‘GREAT IDEAS CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE’
Otis’ Judy Marks, lone female CEO among state’s 25 largest firms, discusses career, challenges
Judy Marks, chief executive officer, president and chairwoman of Otis Worldwide, leads a Connecticut company that services elevators, escalators and moving walkways that move 2 billion people around the world each day.
In 2020, Marks led Farmington-based Otis’ spinoff from United Technologies Corp., into an independent, publicly traded company. Last year, Otis ranked No. 236 on the Fortune 1,000 list of companies with the highest annual revenues.
Today, Otis has approximately 70,000 employees across about 80 countries. It generated about $14 billion in 2021 net sales, with its manufacturing of elevators, escalators and moving walkways complementing its servicing of those apparatus.
During her nearly 40-year career, Marks, 58, has held senior leadership roles at three other multinationals: IBM, Lockheed Martin and Siemens AG. She was CEO of Siemens USA and its subsidiary, Dresser-Rand, when she was appointed president of Otis in 2017.
Marks is also the only female CEO of a Connecticut-headquartered company on the 2021 Fortune 1,000 list. As part of a Hearst Connecticut Media Group examination of women’s representation in the top positions at large companies, Marks discussed her career and the challenges and opportunities for women professionals.
Q: What factors have been the most important to advancement and success in your career?
Marks: As a woman in
several male-dominated fields in my career, I know how important it is to challenge the status quo and then rise above it through hard work, performance and persistence.
Prior to joining Otis, I had
multiple leadership roles inside three great technology companies — at a time when there weren’t many women in leadership roles.
I learned business values — how you treat people — at an early age by supporting
our family business. My father and a business partner had a small department store in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and this is where I first learned about the importance of customers and
colleagues to the success of a business.
No matter where I’ve been in life, I’ve taken those lessons with me: You can’t have a successful business if you don’t have satisfied customers and engaged colleagues. It doesn’t matter size or scale, take on tough assignments and continue to learn as much as you can while genuinely working hard. Surround yourself with a supportive network. Most importantly, you should stay true to yourself and your values, no matter what.
Q: What steps can companies take to support the advancement of women professionals?
Marks: When we talk about advancing women, we’re talking about the value of diversity. Great ideas can come from anywhere, and over and over research shows that more diverse organizations outperform those that are not diverse.
At Otis, we know our success depends on our ability to imagine new products and services — driving thought leadership and new business models. Our customers and passengers come from all walks of life, and we need those same diverse perspectives to better serve them.
That demands the best talent. Diversity in thought and perspective is necessary as we transform our business.
I’m proud of our work with the Paradigm for Parity initiative. We were the first in our industry to pledge to achieve gender parity in our executive leadership — 50 percent women executives — by 2030. Right now, 36 percent of our executives are women globally, and we continue to drive policies aimed at eliminating unconscious bias, making sure we give all colleagues opportunities to thrive.
We’ve also made an impact with our employee resource groups, including FORWARD, which aims to recruit, retain and develop female operations and branch leaders as well as mechanics and technicians in the field. These positions are the face of Otis to our customers around the globe and are among the most important roles in our company.
Q: What would be your message to girls and young women who aspire to become a CEO one day, but are concerned about the societal and organizational barriers they might face in striving toward that goal?
Marks: The best advice I can offer is to work hard, learn your business, build your collaboration muscle and “pay it back” when and how you can.
Nothing replaces hard work. I work as hard today, if not harder, than I did as a starting engineer in 1984. I believe that’s what’s expected of me. I’ve set a bar for myself where I wouldn’t be satisfied unless I gave at least 100 percent every day.
I’m not satisfied until I can know as much as I can about the business, and I encourage others to do the same. Ask questions and learn the vocabulary, acronyms and business rhythm of your organization. The more you learn, the more you can contribute.
I have had the privilege of working in different kinds of organizations. I’ve worked in hierarchical, command-and-control organizations, but I’ve also worked in matrixed organizations and had very different roles, including functional roles, where the only way you could get ahead in a global enterprise was to do what I call “develop the collaboration muscle.”
Women are tremendous collaborators and that makes us great colleagues and leaders. We solicit opinions, listen and try to synthesize that and drive to some sort of consensus and final decision.
I would challenge women looking to excel to develop their collaboration muscle, especially in challenging times. Even if the person sitting across the table from you is not collaborative, don’t give up. Collaboration is the key to success.
Finally, I believe in “paying it back.” It’s my responsibility to make it better for the next generation of women who follow me in business, in industry and at Otis. I try to give back in a variety of ways, through volunteerism, mentorship, sponsorship and serving and supporting our local communities.
There are many ways to pay it back, and I suggest finding ways that align best with your values and interests.