Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO in conversation

A look back at 2025 with the Chairman of the Board of Directors Josef Ming and CEO Paolo Compagna

Mr. Ming and Mr. Compagna, you both assumed your roles in the first few months of 2025. How do you look back on this time?

Josef Ming: Even before my appointment as Chairman of the Board of Directors, I had the opportunity to work intensively with Schindler on various projects. Schindler is a special company for me – a Swiss success story and a pillar of Central Switzerland’s economy – and I am humbled to now be able to help shape strategic decisions here.

Paolo Compagna: With a smile. I approached my role as CEO with great energy, driven by the purpose of accomplishing what matters and to make Schindler even more competitive and attractive – for our customers, employees, investors, and the public at large.

“I am humbled to now be able to help shape strategic decisions here.”

Josef Ming

After the course correction we had to make in 2022, we can focus once again on sustainable, profitable growth. This requires density and stability in our maintenance business. We’ve laid the groundwork in recent years, and now it’s about consistently implementing our top priorities to achieve our goals across New Installations, Modernization, and Service.

And what are those priorities?

Paolo Compagna: First of all, we didn’t need a new strategy in 2025 – our direction was already clear. We concentrated on the “how” – on implementation – and on making this more tangible for all our employees, in every function and location.

We want to be the company that is easy to work with. We’re a service company and that’s something our customers and the users of our products should feel day in and day out.

At the same time, many existing elevators and escalators have aged and need upgrades or complete renewal. These modernizations improve safety, comfort, and energy efficiency. We made very good progress in this area in 2025, and the momentum continues to build.

Josef Ming: Schindler had already defined its “Group Strategic Framework” in 2022, setting clear priorities for the company’s long-term direction. These priorities are continuously being refined. Schindler’s business model is robust and locally orient­ed. The challenge is to outperform competitors at a local level in the over 100 countries where Schindler operates.

The geopolitical and economic environment remains volatile, and we are not immune to its effects. In this context, success means staying agile, acting decisively, building resilience, and maintaining financial flexibility.

“Cost optimization creates competitive advantages and frees capital for investment.”

Josef Ming

Cost optimization isn’t only about cutting expenses – it creates competitive advantages and frees capital for investment. We’re making our supply chains and internal processes more efficient and reducing lead times while maintaining high quality.

Paolo Compagna: Resilient supply chains are essential. They ensure our technicians get high-quality materials when they need them – keeping elevators and escalators running safely for millions of users.

“We’re a service company and that’s something our customers and the users of our products should feel day in and day out.”

Paolo Compagna

Artificial intelligence is currently being touted as the catalyst for ­efficiency gains. How is Schindler using AI?

Paolo Compagna: As with every technological innovation, artificial intelligence brings with it a mix of fascination and healthy skepticism, especially in an engineering-driven environment full of innovative power, such as at Schindler.

We don’t see artificial intelligence as a panacea, but rather as valuable support for automating and optimizing repetitive tasks, for targeted enhancement of creative development processes, and for effective analysis of large amounts of data used to create well-founded forecasts. This increases our efficiency and creates concrete added value for our customers by helping maintain the value of their properties and by offering attractive service and modernization solutions.

Josef Ming: For over 150 years Schindler has navigated numerous waves of technological progress. The company has pioneered and proactively shaped countless innovations – with a level-headed approach, prudent risk assessment, and a focus on delivering customer benefit. We’re applying these same strategies to the integration of artificial intelligence. While the potential is enormous, we’re focusing on practical solutions that deliver real quality and efficiency gains for our company and customers.

“Our mission: making cities and buildings accessible and livable for everyone.”

Paolo Compagna

And what role does the human factor play?

Josef Ming: The central role. Schindler is a service company and especially our colleagues in the field have become indispensable to urban transportation infrastructure. They’re often an essential part of a community, of the functioning operation of a building, of local public transport, of mobility in general. We do everything we can to make their daily work easier and thus serve our customers even better, including through the application of new technologies.

“Our colleagues in the field have become indispensable to urban transportation infrastructure.”

Josef Ming

Paolo Compagna: Being a service company also means that customer orientation is a focus across every corner of the company, from corporate functions to production and operations. Ultimately, we have a mission that we take very seriously: to make cities and buildings more accessible and thus more livable for everyone.

We place the highest value on workplace safety and employee development. We want to remain an attractive employer for people of all demographic groups. Highly motivated teams that achieve top performance together are, and will remain, the foundation of our entrepreneurial success. Our comprehensive training and continuing education programs, in which several hundred apprentices worldwide participate, make a significant contribution to this success.

What were your special Schindler moments in 2025?

Josef Ming: Seeing Schindler’s corporate culture and commitment firsthand during team visits around the world is a powerful experience. Riding our elevators and escalators through major cities shows what previous Schindler generations have built – and it’s impressive.

Paolo Compagna: Both in Switzerland and when traveling abroad, encounters with Schindler colleagues at our branches or at customers’ sites – often just a quick “Hello, how are you?” – are always something special for me. I’m equally enriched by exchanges with our customers, many of whom have been with us for years, some even for generations. Their feedback and ideas for the future shape our developments and contribute significantly to making our company continuously more innovative and sustainable.

“The encounters with Schindler colleagues in the branches or at our customers’ sites are something special for me every time.”

Paolo Compagna