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UTC pick gets help(Hartford Courant, The (CT) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 10--Louis Chenevert has just signed up for a post-graduate seminar in global corporate economics -- super-accelerated version. And the clock is ticking. As the new president and chief operating officer for United Technologies Corp., Chenevert will spend the next two years studying at the elbow of UTC's long-time chief executive, George David. If all goes according to plan, he will take over the top job at UTC sometime in the spring of 2008. Meanwhile, it's time for the crash preparatory course. Chenevert already has a good foundation. In seven years as president of Pratt & Whitney, now a $9 billion-a-year division, he mastered the principles of manufacturing, productivity, customer service and more. But in preparing to assume the chief executive's post when David retires, Chenevert faces a whole new set of lessons in subjects such as balance sheets, investor relations, world affairs, public accounting, corporate taxation and stock analyst behavior. "I've probably got the best teacher, and I'm eager to learn," Chenevert said in a telephone interview Thursday, a day after UTC announced his promotion. "So I'm really looking forward to the transition here." David said his next-in-line is a quick study. "He has shown to me remarkable skills at learning. I think that's one of the most important challenges in life," David said. "People need to rise to new things, new situations, new fact patterns, and to learn from what has gone before. Louis is just awfully good at that." The job of chief executive, complicated enough at any enterprise, is particularly challenging at a company the size and breadth of United Technologies. It employs about 220,000 people -- two-thirds of them outside the United States -- in divisions that manufacture such varied goods as air conditioners, helicopters, elevators and jet engines. It has about 4,000 offices and plants in more than 60 countries and does business in approximately 180 nations around the globe. The company reported revenue of $42.7 billion in 2005. David said he had an apprenticeship similar to the one looming before Chenevert. "I benefited tremendously from that opportunity to focus on the operations of the company and to acquire some skills and grow and learn under the leadership of Bob Daniell, who remained the chief executive officer for that two-year period," David recalled. Chenevert said he expects that he will do a lot of traveling as he familiarizes himself with the operations of UTC's non-Pratt divisions. But he'll also face a lot of work at UTC's office in Hartford's Gold Building as he learns the ways of corporate headquarters. David said Chenevert will have plenty of help at his disposal. "We have a very strong corporate staff. I think we're going to find Louis is going to soak up all that stuff awful quick," he said. Neither David nor Chenevert, who will supervise UTC jointly through a newly created office of the chief executive, said they expect any difficulties with other executive transitions related to Chenevert's promotion. Stephen Finger, the Sikorsky president now moving over to run Pratt & Whitney, spent years at the jet-engine maker, and the new Sikorsky chief, Jeff Pino, is also well prepared for his new role, they said. "These guys are drop-in ready now," David said. "No doubt." The men said they hoped to avoid executive departures that have occurred at other large corporations when a CEO successor is designated. Possibilities are Ari Bousbib, head of the Otis Elevator division, and Geraud Darnis, chief of Carrier Corp., both of whom were regarded as leading candidates. Through a UTC spokesman, both declined to comment on Chenevert's promotion. Both Chenevert and David said they expect little, if any departure from the corporate direction that the company has pursued in recent years. "I think I've come to understand the UTC business model well," Chenevert said. "I think what you can expect is more of the same." |