Exclusive Interview with Judy, Global Chief Executive Officer of Otis

21st Century Business Herald, Southern Finance | Shanghai, 2026

 

Foreign enterprises continue to deepen their strategic footprint in the Chinese market, anchored in local operations and fully aligned with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) development vision. This long-term commitment enables them to capture the dual opportunities of China’s industrial upgrading and high-standard institutional opening-up.

 

As the global benchmark of the vertical transportation industry, Otis has maintained uninterrupted operations in China for over 40 years. The company has consistently scaled up capital investment and optimized its end-to-end local ecosystem: beyond localized procurement and manufacturing that serve the domestic market, Otis has established a fully integrated global supply chain that exports China-engineered, China-manufactured vertical mobility solutions to markets worldwide, forming an integral part of China’s global opening-up landscape.

 

In this exclusive interview with the Global Finance Connect editorial team from 21st Century Business Herald, Otis Global CEO Judy reaffirmed the company’s unwavering confidence in the Chinese market. She noted that the Chinese market delivers two distinct, industry-defining values: it accelerates product iteration and technological refinement at a pace unmatched by most global regions, while unlocking expansive, multi-dimensional growth trajectories. Even against a backdrop of moderating global economic expansion, the inelastic demand for safety-critical vertical transportation services and the underlying structural growth potential of the Chinese market remain exceptionally robust.

 

Judy emphasized that Otis will sustain its long-term investment momentum in China. By leveraging China’s world-class open business environment and complete industrial ecosystem advantages, the company will deepen localized operational excellence, while advancing structured cross-border sharing of technology, talent and best practices across global markets. Otis is fully positioned to maintain its deep-rooted presence in China and share the full dividends of the country’s high-quality economic advancement.

 

Interview Transcript

Global Finance Connect‌: We understand you recently completed an official visit to Guangdong. Could you share your perspectives on the region?

Judy‌: I participated in high-level industry engagement events hosted by the Guangdong Provincial Government, and held in-depth strategic exchanges with provincial leadership on the GBA’s long-term growth agenda. Otis already maintains a well-established, high-performing operational footprint across the GBA, with all core business lines delivering consistent, sustainable growth. Building on this foundation, we are leveraging our full-spectrum technological expertise in Guangzhou to drive structured cross-border resource collaboration, covering advanced mechanical engineering capabilities and high-caliber professional talent development.

 

The GBA has long served as China’s leading testbed for emerging industry innovation and best practice rollout. A core strategic priority for Otis in the region is to facilitate structured talent mobility and knowledge sharing, enabling industry-leading expertise cultivated in the GBA to extend its positive impact across regional and global markets. The Chinese market empowers us to refine and iterate our solutions far faster than in nearly any other global market, which elevates our overall global competitiveness. In parallel, a substantial portfolio of products originally engineered to address the unique requirements of the Chinese market has now been successfully deployed across global markets.

 

Global Finance Connect‌: This represents a clear extension of your "In China, For China" framework into a fully realized "In China, For the World" operational model, does it not?

Judy‌: That is exactly the model we have successfully implemented. A large volume of our localized, China-developed solutions are now exported to global markets. Every unit we manufacture in China is built on a 100% integrated local supply chain, and China is already Otis’ largest single new equipment market globally. Today, our China organization comprises over 17,000 skilled professionals, five state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, and the largest R&D and design center in Otis’ global network. Our end-to-end "source in China, manufacture in China, deliver service excellence for China, and export globally" operational framework has fully delivered on the "In China, For the World" value proposition. The exacting quality standards of Chinese customers continuously push us to elevate our technological capabilities and comprehensive service performance to new industry benchmarks.

 

Our China business extends far beyond new elevator manufacturing. The service segment is delivering exceptional, above-market growth. With nearly 11 million elevators currently in active operation across China, Otis’ China service business has more than doubled its scale over the past five years, recording cumulative growth well in excess of 100%. The most significant structural opportunity in the industry today lies in the modernization of aging elevator fleets. As the large-scale wave of urban construction in China commenced in the early 2000s, nearly one million elevators that have been in service for over 15 years are now due for safety and performance upgrades, which can be substantially enhanced through the application of next-generation digital technologies.

 

Our national service footprint covers every provincial-level administrative region in China. As our service portfolio — particularly the elevator modernization line — continues to scale rapidly, we see exceptional untapped potential in Guangzhou, where demand for building renovation and vertical transportation system upgrades remains exceptionally strong. We are confident that Guangzhou, and the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, will create unparalleled strategic growth opportunities for our elevator modernization business.

 

Global Finance Connect‌: As we look ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, what key growth opportunities does Otis identify in the Chinese market?

Judy‌: We see an extensive pipeline of high-quality, sustainable growth opportunities.

 

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Otis completed a full-scale strategic transformation of its China operations, launching a series of next-generation product lines and evolving our business model from a manufacturing-centric organization to a technology-enabled service leader. Over the coming five years, we anticipate that artificial intelligence and other frontier digital technologies will see widespread, industry-wide adoption, residents’ quality of life will continue to improve, and all these development trends will fully integrate into China’s high-quality development master plan. Driven by the dual engines of robust domestic consumption and targeted infrastructure investment, the industry will maintain strong, resilient growth momentum.

 

With over 40 years of continuous presence in China, Otis is deeply embedded in the local industrial ecosystem. We are extremely optimistic about the full implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and hold full, unwavering confidence in the long-term growth trajectory of the Chinese economy. We stand ready to fully participate in, and actively contribute to, this historic growth journey.

 

As previously outlined, our elevator modernization business is projected to deliver sustained double-digit growth. Our service segment has maintained consistent, healthy expansion over recent years, and our total business portfolio is delivering annual growth in the double-digit range. We expect new equipment and construction-related business to gradually stabilize at a healthy, sustainable level. Taken together, our entire China business will maintain robust, continuous growth over the next five-year period.

 

Global Finance Connect‌: Against the backdrop of a broader global economic slowdown, what strategic role do you see the Chinese economy playing in the global economic landscape?

Judy‌: Even as global GDP growth moderates at the macro level, our service business has demonstrated exceptional structural resilience. By the end of 2025, Otis will deliver maintenance and safety services for approximately 2.5 million elevators across our global footprint, including our extensive China portfolio. Our services are deeply embedded in every dimension of daily public and private life, covering transit hubs, residential complexes, commercial office towers and public infrastructure, making them an irreplaceable component of modern urban mobility.

 

As a result, our elevator service business maintains stable, non-cyclical growth regardless of short-term macroeconomic fluctuations. From a public safety and regulatory compliance perspective, these services represent non-discretionary, inelastic demand that will continue to grow steadily under rigorous industry regulatory frameworks. Beyond that, our elevator modernization business operates in perfect synergy with our new equipment manufacturing operations, and the Chinese market will serve as the core strategic pillar of this global operational layout. We will continue to expand our long-term investment in China, and our confidence in the future of our China business remains absolute.

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