Executive Takeaways From Our 2023 Investor Conference

New offerings will help our customers – and our own operations – be more sustainable

“Our fundamental focus is on new-to-market technology,” said Senior Vice President and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Suresh Venkatarayalu in a panel on sustainable innovation.

What kinds of technologies hold promise for the future? Here’s a sample:

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) – As Mike Madsen, President and CEO of Honeywell Aerospace, said – SAF is “here now.” 

“Aircraft will be SAF-compatible in the next few years. We are able to help meet the growing demand for SAF using our ethanol to jet infrastructure that’s already in place, as well as eFining technology and the fats, oils and greases that can be used as feedstocks for renewable fuels,” Madsen said.

Smarter buildings – Honeywell Building Technologies President and CEO Billal Hammoud said it is more important than ever for building owners to create healthier and more sustainable structures while also providing optimal occupant experiences.

“With Honeywell Forge software, building owners can continuously and autonomously monitor what’s happening in those buildings for occupancy experience and indoor air quality,” Hammoud said.

Flow batteries, energy storage, and control systems – Lucian Boldea, President and CEO of Honeywell’s Performance Materials and Technologies business, said that many innovations can work in tandem to help customers in the energy transition. 

“I’m excited about the convergence of innovations, such as membranes for batteries, control systems, and energy storage, which can be very useful as the world transitions to clean energy sources,” Boldea said.

Advanced sensors – Sensors are small but powerful technologies that help ensure safety in flight and vehicles, which is critical as we move to an electrified world. “We’re proud to have a very broad portfolio in terms of capability. Honeywell has helped to make industrial manufacturing, healthcare and transportation safer for decades,” said George Koutsaftes, President and CEO of Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions.

New product innovation will remain a key component of our environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy

“There is rigor and detail behind all of our execution plans to meet our sustainability targets. As we innovate and deploy our own technologies to support the achievement of our sustainability objectives, we’re supporting our customers by offering solutions they can use right now to achieve their sustainability goals. I call that ‘innovation unlocked,’” said Anne Madden, Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

Digital transformation is empowering our teams and customers to make actionable decisions

Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Technology Officer Sheila Jordan shared how strategic transformation in recent years, including building out an enterprise data warehouse, has led to myriad opportunities.

“In the last three years, we have undergone a major digital transformation shift and have unleashed the opportunity and transparency across the business. I’m excited about the next phase where we bring the end-to-end processes together,” Jordan said.

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Greg Lewis said: “Simplification has delivered not just the data to make decisions, but also the ability to make sure what you said you’re going to happens. We are able to plan, do and check, and we’re just getting started.” 

Torsten Pilz, Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer, shared how digitalization has impacted his teams’ operations, saying: “Our digital transformation progress as a company has helped us shift from a transactional to a strategic supply chain. The way we operate the company allows us to rapidly automate our machines and processes with the digital backbone we’ve created. With real-time visibility, we can make actionable decisions. Next, we are looking to drive to more automated decision-making in our operations.”

As companies begin to focus on operational technology (OT) transformation in addition to information technology (IT) transformation, tackling challenges through the digital lens is critical, and we’re uniquely positioned at Honeywell to help customers do that.

“Most customers are now grappling with operational transformation. They want to know how those processes are performing at plants, and they’re concerned with cybersecurity realities at the edge of their network. At Honeywell, we have solved some of these challenges for ourselves. This firsthand experience, combined with our commitment to deeply understanding our customers’ pain points, uniquely positions us to provide a consultative perspective and help them plot their own journey to optimize IT and operational technology performance,” said John Waldron, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.

Kevin Dehoff, President and CEO of Honeywell Forge, said digitalization in operations, sustainability and cybersecurity are among customers’ top priorities. 

“Forge is the software that we use to enable business outcomes in those three areas,” he said. “Those business outcomes have very clear economic outcomes for our customers in the form of asset utilization, labor productivity, less energy consumption, and ultimately the assurance of security at the operational asset level.”