FACE TO FACE: Mr. Axel Berkling
Mr. Axel Berkling has been an Executive Vice President for the Asia-Pacific Region based in Singapore and Member of the Executive Board at KONE Corporation since October 01, 2016. Mr. Berkling served as Managing Director of Germany at KONE from 2012 to 2016. He began his career in the finance department at KONE Germany in 1998 and has held various regional commercial roles including managing KONE’s service business in Germany. He has also served as the Director of Kone Holdings (Australia) Limited. Prior to joining KONE, he served as the Managing Director of Nass Magnet GmbH 1996–1998 and held different roles at Arthur Andersen from 1992–1995. Mr. Berkling holds an M.Sc. (Econ) from the Fachhochschule Nordostniedersachsen.
1)Tell us briefly about yourself and your current role at KONE
I’ve been with KONE for over 20 years and held roles in the finance and commercial functions back in Germany including overseeing the company’s German business. I currently oversee KONE’s operations in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China) that comprises of markets – Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and India. Prior to joining KONE, I was the Managing Director of Nass Magnet where I led the setting up the company’s Hungarian operations from scratch and oversaw the building of the factory. Earlier in my career, I was with Arthur Andersen consulting where I advised oil and gas industry clients in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practice. During that time, we were always conscious about the environmental impact arising from the business
operations and this was where I developed my foundations on embracing the sustainability agenda. This was one of the most identifiable values I share with KONE, the thrust and focus on sustainability.
I’ve been with KONE for over 20 years and held roles in the finance and commercial functions back in Germany including overseeing the company’s German business. I currently oversee KONE’s operations in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China) that comprises of markets – Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and India. Prior to joining KONE, I was the Managing Director of Nass Magnet where I led the setting up the company’s Hungarian operations from scratch and oversaw the building of the factory. Earlier in my career, I was with Arthur Andersen consulting where I advised oil and gas industry clients in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practice. During that time, we were always conscious about the environmental impact arising from the business
operations and this was where I developed my foundations on embracing the sustainability agenda. This was one of the most identifiable values I share with KONE, the thrust and focus on sustainability.
2)What are the challenges you are facing in this current role and how you overcome this?
We live in an interesting world today and in AsiaPacific, things are changing rapidly and each market is very diverse. This makes it interesting yet challenging at the same time. We are always looking at how we can ensure we stay relevant and competitive.
As a company that strives to provide innovative and sustainable solutions, we are always training our workers in order for them to have a strong foundation in the technologies we are investing in and to have the knowledge to provide sound advice to our customers. One example would be the UltraRope. We have sent our sales and technical teams for training so that our sales team possess the knowledge of the product to sell and the technical team have the competency to install the product.
We are the market leader in the new equipment segment and the second largest maintenance service provider in the region. With buildings requiring modernisation of their elevators and escalators, there is a huge growth potential for us to tap on. For example, we take concerted efforts to ensure that elevators and escalators adhere to the stringent safety standards and are eco-efficient as customers are prioritising on these factors now. Today, maintenance and service is an important part of what we do, a service disruption can hugely dent our reputation and cause inconvenience to many. It requires constant monitoring and service upgrade from our end to ensure smooth operations for our clients. We have built a very strong and smart monitoring and issue resolution process. With services like predictive maintenance, we can pre-empt issues before they arise and also, have a 24×7 service centre that keeps a track on the progress of redressal of customer complaints that are reported.
Diversity and inclusion is our recipe for success. That is why we are always looking for is to attract a wide range of talent to join our company. We’ve taken steps to hire talent beyond engineering backgrounds and tell prospective hires that how to make the People Flow experience a seamless one.
We live in an interesting world today and in AsiaPacific, things are changing rapidly and each market is very diverse. This makes it interesting yet challenging at the same time. We are always looking at how we can ensure we stay relevant and competitive.
As a company that strives to provide innovative and sustainable solutions, we are always training our workers in order for them to have a strong foundation in the technologies we are investing in and to have the knowledge to provide sound advice to our customers. One example would be the UltraRope. We have sent our sales and technical teams for training so that our sales team possess the knowledge of the product to sell and the technical team have the competency to install the product.
