Archives: Employee Stories

What makes us move?
The first species of mankind, Homo Sapiens, appeared in East Africa around 2 million years ago. The prehistoric humans had no impact on the environment than a common housefly or a gorilla. But what has changed? What has driven our ancestors and all of us to become the dominant species of today influencing and impacting the future of all other species on this planet?
One of the crucial developments was – the movement for survival. It is this ‘curiosity to explore’ that proved that the Earth is not flat, that proved that we could colonize Mars. On a large scale, mobility was important for us as species in the battle for dominance and survival.

It is only fair to parallel the same at an organizational level. Changing roles and responsibilities is a key aspect to understanding business functions in greater depth and thus begins the journey of evolution of an individual and organization.

My story in Thermax is similar to the plot line of the movie “Yes, Man”. For those who have not watched the movie, the protagonist takes up a challenge to say “Yes!” to every opportunity that comes his way. I joined Thermax in 2014 as a Graduate Engineer Trainee; I was leaving home for the first time in my life. Being fresh out of college, realization dawns on you while transcending from lifeless square boxes placed in the corner of every engineer’s Thermal book representing a Boiler to actually standing in front of its “steaming” eyes. In my first stint, I moved to Delhi to understand the business of Heating-Services. Probably having watched Hindi movies with subtitles did not help my case, as I could barely understand the Hindi language. Yet Murphy’s Law had to catch up with me too. Though I could have chosen a location closer to my home, I agreed for a location in North India without any hesitation. While getting accustomed to corporate life and learning how a boiler works, I was inconspicuously learning another language and building a diary full of memorable experiences. It was more than just a language for me. It was learning something deeper in myself. Something unexplored for all these years and finding myself unlocking some hidden potentials in me.

Within the first year, I had acquired incidental learnings in domains related to Services, Sales, Manufacturing, Marketing, and Product Management. I also took up an opportunity to get into the role of Heating Proposals, prior to the completion of my GET stint, as an urgent vacancy had to be filled. This helped me get accustomed to the ownership required for a designated role in the organization and also to the market requirements and positioning of our products for a competitive advantage.

Post traineeship, I was guided to move to the International Business Group, to be a part of “Project Genesis” while also continuing to contribute as an Engineer – Heating Proposal supporting the Thailand Hub. The inception of “Project Genesis” was to identify select International geographies and formulate market sizing and working business frameworks through Go-To-Market strategies for the respective markets.

I was the youngest member of the team, but I am thankful to all the senior members who never made me feel like I was the youngest and instead offered me lots of opportunities to express my thoughts. Their constant guidance and mentoring set the foundation for my future endeavours. I gained deep understanding of market analysis, International Business, competition mapping, and ultimately making a short-term purpose for the targeted regions.

This understanding was further enhanced and utilised when I moved to the Philippines as an Area Sales Manager to create a market preference for the product offerings of our company. I was able to apply my earlier assimilated learnings of market penetration to a focused approach for Philippines business. The operations were like that of a start-up as initially we did not even have an address to our name card. Building a business framework for Philippines through the guidance of senior leaders, though extremely challenging, but was most rewarding. The learning basket was almost overwhelming, and I was able to further create an understanding of the nuances in techno-commercials of a business including sales. Working with multicultural teams and customers further enhanced my global perceptive to the Sales approach. One of the biggest takeaways was learning the Sales art of talking the language of the customer. A key line separating what is to be conveyed and what customer wants to hear.

Further to the Philippines tenure, I was shifted to the division of Absorption Cooling to support the International Sales operations and have been doing so till date. I believe that my earlier stints made me better equipped for the transition phase of C&H Division with a shift from Pune to Chennai. I was able to take the added ownership and responsibility and through constant support from the senior members, achieve my goals even in demanding times. I was also part of multiple special initiatives of corporate, such as “Voice of Youth”, which gave me an opportunity to appreciate business from a senior leadership perspective.

