Judy Marks

President and CEO of Otis Elevator Company

Claims

As speaker

Mentioned in

Key positions and views

Otis's core economic engine is its high-margin (over 24%) service business, which provides stable, recurring revenue due to regulated maintenance requirements.

The primary constraint on Otis's growth is not market demand but the availability of trained and qualified field mechanics.

The next major market opportunity for Otis is the modernization of its vast, aging installed base of elevators in live, operational buildings.

The complexity of local regulations and lack of a global standard creates a durable competitive moat that protects Otis from new, disruptive competitors.

Becoming an independent company in 2020 was essential for Otis to reverse a period of underinvestment and pursue a more aggressive growth strategy focused on hiring, technology, and market expansion.

Podcast consensus on Marks

Points of consensus

▶The service business is the primary driver of Otis's profitability, characterized by recurring, subscription-like revenue and margins exceeding 24%.Apr 2026

▶Regulatory complexity and the lack of a single global standard for elevators create a significant competitive moat, protecting established players like Otis from new entrants.Apr 2026

▶While part of United Technologies, Otis was managed as a 'cash cow,' with R&D and CapEx spending below 1% of sales, which hindered investment, particularly in the Chinese market.Apr 2026

▶The modernization of Otis's large, aging installed base of elevators represents the company's next major market opportunity.Apr 2026

Points of debate

▶Marks identifies China's urbanization as a key long-term growth driver, yet simultaneously notes that Otis's market position there was historically hindered by underinvestment and currently stands at number three, not a dominant number one.Apr 2026

▶She highlights massive market opportunities in modernization and new installations, but frames this potential against the company's primary growth constraint: a shortage of trained field mechanics.

▶Marks describes a global company with 80% of its workforce outside the U.S., but also a highly decentralized structure of 1,400 local P&L centers, suggesting a potential tension between executing a unified global strategy and empowering local branches.Apr 2026

▶She emphasizes a forward-looking technology strategy involving IoT, prognostic maintenance, and robotics, which contrasts with the reality that the business fundamentally relies on a large, unionized, traditional labor force of field mechanics.

Key themes

▶The High-Margin Service FlywheelApr 2026

Judy Marks consistently emphasizes that Otis's profitability is driven by its service business, which boasts margins over 24%. This segment functions like a recurring subscription service, supported by regulations requiring scheduled maintenance on a vast installed base of elevators.

This service-driven model provides highly predictable, high-margin revenue streams, making the business resilient. However, it also means that long-term growth is critically dependent on maintaining a high 'capture rate' of service contracts on new equipment sales against third-party competitors.

▶Competitive Moat Through Regulatory ComplexityApr 2026

Marks argues that the lack of a single global standard for elevators, combined with a complex web of varying local regulations, creates a formidable barrier to entry. New competitors face tremendous investment and risk to operate in more than a single market, protecting incumbents like Otis.

This regulatory fragmentation solidifies Otis's market position but also increases operational complexity and costs, as seen in factories like the one in South Carolina that must produce elevators compliant with over 70 different codes.

▶Post-Spinoff Growth and InvestmentApr 2026

Marks frames Otis's 2020 spin-off from United Technologies as a pivotal moment, ending a period of underinvestment where the company was treated as a 'cash cow'. The post-spinoff strategy focuses on addressing the primary growth limiter—the availability of trained mechanics—by significantly increasing hiring and investing in modernization as the next major market.

This narrative signals a strategic shift from cash extraction to aggressive growth. Success hinges on the ability to attract and train a specialized workforce in a tight labor market, a challenge that capital alone cannot solve.

▶Technology as an Efficiency and Experience DriverApr 2026

Marks highlights significant technological investments, including connecting one million elevators to an IoT platform for prognostic maintenance. She also points to innovations like mobile apps for calling elevators and technology that allows robots to operate them, predicting the passenger experience will change significantly.

While the core business is industrial, Marks is positioning Otis as a data and technology company. This strategy aims to improve operational efficiency and create stickier customer relationships, but also requires sustained R&D spending to keep pace with both traditional and non-traditional tech competitors.

Source episodes

Sentiment over time

Not enough data for timeline

Changes over time

1976

Otis is acquired by United Technologies, beginning a multi-decade period as a subsidiary of a larger industrial conglomerate.

2000-2015

Marks characterizes this as a period of underinvestment in Otis by its parent company, United Technologies, which she claims hindered market share expansion, particularly in China.

November 2018

The board of United Technologies approves the plan to spin off Otis into a separate, independent public company.

April 3, 2020

Otis officially becomes an independent public company, with Marks leading the organization through the spin-off during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Post-2020

As CEO of an independent Otis, Marks' discourse focuses on accelerating growth by increasing the mechanic workforce by over 10%, targeting modernization, and deploying technology like the company's IoT platform across one million elevators.

Suggested prompts

How does Judy Marks plan to mitigate the skilled mechanic shortage, which she identifies as the primary limiter to Otis's growth? &nearr;What specific strategies is Otis employing under Marks' leadership to improve its number three market share position in China after the period of underinvestment she described? &nearr;How does the decentralized structure of 1,400 local P&L centers align with the company's global technology initiatives, such as the rollout of a unified IoT platform? &nearr;Given the high margins of the service business, what is Marks' strategy for defending against independent service providers and ensuring a high service contract capture rate on new equipment sales? &nearr;

Key concepts

Market Dynamics & Growth Drivers 3 ep Technology & Innovation (IoT, Robotics) 3 ep Workforce & Labor (Mechanics, Unions) 3 ep Otis Business Model (Service, Margins, Moat) 2 ep Corporate History & Structure (UTC Spinoff) 2 ep Global Operations 2 ep Iconic Projects (Burj Khalifa, Eiffel Tower) 2 ep Product Safety 1 ep

Notable quotes

“Service business itself, over 24% in terms of margin.”

Judy Marks · Judy Marks - President and CEO of Otis | Podcast | In Good Company

“you have this moat that says there is no one global standard. There's no one global requirement. So for someone to enter and to truly hit larger than a one city market takes a tremendous amount of knowledge, investment, risk management.”

Judy Marks · Judy Marks - President and CEO of Otis | Podcast | In Good Company

“In our case, they need to be replaced in place in a live building, and we call that modernization. That's really the next big market.”

Judy Marks · Judy Marks - President and CEO of Otis | Podcast | In Good Company

“That's our growth limiter, believe it or not. That's our growth limiter.”

Judy Marks · Judy Marks - President and CEO of Otis | Podcast | In Good Company

Report last updated: Apr 21, 2026

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