. By connecting upstream and downstream industry players, KONE breaks the isolated operational silos that once prevailed. The company shares its advanced digital technologies with partners to drive collaborative innovation, ultimately delivering a seamless customer experience.

 

As a core capability of KONE, digitalization is deeply embedded in its maintenance services. At KONE's customer service center, a massive central control screen displays 650,000 KONE-maintained devices on the left section, while the middle and right sections show real-time operational status data of cloud-connected equipment. With this system, KONE can monitor the operating conditions of every single device across the country in real time. Powered by AI and big data analytics, the system enables predictive maintenance, identifying potential faults before they occur and automatically arranging repairs to prevent elevator shutdowns or malfunctions.

 

"Do you see this flashing red dot on the map? It is an early warning signal, indicating that an elevator in this area may have potential risks," Bao Jiafeng explained, pointing to the map-based digital dashboard of the maintenance service. "KONE's predictive maintenance can reduce equipment failure rates by approximately 55% and the risk of passenger entrapment by around 40%."

 

Digitalization also greatly enhances passenger safety and convenience. Today, passengers can scan the QR code inside the elevator car via WeChat to check the real-time operating status of the elevator and promptly report any issues they encounter. All information is sent in real time to KONE's cloud service platform, where analytical tools process the data. Once maintenance needs are identified, the system automatically generates an online service order.

 

Not long ago, Bao Jiafeng visited a maintenance site again. He found that maintenance staff no longer carried paper notebooks, but instead used smart devices installed with the central platform system. Technicians can even ask questions directly to the backend robot, which acts as a virtual expert. The robot retrieves information from the database and provides answers, using AI-assisted diagnosis to improve the professional competence of maintenance personnel.

 

One digital screen, one comprehensive transformation, and one industry-wide reshaping have brought the charm of technology to KONE's 20,000 employees, 650,000 maintained devices, and hundreds of millions of passengers served every day.

 

02 Strategy: Embracing a New Narrative

The tide of the times surges forward endlessly. The elevator industry also needs to bid farewell to its old narrative and embrace the new era.

 

Since entering the Chinese market in 1996, KONE has seized the opportunities brought by China's urbanization and infrastructure construction, rapidly growing into a leading elevator brand in China. The Chinese mainland has become KONE's largest single market worldwide. KONE's Kunshan Industrial Park is KONE's largest production base and overseas R&D center globally, with products exported to more than 100 countries and regions around the world.

 

KONE's Kunshan Industrial Park, the largest production base of KONE globally, has achieved 100% renewable electricity usage, and has been awarded the national "Green Factory" title and Suzhou "Near-Zero Carbon Factory" certification.

 

For the Chinese market in the current historical stage, Bao Jiafeng needs to answer not only the transformation of business forms such as digitalization, but also the epochal question for the entire organization: Where should KONE Elevator head in the future?

 

As the pace of China's infrastructure construction slows down, the demand for new elevators continues to decline, and China's elevator market has transitioned from an incremental market to a stock market. "Nevertheless, the new elevator market in China remains highly important. China has the world's largest new elevator market, accounting for approximately 60% of the global total."

 

Having grown up in the United States but with 15 years of local work experience in China, Bao Jiafeng possesses both a unique global vision and rich local insights. Facing the established proposition of the times, beyond the new elevator market, he keenly perceives the huge potential of the elevator aftermarket. He has transformed KONE's market strategy in China from the past new elevator-focused model to a ‌three-wheel drive strategy of "new elevators + maintenance + renovation and modernization"‌.

 

China has the largest and youngest in-use elevator fleet in the world, with approximately 10 million units currently in operation, about 90% of which have been in service for no more than 15 years. This market structure indicates that China will face enormous renovation and modernization demand in the coming years. According to KONE's estimates, the renovation and modernization market will grow at a double-digit rate, quadrupling in size by 2030. In addition, the 2024 Chinese Government Work Report explicitly points out that efforts should be made to solve livelihood issues such as elevator installation in old residential communities. Bao Jiafeng stated that KONE will build its renovation and modernization business into the core growth driver of the industry in the future, focusing on providing diversified, customized renovation solutions and elevator installation services for old buildings, actively supporting urban renewal and development.

 

In terms of sustainable development, KONE adheres to innovation and its commitment to sustainability, achieving carbon neutrality in production in 2023. KONE's Kunshan factory has been selected into the list of Suzhou "Near-Zero Carbon Factories".

 

As the old and the new continue to replace each other, as the helmsman of KONE in China, Bao Jiafeng remains determined and calm, leading KONE Elevator to move forward steadily with forward-looking strategic vision and outstanding technological wisdom.

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