Company: Honeywell
Company Description: Honeywell invents and manufactures technologies to address some of the worldís toughest challenges initiated by revolutionary macrotrends in science, technology and society. With more than 127,000 employees worldwide, including more than 22,000 engineers and scientists, we have an unrelenting commitment to quality and delivering results in everything we make and do.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Executive of the Year - Conglomerates

Nomination Title: David M. Cote, Chairman & CEO

Tell the story about what this nominated executive has achieved since January 1, 2014 (up to 650 words). Describe the impact he or she has had on your organization. Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

Chairman and CEO David M. Cote (co-TEE) has remade Honeywell into a global technology leader with a rock-solid balance sheet and double-digit profit growth. Under Cote's leadership over the past 13+ years, Honeywell has delivered strong performance in sales growth, earnings per share, segment profit, and cash flow.

In 2002, when Cote was named Chairman and CEO, Honeywell was in disarray after a merger with Allied-Signal and a subsequent, failed bid by GE. Cote tightened accounting controls, brought together warring factions, and cut costs without major layoffs.

Since then, Honeywell has built a very strong track record of financial performance. Honeywell sales rose up 77%, EPS is up 229%, free cash flow is up 72%, and its market value has mushroomed to $80 billion from $20 billion.

Today, the company has great positions in good industries globally, with approximately 50% of its products and solutions providing energy efficiency benefits. Honeywell is diversified across business lines and geography. More and more, the focus is on emerging markets, or what Cote refers to as “high-growth regions,” where sales are rising by 10% a year. All of these businesses are tied together by the operating prowess of Cote and his team.

Under Cote’s leadership the company has rolled out several key process initiatives that are helping to enable two seemingly competitive things: growth and productivity.

Three of the key process initiatives include –

• The Honeywell Operating System (HOS). A comprehensive approach to managing the Integrated Supply Chain (ISC). It is based on the Toyota Production System and builds on the use of Six Sigma Plus (Six Sigma and Lean) tools in eliminating variation and improving our work processes on a rapid and continuous basis. Honeywell expects the system to create a 20-year competitive advantage in safety, quality, value, and delivery.
• Functional Transformation. A program that drives process improvements while delivering significant cost savings. When fully implemented, Functional Transformation will allow employees to focus on more strategic, high-impact work and enable business leadership to focus primarily on operational performance and satisfying customer requirements.
• Velocity Product Development™. In every business, VPD™ strategies based on Strategic Marketing, Design for Six Sigma and Design for Lean principles promote continuous improvement in all aspects of product development and bring new products to market faster.

Cote’s latest business model innovation is HOS Gold, which gives more decision-making power to managers at 74 units within its Aerospace, Performance Materials and Technologies, and Automation and Control Solutions strategic business groups, fostering a more entrepreneurial culture that’s responsive to customers and gets products to market faster using the support and efficiencies of a large company. Honeywell believes in big company cost effectiveness and technical/functional excellence married with small company speed and customer responsiveness.

In March 2014, Cote unveiled the Honeywell User Experience (HUE), which is an end-user-driven design approach for developing intuitive technology to make Honeywell's products and services easier to use, more efficient, and more productive. Honeywell strives to be the “Apple of the industrial world.” The Honeywell Innovative Prototyping Environment is a core part of the HUE, and is key to testing next-generation concepts such as voice recognition.

Cote is also focused on the increasing importance of software to Honeywell’s portfolio for simulation, product enablement, and Software as a service (SaaS). Honeywell expects to be the first large western company to be Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) level 5 across the world, a huge advantage over competitors.

Honeywell's new Five-Year Plan for 2014-2018 focuses on continued innovation, enhanced customer value, robust cash allocation, and a global focus to achieve double-digit earnings growth. Honeywell also expects to deliver on its previous five-year targets ending this year.

“Our businesses today have Great Positions in Good Industries, and are well positioned to grow,” said Cote. “Our balanced portfolio mix of short- and long-cycle businesses will benefit from improving end markets, new product introductions, continued penetration in high growth regions, and HOS Gold.”

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief accomplishments of this nominated executive since the beginning of 2014.

• David M. Cote has remade Honeywell into a global technology leader with a rock-solid balance sheet and double-digit profit growth.
• Since then, Honeywell has built a very strong track record of financial performance. Honeywell sales rose up 77%, EPS 229%, free cash flow is up 72%, and its market value has mushroomed to $80 billion from $20 billion.
• Cote’s latest innovation is HOS Gold, which gives more decision-making power to managers at 74 units within its strategic business groups.
• In 2014, Cote unveiled the Honeywell User Experience, an end-user-driven design approach for developing intuitive technology to make products and services easier to use, more efficient, and more productive.
• Honeywell's new Five-Year Plan for 2014-2018 focuses on continued innovation, enhanced customer value, robust cash allocation, and a global focus to achieve double-digit earnings growth.
• “Our businesses today have Great Positions in Good Industries, and are well positioned to grow,” said Cote.