While I reflect upon my journey in Thermax, I believe that I have got the Goldilocks conditions to grow-surrounded by great leaders and senior members, opportunities to grab on, and the space to express myself within the arrays of business. I could probably utilise this opportunity to thank all my mentors and well-wishers in the organization who have honed me into a holistic professional, to the person I am today.

The last year of COVID has shown us how unpredictable business can be, and adaptability to change is going to remain the key for us as individuals and for the company. Yes, I have taken the opportunities, and I feel one can also take up opportunities that knock your doors. I can proudly say that Thermax will ensure ample opportunities for you; the only question is – are you willing to take it?

Thermax could be your Goldilocks too!!

– Sai Prashanth
Assistant Manager – International Sales, Absorption Cooling & Heating Division

“Congratulations Rupali, you will complete 7 years in this month with Thermax, in your second innings”, my HR mentioned this to me (yes, HR also needs HR and has HR). “Thank you so much, time just flies…” was my instant response. But as I reflect on my professional journey, my heart pours with lot of memories, learnings and reflections that kept me motivated to look forward to Mondays to get back to work (rather than Monday blues) and contribute in a better way. It is my pleasure to share some insights through this blog.

Say Hi to Surprises. Post completing my MBA, I got placed as a Management Trainee in one of the consumer durables company through Campus. This being my first job, I was excited but equally anxious. Thanks to robust assimilation process, I could get settled in new atmosphere quickly. The organization was going through transformation and that brought in lot of surprises (yes, I prefer to call it surprise over challenge as it brings in excitement around ambiguity); and as young enthusiast I decided to adapt to the organizational need and moved across functions like market research, L&D and HR business partnering and locations like Aurangabad, Mumbai and Gurgaon. When I reflect, these transitions at the initial phase of my career became the building blocks for my next move and engraved a deep belief that agility in thought process is equally important.

Learn, Unlearn and Relearn. Continuous learning is vital to keep yourself abreast on new happenings in and around; but I realized unlearning and re-learning are also equally important as I moved to new city (Pune) and new organization (Thermax). My first innings at Thermax began as HR Associate for C&H Services business. Coming from different industry, different organization culture, I had to unlearn not only policies and processes but also operating styles. Guidance by Manager, support from business & HR colleagues helped me immensely to navigate through this change. Apart from supporting the growth agenda of business, I was given opportunity to launch campus hiring for one stream, which helped me to build the perspective around end to end campus management.

Explore the Unexplored. While I was enjoying my job, I was on a crossroad where I had to choose between family priorities and career. I decided to give preference to family and accompanied my husband who was moving to USA for long term assignment. The curious traveller in me encouraged to explore different parts of country and I could also complete couple of courses in HR domain. But after a while I could not suppress my inner voice which was calling out for getting back into action in the corporate world. When I decided to move back to India, Thermax was an obvious preference, the culture of organization and its contemporary people practice never ceased to amaze me.
I joined as Talent Management anchor. This role helped me to widen my thinking horizon from one division to entire organization. The necessity of having holistic yet agile approach to achieve desired outcome was my key learning in this exploratory journey.

Go Extra Mile. I truly believe in the concept of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour i.e. going over and beyond goal plan/ key deliverables of your role. Applying this concept has helped me a lot to enhance my skill set as well as learning agility. While Talent Management was my core responsibility, I was given various other short term stretch assignments to gain experience and exposure on different HR areas. HR Associate Power -LPP (Large Power Plant) role gave me understanding of projects business. I was nominated as HR representative for Project Modernize – a strategic project involving 14 young colleagues across businesses and functions to modernize, digitize and simplify some of the key processes @ Thermax. This project not only helped me to develop overall appreciation of functional nuances but also enhanced my thinking and execution skills. ASPIRE – Learning intervention for senior leaders, T-Quiz organization wide quiz contest driving engagement beyond divisional and functional boundaries, leading Change Management for new HR system implementation, Campus Management and many more such assignments helped to enrich my knowledge and build the skills.

