Region: Middle East

Johnson Controls: Middle East has a strong culture of innovation

Terrill R Laughton

Dubai, UAE, 25 June 2019: The Middle East has a strong culture of innovation, said Terrill R Laughton, Vice President and General Manager, Energy Optimization & Connected Offerings, Johnson Controls’ Building Technologies & Solutions Division. Laughton stressed that the regional market’s willingness to try new technologies is largely driven by broader initiatives from the government through regional visions that set high-level goals in terms of sustainability, which helps drive the acceptance and adoption of new applications. He said, “Getting government entities to support and sponsor these initiatives and push rules and regulations around energy efficiency obviously helps spur the dynamic in terms of being able to do more innovative things to drive energy efficiency and sustainability.”

Laughton said that while in the United States and in other markets there are a lot of companies and organisations that are innovative, from his experience there is still a need to get potential customers interested in new applications. “Here, it seems most customers we talk to already have some interest in these applications and are moving in that direction,” he said. Laughton pointed to the high number of participants during Johnson Controls’ Innovation Day Middle East and Africa in February 2019 as an example of local stakeholders’ strong interest in smart technology and its applications in the built-environment.