From career mapping to climate change, Ashish Bhandari, MD & CEO Thermax Ltd, shares his insights on a range of issues with students of the weekend MBA at IIMB
09 SEPTEMBER, 2021: A global leader credited with building GE Oil & Gas into one of GE’s biggest businesses in India and charting growth strategies for diverse product portfolios, Ashish Bhandari, MD & CEO, Thermax Ltd., shared vignettes from his professional journey with students of the two-year weekend Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM), at IIM Bangalore, on 29th August.
In a virtual session titled, ‘Driving Growth – The Journey of a CEO’, the fifth in the LeaderSpeak series, Ashish spoke about what it means and takes to build a career.
“I grew up in a place where becoming an engineer or a doctor was the only option for young people,” he quipped. After graduating from IIT Bombay, he did his Master’s in Business Administration in Duke University, North Carolina, USA. Prior to joining Thermax in 2020, Ashish was Vice President - India and South Asia region at Baker Hughes (formerly a GE company). He joined GE in 2005 in Houston, USA and relocated to Gurgaon, India in 2011.
Flying High, Going Deep
One may lose their way initially in the formative years, but it is only to find that calling and purpose and find one’s way back home eventually, he remarked. “It all works out. Happiness and career progression do not always go hand in hand. Find something that makes you happy. Look for happiness and things that give you satisfaction. The rest are important but secondary. In the initial 15-20 years of one’s career, one is only connecting the dots, yet the picture does emerge, eventually.”
He credits his stint with McKinsey with helping him explore a funnel. “Consulting teaches one how to extrapolate and go deep; it helps one deal with numbers really well and how to think through situations,” he explains, adding that at McKinsey, he imbibed the ability of looking at things from a bird’s-eye view, then going deep into a given space with a hypothesis in mind and seeing if that hypothesis worked. “This methodology of flying high and going deep and exploring the areas one identifies well with, can be applied just about anywhere.”
He advised his audience not to take the observations and experiences of experts for granted. “You may see an altogether different part of the picture from what they saw. So, stay open, listen and learn, but paint your own picture,” he advised.
“Being thorough in digital technology and finance are very important for today’s leaders and so is the ability to network,” he said, suggesting that young managers read book such as ‘The First 90 days’, ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’ and ‘How to Avoid a Climate Disaster’. “Climate change is a problem not merely for companies, but also for the planet and humanity as a whole.”
Having lived in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and USA, he said his experience with Syria made him feel like a truly global citizen. “Experiences like these teach one not to look at people as belonging to a particular race or culture. Humans are amazingly different and it’s not a good idea to put people in preconceived boxes.”
Discovery & Growth
Ashish joined GE as a salesperson, in an individual contributor role with plans of working for a couple of years and later moving on to start something on his own. Yet, it turned out to be a 15-year journey during which he built GE Oil & Gas into one of GE’s biggest businesses in India.
Ashish said he came to India in 2011 when John Flannery, the then Chairman of GE, was looking at making GE a completely local business in India. One of the challenges was to connect the numerous plants and equipment of GE using automation. Ashish recalled that he conducted close to 150 interviews during the first three months to add a host of capabilities – services, engineering, quotation, manufacturing capabilities, to the small sales and services team. This was also the time when he was discovering India, travelling to different parts of the country to set up channel networks. Setting up teams, building and motivating them with the degree of freedom given to him in pricing, business and investment decisions – all this meant working at a mini-startup of sorts.
The automation business was eventually merged with the larger GE Oil & Gas business and he was asked to lead the same. The first challenge, he said, in this larger role was to get the team, that was then in a stagnant phase, rally and connect to the larger picture. “The phrase ‘Moving Energy Forward for India’ did the trick. This was to become a catchphrase in GE.”
The Big Shift
In 2018, GE chose to merge its Oil & Gas business with Baker Hughes and spin it out as a separate company. Ashish believes that although he was fortunate to be given a larger role in Baker Hughes for India and South Asia, two crucial things changed for him during this process. First, he did not believe that Oil & Gas had a long future. He thought climate change was real and this thought emerged from his personal interest in and study of the subject. He could not see himself spending the next 15 years of his career in Oil & Gas. Second, during the 2018-19 transition, the erstwhile freedom to operate started dwindling. “The ability to truly make a difference was diminishing.”
Thermax, he said, checked all the boxes for him – right size, publicly listed, good culture and ethics. The two big factors which actually attracted Ashish to Thermax were the ability to make a difference given that Thermax was still in the midst of energy transition. Second, Thermax was working in clean energy sector quite in alignment with his interests. “Shifting from a world where 80% of the energy comes from fossil fuels to a world where the same 80% comes from non-fossil fuels – taking a company through such a transition fascinates me as a leader,” Ashish said.