We are the market leader in the new equipment segment and the second largest maintenance service provider in the region. With buildings requiring modernisation of their elevators and escalators, there is a huge growth potential for us to tap on. For example, we take concerted efforts to ensure that elevators and escalators adhere to the stringent safety standards and are eco-efficient as customers are prioritising on these factors now. Today, maintenance and service is an important part of what we do, a service disruption can hugely dent our reputation and cause inconvenience to many. It requires constant monitoring and service upgrade from our end to ensure smooth operations for our clients. We have built a very strong and smart monitoring and issue resolution process. With services like predictive maintenance, we can pre-empt issues before they arise and also, have a 24×7 service centre that keeps a track on the progress of redressal of customer complaints that are reported.
Diversity and inclusion is our recipe for success. That is why we are always looking for is to attract a wide range of talent to join our company. We’ve taken steps to hire talent beyond engineering backgrounds and tell prospective hires that how to make the People Flow experience a seamless one.
3)Tell us briefly how KONE’s new offerings and enhanced services would enable buildings to adopt smarter people flow solutions?At KONE, we seek to drive alignment between our operating and business models. We create value by providing customers with escalator and elevator solutions that leverage the latest proprietary KONE technologies and innovative designs. Being at the forefront of escalator and elevator technology has enabled KONE to grow its installed base of escalators and elevators to over 1,000,000 units, globally.
We are not one to shy away from innovations to complement our technology. By using open application programming interfaces (APIs) KONE’s approach makes it easy to manage different devices and integrate them with new and existing systems and we can now create integrated and tailored solutions for our customers and personalised experiences for equipment users in a safe, secure and flexible manner. We have built our digital platform to anticipate these changes. From now on, our services will be even better tailored to customer needs. Our solutions will be connected to the environments in which they function, enabling a truly personalised people flow experience. Elevators, escalators, building doors, and maintenance and modernisation services – can now be connected and upgraded, which means they can be integrated with the digital platform.
Another example would be KONE 24/7 Connected Services uses the IBM Watson IoT platform and its cognitive capabilities in many different ways. Incorporating artificial intelligence helps predict elevator or escalator conditions, thereby helping customers manage their equipment over its life cycle. By leveraging artificial intelligence into our services, we help predict and suggest resolutions to potential problems long before they manifest. This benefits all stakeholders in the people flow ecosystem from property managers to maintenance crews to elevator and escalator users.
KONE was recently ranked as one of the world’s most innovative companies for 2018, by Forbes. We were ranked 59th, making us the 7th most innovative company in the world. KONE was also the only elevator and escalator company featured on the list.
4)In your opinion how can the elevator and escalator industry tap on opportunities in the developed and emerging markets?
The opportunities in developed and emerging markets differ. In developed markets such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, industry players can tap on modernising elevators and escalators in older buildings whereby property owners are striving to make their buildings more energy efficient in a bid to reduce energy costs. In fact, we are seeing more of our customers’ tenants being interested about the building’s energy efficiency and green measures. By and large, the tenants become the customer of our customer and we have to also consider how our solutions will allow people to move smoothly and safely in and within the building.
The opportunities in developed and emerging markets differ. In developed markets such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, industry players can tap on modernising elevators and escalators in older buildings whereby property owners are striving to make their buildings more energy efficient in a bid to reduce energy costs. In fact, we are seeing more of our customers’ tenants being interested about the building’s energy efficiency and green measures. By and large, the tenants become the customer of our customer and we have to also consider how our solutions will allow people to move smoothly and safely in and within the building.
With the large number of new buildings being built, especially in South East Asia, this translates into opportunities for industry players to provide maintenance services for property managers. This presents an opportunity for the industry and we at KONE strive to continue developing positive relationships with our customers. With the largest growth being seen in emerging markets given the rapid urbanisation levels, this is where the greatest opportunities lie. Industry players should constantly invest and innovate to introduce new products to the market.
5)How does KONE help the built environment design buildings that are energy efficient and minimise carbon output? Any case study?
Sustainability is more than just a buzzword but a core value that we fully embrace in every part of our business. At KONE, we develop and use innovative and eco-efficient technologies that drastically reduces the energy consumption of elevators and escalators. Furthermore, we are taking strides in reducing the negative environmental impacts of our solutions through focusing on the use of healthy and long-lasting materials as well as closely collaborating with our suppliers to provide material transparency and traceability.
Our commitment to sustainability has been recognised by the industry. KONE is recognised as a top climate change performer with an A- score in CDP 2017. KONE was confirmed as a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index in July and December 2016. KONE ranked 28th in the 2015 list of Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, released by a Toronto-based media and investment advisory company Corporate Knights.