Adapt, Align and Augment. And the day came where my Manager who has always been my mentor got into conversation discussing with me an opportunity to work with Chemical Business as a Group HR head. I was overwhelmed by the trust placed by my mentor and seniors. I was nervous about the transition but kudos to the nurturing ecosystem co-created by functional and administrative manager along with colleagues from HR and business who made this transition seamless. This role is not only helping me to leverage on my learnings from the previous experience but also honing my skills in new arena.

In nutshell, role change happens in couple of hours technically, interaction with your Manager followed by changes in the system; but the changes associated with role (both behavioural and functional) take time. We get involved in various assignments, few may be from our area of interest and few may not be; some could be planned and some could be unplanned but everything that we learn, make us ready to take the leap of faith. And the learning curve continues as we get into newer role.

Diverse exposure has always brought in freshness to my professional journey making it more meaningful, exciting and I truly look forward to every Monday!

– Rupali Bagul
Group Head – HR, Chemical

I started my career in Millennium year of 2000. While Y2K was an exciting buzz that time, I chose a path to be associated with core engineering sector. After going through well-planned initial induction and getting to know the company, I was attached to Absorption cooling Division (it was called ACD that time) at Mumbai Office. I did evaluate few options of being in various functions but given my outward inclination of interacting with people, fondness for travel and also eagerness to have impactful conversation & communication, I chose to be in front end sales. While this was a well assisted process, the fact that I got into the function where I could apply my skillsets, young mind and enthusiasm, I got thoroughly involved and immersed into the responsibility. This change from being a student to getting into professional world happened when I was surrounded by right set of people, mentors and also colleagues who contributed to helping me through this change.

After successful stint of six years in ACD, I felt the need to get an exposure to work in a multinational company and in a different sector. This was at one of the leading global conglomerates for their marine and aviation lubrication business for Indian Subcontinent. From outside, it looks to be a completely different sector but the concept of value selling, differentiation, relationship management, product positioning- all remained the same. This change gave me an exposure to work in multicultural teams, engaging with different nationalities, understanding of how health and safety gets focused in multinational companies and dynamics of marine & aviation industry. This was the time when I worked very closely with many people & customers outside of India and this gave me an exposure of handling overseas business.

I was then offered an opportunity to lead our front-end efforts of Power EPC business for Middle East and Africa. That’s where I started my second innings in Thermax & this required me to shift from Mumbai to Pune. This change was driven by a desire to know and handle EPC business which is very different from product business. It was an exciting journey in early part of this decade when we started covering substantial ground in Middle east and Africa. With our rigor and focus on Africa through an initiative known as ‘Project Zebra’, we mapped potential, possibilities and challenges for Projects businesses and got a breakthrough for EPC power plant way back in 2011-12. This opened up a sizeable potential for this offering in African continent. While our actions were at peak and we were on the cusp of clinching many more opportunities, I was guided for making a career move to be part of a corporate initiative, then known as ‘Project Genesis’. This was followed by strategy formulation and envisioning, go to market, identifying interventions from the businesses, organization building for select geographies. While we were in the middle of this journey and after completing deployment in Indonesia, I was then asked to head business for Thailand and neighboring countries under Thailand hub for all the product offerings of our company and to be based out of Bangkok.

Being there in different country and working along with local teams & customers gave a very different exposure. Cultural differentiation and how it creates differences in business decisions was one of the biggest takeaways during this stint. This was like a start-up and I got involved in everything related to business and compliances. Getting the team together, identifying & evaluating different ways of doing business, building those partnerships & business collaborations in the market, creating initial success stories to ensure the business model gets wider acceptance in the market were some of key steps which we ensured as a team. My ability to unlearn was really tested here and the fact that we were not in our home country, forced us to sharpen our unlearning curve apart from faster adaptability. After setting up a strong foundation in three years, I decided to come back and handle Global Sales, Marketing, Proposals and Product management for Cooling Division and now shifted to Standard Plant Group of Water and Wastewater division to spearhead overall business efforts.

