Experience Meets Opportunity

Vantage Elevation CEO Jay Dietz shares plans for the company’s evolution.

Growth can come as the result of a variety of factors, and Jay Dietz, the recently appointed CEO of Vantage Elevation, is an example of how intellectual curiosity and a generation of experience within the elevator industry can create tremendous opportunities. Dietz spent more than 30 years working at KONE Americas, serving as senior vice president of its U.S. East region until last summer, when he made the decision to leave what he’d known the greater part of his professional career and take on a significant new challenge.

The move garnered Brooklyn, New York-based Vantage a leader who knows the industry from an OEM perspective like few others can. With nearly 1,000 employees throughout the U.S., U.K. and Canada, the company is comprised of brands that include GAL Manufacturing Co. and Hollister-Whitney Elevator Co. and supplies nearly all electro-mechanical devices used in today’s elevators. According to its new leader, Vantage is dedicated to combining innovation, engineering and safety solutions to create long-term success for its customers.

In his role as CEO, Dietz is responsible for evolving the business with a focus on three key elements: employees, customers and overall growth. He says Vantage is proud of how its equipment has played an integral part in the evolution of elevator solutions across North America and beyond, while being committed to working alongside customers and suppliers to create products that offer even more value, higher quality and ease of use. Dietz says:

“I saw a remarkable opportunity with this organization to deliver modernization solutions to our industry. Our history is providing high-quality products and support for the OEMs and independent service contractors in the space. When you look across our platform, we have a host of very strong brands, and we’re in a unique position to deliver complete modernization solutions to our customers.” 

Listening to Employees and Customers

The decision to leave KONE after 32 years was a difficult one for Dietz, who says the company is comprised of exceptional and committed individuals who were more than just colleagues. Years of working with quality employees helped him recognize many of the same traits in the workforce at Vantage. Shortly after relocating to New York, he began visiting all of the company’s facilities.   

This is in line with Dietz’s core leadership principles, which include engaging with employees and customers alike. Meeting with the company’s leadership, and their teams, gave him access to “everything you need to know about your organization, how you’re positioned with your customers and what opportunities exist.” 

The other piece of the equation for Dietz is customer input, as they are in a position to clearly see what the company does well, and what needs improvement. 

“It’s very easy to make the assumption that you understand what they need, what they want and how you’re performing,” he says. “It’s so important to get their perspective, to the point of working with them on innovation.” 

Dietz spent three months meeting as many colleagues and customers as he could to help him understand what opportunities exist and what Vantage needs to focus on as an organization. 

Hitting the Ground Running 

Under new ownership since the end of 2021, Vantage’s current focus is on a group of transformational initiatives focused on creating improved outcomes for its customers and for the organization. These strategies resulted from the input of employees across the organization. Senior leaders from across the company polled their team members to understand how they could make the business better. After a marathon ideation session, 189 ideas were tallied, and from them the leadership team identified a set of consistent themes that were developed into the above-mentioned initiatives. 

Such comprehensive introspection and investigation have helped the company focus on the big and critical elements, Dietz says. This ensures clarity, commitment and focused effort on the most important opportunities in front of the organization. It also prevents taking on too much at any one time, which could lead to suboptimal, or at the least delayed, outcomes. 

One of Vantage Elevation’s strategies is a rededication to safety — from its employees to those riding elevators around the world. Dietz says: 

“Our leadership team is very clearly setting the tone, and the resulting focus, commitment and leadership around safety is building. We have very good momentum on that front, as well as strong engagement and committed leadership from our operations folks across the organization.” 

Cycles of Modernization

Dietz says he’s very excited about the trend toward modernization throughout the market and the overall elevator industry. A disparity has existed for years between the rate of unit modernization and the expected life cycle of elevator equipment. The industry is currently trending toward stronger modernization market growth as the needed investments are made, providing Vantage with significant growth opportunities. Dietz adds:

“I think we will continue to see the modernization business grow significantly faster than the GDP. Obviously, the economy plays a big role in how fast it grows, but from my perspective, there’s a tremendous amount of support for the modernization business as we go forward.” 

With more than three decades of experience from the customer side of the equation, Dietz sees one of his primary objectives as making sure Vantage Elevation’s current, and potential, customer base understands it is a consolidation of multiple companies capable of providing fully integrated modernization solutions. He says: 

“Our goal is to make working with Vantage as easy, seamless and consistent as possible for our customers, and to deliver solutions that are easy to install and deliver best-in-class reliability.”