Many building projects in the region are consciously making efforts to minimise their carbon footprint and focusing on the concept of green buildings. For example, a building owner can achieve up to 70% energy savings through modernising an elevator. KONE’s modernisation solutions range from retrofitting LED lights to replacing existing elevator shafts with an entirely new elevator with energy-regeneration technology. Our current machine room-less elevator, KONE MonoSpace® 500, is up to 90% more energy efficient than our elevators from the 1990s.
As more high-rise buildings are being constructed, KONE has also introduced the UltraRope® that boasts eco-efficiency, durability and reliability. It uses a lightweight carbon fibre rope that is 60 per cent lighter than ordinary steel ropes and has twice as long a lifetime than that of conventional steel ropes. This reduces energy costs by up to 15 per cent for a 500 metre elevator. allowing elevators to travel to greater heights of up to 1,000 metres. The first UltraRope® elevator was installed at the iconic Marina Bay Sands (MBS) integrated resort situated in the heart of Singapore’s Marina Bay.
Sustainability is more than just a buzzword but a core value that we fully embrace in every part of our business. At KONE, we develop and use innovative and eco-efficient technologies that drastically reduces the energy consumption of elevators and escalators. Furthermore, we are taking strides in reducing the negative environmental impacts of our solutions through focusing on the use of healthy and long-lasting materials as well as closely collaborating with our suppliers to provide material transparency and traceability.
Our commitment to sustainability has been recognised by the industry. KONE is recognised as a top climate change performer with an A- score in CDP 2017. KONE was confirmed as a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index in July and December 2016. KONE ranked 28th in the 2015 list of Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, released by a Toronto-based media and investment advisory company Corporate Knights.
Many building projects in the region are consciously making efforts to minimise their carbon footprint and focusing on the concept of green buildings. For example, a building owner can achieve up to 70% energy savings through modernising an elevator. KONE’s modernisation solutions range from retrofitting LED lights to replacing existing elevator shafts with an entirely new elevator with energy-regeneration technology. Our current machine room-less elevator, KONE MonoSpace® 500, is up to 90% more energy efficient than our elevators from the 1990s.
As more high-rise buildings are being constructed, KONE has also introduced the UltraRope® that boasts eco-efficiency, durability and reliability. It uses a lightweight carbon fibre rope that is 60 per cent lighter than ordinary steel ropes and has twice as long a lifetime than that of conventional steel ropes. This reduces energy costs by up to 15 per cent for a 500 metre elevator. allowing elevators to travel to greater heights of up to 1,000 metres. The first UltraRope® elevator was installed at the iconic Marina Bay Sands (MBS) integrated resort situated in the heart of Singapore’s Marina Bay.
6)Please shed some lights on KONE’s successes in Asia-Pacific and what’s next: What has KONE been doing right and how does it plan to tap on their successes moving forward?
KONE is in the right neighbourhood with good growth potential given the prospect of rapid urbanisation in time to come. Asia-Pacific is a key market for us and we have over 27,000 employees in the region. This makes up almost half of our 57,000-strong workforce worldwide. In Asia-Pacific, KONE is the largest and second largest by market share for new equipment and maintenance respectively. We’ve seen a healthy mix of growth across new equipment and modernisation orders in the region in 2018 with new equipment sales grew by 4.9 per cent and the modernisation market grew by over 10 per cent. New equipment sales were also driven by the Indian and South-East Asian markets. The maintenance market did well too and grew between 5 and 10 per cent. We are expecting to see the maintenance and modernisation markets grow the fastest in this part of the world.
KONE’s innovative People Flow solutions have had been installed in landmarks and major infrastructure projects across the region for decades. This include the iconic MBS integrated resort situated in the heart of Singapore’s Marina Bay and the Singapore MRT Circle Line.
Recently, we won a contract to supply elevators and escalators on stages 4 and 5 of the Thomson-East Coast MRT Line. This is a testament to the high level of trust from our customers and the importance of developing customer relationships.Many developers in the region have placed their trust in us and we have emerged as a choice people flow solutions provider. This is evidenced by the high conversion rates from new equipment to maintenance despite the preference for OEM maintenance services is a sign of our success so far and puts us in a good position to growing this part of our business. There is a huge focus on the development of new and sustainable technologies and KONE will continue to innovate and introduce products that would improve reliability, safety and energy efficiency. Coupled with the rapid adoption of new technologies and governments embracing the digitalisation agenda, we are confident that we learn from our successes and have a competitive edge that will allow us to step into the future.
