1. How did poor quality at United Technologies' Otis unit damage the company's financial performance and competitive position?
2. Why do you think quality was so poor at Otis?
3. What did UTC learn by repairing the quality problems at Otis? How did it leverage this learning to improve the performance of the entire corporation?
4. What general principles about competitive advantage and strategy can be drawn from this case?
George David, long-time CEO of United Technologies, was responsible for tripled revenues, and tenfold profit increases while at the helm of United Technologies. Through programs aimed at productivity improvement (Achieve Competitive Excellence-ACE), quality was improved along with greater employee productivity, and increased customer purchases.