When I reflect on this journey and these varied experiences in product and project business along with working in different geographies, I feel that these career moves helped me to understand different businesses in greater depth, ensured faster alignment to business requirement through quick learning, take ownership, bring in more seasonality and maturity to deliver in different circumstances. It also helped me to create many diverse and long-lasting customer relationships which often cut across various businesses. While I know that there is a perspective that continuity gives us roots but change gives us branches, letting us stretch, explore our individual potential, and adds immense value to the organization.

Changes are definitely not easy. Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable have perhaps not learned their history. All the major changes in my career have been assisted and guided changes. At no point of time, there was a compulsion to change however at all the times, I was told pros and cons of the change. My sincere thanks and gratitude to the organization & to all my seniors and mentors who guided me throughout this journey and for also having confidence in me in handling these different roles. It is this true mentorship and ’let go approach’ of management & respective line managers which forms the foundation of our talent mobility policy. While seniors & mentors have played a major role in guiding me through these career moves, the real credit go to the teams, with whom I have worked in various roles, in making these moves count and making them meaningful. One cannot say whether things will get better if we change, but we should change if we aspire to get better. We can build an adaptable organization only with adaptable people. The art lies in constant readjustment to our surroundings and align our experiences & objectives to build synergy and harmony.

– Mandar Erande
SPG PU – Head, WWS

My journey with Thermax started a decade ago. I was fresh out of college and was striving to build my career in the R&D department for one of the leading engineering companies in India, Thermax. Yes, every engineer aspires to design fancy stuff after graduating from College. Back then neither did I know about the various facets of working in a Corporate nor did I realize my true potential as a professional working for this great organization.

After completing my induction as a trainee engineer, I joined Upstream Oil & Gas (UOG) division under Project Management function then. I was given the opportunity to work on a live project. There is a belief that On-the-Job training is the best learning you can get in any profession. During this initial stint, I had to collaborate across all the functions and was granted responsibility to be the single point of contact for the Customer. The Project was in a very precarious situation and I had a very tough time handling this demanding Customer. I was surprised to be made part of this Task force to Deliver. A trainee engineer managing a critical Export Project – this can happen only in Thermax.

From UOG, I was transferred to TBWES (earlier known as Boilers & Heaters Division) and worked in the Oil & Gas SBU. I was made responsible to execute multiple projects for a Key Account, who later awarded Thermax its largest project in its history. The most difficult part while working in a matrix structure is to influence your team members to deliver. This role taught me the art of building relationships.

There did come a thought in my mind, “what am I doing in Projects? Is it worth taking this responsibility at a young age or time to explore other industries or perhaps apply for higher studies?”

Millennials from my generation prefer to jump the ship at the first available moment, yet I am writing this blog after working here for last 10 years. How did this happen? Shekhar, in his blog, talked about ‘Change’. In today’s VUCA world, ‘Change’ is the only constant. This ‘Change’ played a key role in my journey as well.

During a casual discussion with my BU Head, I was asked “Rakesh, do you want to work in Sales?” I jumped and confirmed to him immediately without second thought. While working in Sales, I was selected for a strategic assignment (Project Modernize) from Corporate along with 14 young colleagues. We were given responsibility to simplify and modernize our existing processes within a timeframe of 90 days. Our team did a great job, and we could implement many new processes by making use of digital tools of the current era.

This Sales stint was my shortest as I got an opportunity to work with Thermax MD & CEO as his EA. Working in the Corporate office was the next best thing that could have happened to me. This phase was all about learning from the best minds in our organization, honing my skills around Corporate Strategy and Planning function. I was part of multiple organization wide assignments like ‘Voice of Youth’ and ‘Salesforce’. These cross-functional assignments did stretch my limits but gave me the horizontal exposure across businesses.

