Japan Quake: How Otis Rose to the Challenge

When news of the Japanese earthquake reached Didier Michaud-Daniel on the evening of Mar. 11, the president of United Technologies' (UTX) Otis Elevator unit was at his Connecticut home. He suddenly had 80,000 elevators and 2,400 Japanese employees to worry about. So Michaud-Daniel instructed his head of Japanese operations, Eiji "Eddie" Esaki, to "keep me informed, second by second." The next evening, Esaki told him that all the employees were safe. Otis, the world's largest elevator maker, didn't yet know about all of those elevators.

Otis executives weren't sure whether people had been trapped inside their lifts during the earthquake or tsunami. In the 48 hours following the quake, the company received 13,000 calls from customers asking about their elevators. Otis funneled staff to its 21 call centers in Japan and moved technicians from southern Japan into the stricken region.