On a personal note, he revealed that he loves travelling and connecting with nature. “I love the energy of India. I love how people work so hard and try to make a difference in many different ways,” he added.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/VS0L7qUFYgE
From career mapping to climate change, Ashish Bhandari, MD & CEO Thermax Ltd, shares his insights on a range of issues with students of the weekend MBA at IIMB
09 SEPTEMBER, 2021: A global leader credited with building GE Oil & Gas into one of GE’s biggest businesses in India and charting growth strategies for diverse product portfolios, Ashish Bhandari, MD & CEO, Thermax Ltd., shared vignettes from his professional journey with students of the two-year weekend Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM), at IIM Bangalore, on 29th August.
In a virtual session titled, ‘Driving Growth – The Journey of a CEO’, the fifth in the LeaderSpeak series, Ashish spoke about what it means and takes to build a career.
“I grew up in a place where becoming an engineer or a doctor was the only option for young people,” he quipped. After graduating from IIT Bombay, he did his Master’s in Business Administration in Duke University, North Carolina, USA. Prior to joining Thermax in 2020, Ashish was Vice President - India and South Asia region at Baker Hughes (formerly a GE company). He joined GE in 2005 in Houston, USA and relocated to Gurgaon, India in 2011.
Flying High, Going Deep
One may lose their way initially in the formative years, but it is only to find that calling and purpose and find one’s way back home eventually, he remarked. “It all works out. Happiness and career progression do not always go hand in hand. Find something that makes you happy. Look for happiness and things that give you satisfaction. The rest are important but secondary. In the initial 15-20 years of one’s career, one is only connecting the dots, yet the picture does emerge, eventually.”
He credits his stint with McKinsey with helping him explore a funnel. “Consulting teaches one how to extrapolate and go deep; it helps one deal with numbers really well and how to think through situations,” he explains, adding that at McKinsey, he imbibed the ability of looking at things from a bird’s-eye view, then going deep into a given space with a hypothesis in mind and seeing if that hypothesis worked. “This methodology of flying high and going deep and exploring the areas one identifies well with, can be applied just about anywhere.”
He advised his audience not to take the observations and experiences of experts for granted. “You may see an altogether different part of the picture from what they saw. So, stay open, listen and learn, but paint your own picture,” he advised.
“Being thorough in digital technology and finance are very important for today’s leaders and so is the ability to network,” he said, suggesting that young managers read book such as ‘The First 90 days’, ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’ and ‘How to Avoid a Climate Disaster’. “Climate change is a problem not merely for companies, but also for the planet and humanity as a whole.”
Having lived in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and USA, he said his experience with Syria made him feel like a truly global citizen. “Experiences like these teach one not to look at people as belonging to a particular race or culture. Humans are amazingly different and it’s not a good idea to put people in preconceived boxes.”
Discovery & Growth
Ashish joined GE as a salesperson, in an individual contributor role with plans of working for a couple of years and later moving on to start something on his own. Yet, it turned out to be a 15-year journey during which he built GE Oil & Gas into one of GE’s biggest businesses in India.
Ashish said he came to India in 2011 when John Flannery, the then Chairman of GE, was looking at making GE a completely local business in India. One of the challenges was to connect the numerous plants and equipment of GE using automation. Ashish recalled that he conducted close to 150 interviews during the first three months to add a host of capabilities – services, engineering, quotation, manufacturing capabilities, to the small sales and services team. This was also the time when he was discovering India, travelling to different parts of the country to set up channel networks. Setting up teams, building and motivating them with the degree of freedom given to him in pricing, business and investment decisions – all this meant working at a mini-startup of sorts.
The automation business was eventually merged with the larger GE Oil & Gas business and he was asked to lead the same. The first challenge, he said, in this larger role was to get the team, that was then in a stagnant phase, rally and connect to the larger picture. “The phrase ‘Moving Energy Forward for India’ did the trick. This was to become a catchphrase in GE.”
The Big Shift
In 2018, GE chose to merge its Oil & Gas business with Baker Hughes and spin it out as a separate company. Ashish believes that although he was fortunate to be given a larger role in Baker Hughes for India and South Asia, two crucial things changed for him during this process. First, he did not believe that Oil & Gas had a long future. He thought climate change was real and this thought emerged from his personal interest in and study of the subject. He could not see himself spending the next 15 years of his career in Oil & Gas. Second, during the 2018-19 transition, the erstwhile freedom to operate started dwindling. “The ability to truly make a difference was diminishing.”
Thermax, he said, checked all the boxes for him – right size, publicly listed, good culture and ethics. The two big factors which actually attracted Ashish to Thermax were the ability to make a difference given that Thermax was still in the midst of energy transition. Second, Thermax was working in clean energy sector quite in alignment with his interests. “Shifting from a world where 80% of the energy comes from fossil fuels to a world where the same 80% comes from non-fossil fuels – taking a company through such a transition fascinates me as a leader,” Ashish said.
On a personal note, he revealed that he loves travelling and connecting with nature. “I love the energy of India. I love how people work so hard and try to make a difference in many different ways,” he added.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/VS0L7qUFYgE