In a decade of being a Thermaxian, from Factory to Energy house and from Thermax house to my current role in International Sales, was I deterred not to make these moves? No. What was the most critical factor in all these moves? Some of these moves were planned but some were unplanned. I have learnt in this journey that it is all about your ‘Attitude’ towards life, which will make you or break you. If you have got the right ‘Attitude’, decisions made against the available opportunities will turn in your favor. You must continue with your hard work to sail through the difficult phases.

The willingness to learn and take responsibilities backed up by open culture at Thermax offers unlimited growth opportunities to excel. The question is – “are we eager to take this up and lead from the front”?

– Rakesh Ravish
Sales Manager, International Business Group

I would say life changed completely for me the moment I joined college for pursuing engineering. Four years in college hostel were enough for me to get over all the inhibitions (seniors did play some part in my ‘grooming’!). Some of my strengths looked weak while some flaws, were my assets. So, when my first Manager in Thermax asked me to go and join Hyderabad regional office, I did not even bother to ask if I could be posted at any other location.

Today, when I look back, I think my first job posting proved to be a blessing in disguise. My Boss at Hyderabad set forth expectations which, at the first instance, seemed to be absurd and out of the world. As part of the sales team, I was supposed to meet at least two customers per day (which was fine). The unusual part however was that I was supposed to know and find out almost everything about the key decisionmaker (after interacting with him/her) in that company. This meant more frequent meetings, visits, and cross referencing with other sales teams.

Once, in order to hold a fruitful conversation with a key decision-maker, I had to read a lot about history of Tennis at Wimbledon. The effect of this hard work (in 1993, there was no internet for quick referencing), was amazing. The decisionmaker invited me to his senior’s tennis tournament, and I bagged few more contacts. In the process, we not only won that order but also were able to build a strong long-term relationship with the group. I feel improving personal connect also helps to avoid most dangerous sales trap – overselling/mis-selling. When you know that you must face the decisionmaker again, and your personal credibility is at stake, you tend to put in extra hours to ensure that “what you sell is perceived to be the ‘best’ solution.

The time spent at Hyderabad made me confident that I can adapt to new things. As luck would have it, there came an opportunity in Indonesia office and without hesitation, I affirmed it! My parents were bit apprehensive about my relocation plans to Indonesia, but I managed to convince them that it is not permanent relocation and that I would be back home in few days.

All such movements early in my career, helped me to get wider exposure in a relatively short span of time. During my Indonesia stint, initially I was the only person with technical background for Absorption Chillers. At times, I also doubled up as a service engineer. Little did I know at that time, that this experience of a service engineer at site would help me later after 15 years, when I was the SBU Head for Absorption Cooling division to set expectations, and review design improvements by additional yardstick of serviceability at site.

These early enriching experiences helped me substantially to get over any kind of insecurity associated with a ‘change’. This, I believe, is another behavioural skill that a professional must develop. Today, competency of “adapting to change” may even be rated higher than some other important skills.

During the initial 15 years of my career, I was never based at one location for more than 3 years. The journey which started with Heat Recovery Division of Thermax, has taken me to eight locations and through six different SBU/BU of Thermax in different roles. In this journey, I have survived fifteen different bosses, and to be honest, they all pushed me to the brink which I now realize helped me become more skilled, more mature, and more open-minded. They have provided a more holistic experience through exposure to different functions and contexts. My Managers haven’t just talked about mobility, but “walked the talk” when they let me go places and SBU/BU’s.

The most important part of the “Let Go” aspect is when you facilitate your best team member to take up something else in another function/ SBU. We know, as a Manager, we will have to work hard, re-train someone else and spend more time ourselves to control things. It may consume considerable bandwidth till the new role-holder attains the expected expertise level. It is the hardest moment for any Manager. But it is also our gift to that individual. It is also a gift to the existing team that a new member, with new thinking, is likely to make the team more diverse over a period of time.

I consider myself the most fortunate, thanking all my Managers, who graciously allowed me to ‘move’ and transition out of my ‘comfort zone’.

– Shekhar Kashalikar
Executive Council Member and SBU Head OEM, TBWES