KONE is in the right neighbourhood with good growth potential given the prospect of rapid urbanisation in time to come. Asia-Pacific is a key market for us and we have over 27,000 employees in the region. This makes up almost half of our 57,000-strong workforce worldwide. In Asia-Pacific, KONE is the largest and second largest by market share for new equipment and maintenance respectively. We’ve seen a healthy mix of growth across new equipment and modernisation orders in the region in 2018 with new equipment sales grew by 4.9 per cent and the modernisation market grew by over 10 per cent. New equipment sales were also driven by the Indian and South-East Asian markets. The maintenance market did well too and grew between 5 and 10 per cent. We are expecting to see the maintenance and modernisation markets grow the fastest in this part of the world.
KONE’s innovative People Flow solutions have had been installed in landmarks and major infrastructure projects across the region for decades. This include the iconic MBS integrated resort situated in the heart of Singapore’s Marina Bay and the Singapore MRT Circle Line.
Recently, we won a contract to supply elevators and escalators on stages 4 and 5 of the Thomson-East Coast MRT Line. This is a testament to the high level of trust from our customers and the importance of developing customer relationships.Many developers in the region have placed their trust in us and we have emerged as a choice people flow solutions provider. This is evidenced by the high conversion rates from new equipment to maintenance despite the preference for OEM maintenance services is a sign of our success so far and puts us in a good position to growing this part of our business. There is a huge focus on the development of new and sustainable technologies and KONE will continue to innovate and introduce products that would improve reliability, safety and energy efficiency. Coupled with the rapid adoption of new technologies and governments embracing the digitalisation agenda, we are confident that we learn from our successes and have a competitive edge that will allow us to step into the future.
7)Does Kone Elevator hold the key to future urban mobility solutions?
Urbanisation is happening rapidly and over 20 million people are moving into cities every year in this part of the world. We are conscious of the fact that about two-thirds of the world’s population would be living in cities by 2050. This is a challenge we need to quickly address as the pace
of urbanisation is faster than ever before, particularly in Southeast Asia and India.
KONE is constantly investing in research and development (R&D) and as the industry leader in the technology innovation race, we have been successfully rolling out new solutions built on top of our digital platform that integrates equipment and devices to enable a seamless people flow experience from entrance to destination. To date, we have over 3,000 technology patents to our name with 1,000 professionals at eight R&D centres worldwide. With a history of over 100 years, KONE has been part of the evolution of cities and is definitely going to be a catalyst for the urban mobility solutions.
Furthermore, our products continuously improve to ensure they are sustainable and energy efficient to reduce the carbon footprint. This is what our customers want to see today and they are equally committed to the sustainability cause. This trend transcends across all industries from automobiles to construction to real estate. In the auto industry, we are seeing how automakers are producing cars that are fuel efficient and low on CO2 emissions. Here at KONE, we are making cities grow sustainably and our elevators today is up to 90% more energy efficient than those in the 1990s.
Urbanisation is happening rapidly and over 20 million people are moving into cities every year in this part of the world. We are conscious of the fact that about two-thirds of the world’s population would be living in cities by 2050. This is a challenge we need to quickly address as the pace
of urbanisation is faster than ever before, particularly in Southeast Asia and India.
KONE is constantly investing in research and development (R&D) and as the industry leader in the technology innovation race, we have been successfully rolling out new solutions built on top of our digital platform that integrates equipment and devices to enable a seamless people flow experience from entrance to destination. To date, we have over 3,000 technology patents to our name with 1,000 professionals at eight R&D centres worldwide. With a history of over 100 years, KONE has been part of the evolution of cities and is definitely going to be a catalyst for the urban mobility solutions.
Furthermore, our products continuously improve to ensure they are sustainable and energy efficient to reduce the carbon footprint. This is what our customers want to see today and they are equally committed to the sustainability cause. This trend transcends across all industries from automobiles to construction to real estate. In the auto industry, we are seeing how automakers are producing cars that are fuel efficient and low on CO2 emissions. Here at KONE, we are making cities grow sustainably and our elevators today is up to 90% more energy efficient than those in the 1990s.
