Harvard Business Publishing | January 2025
The present MD and CEO, Ashish Bhandari, was given the mandate of responsibly managing and accelerating growth by increasing the annual turnover threefold from INR 60 billion to INR 185 billion by 2030. This significant growth posed challenges such as managing the growth responsibly, financing the required capex, and managing the human resources requirements.
Thermax provides integrated solutions in clean energy, air, and water through its four business units: energy, environment, chemicals, and services. The energy business includes the traditional fossil-fuel-based energy as well as renewable energy solutions. The family’s business philosophy had always championed and encouraged the adoption of sustainable and green operations. The company focused on sustainable medium-term profitability and not on short-term increases in market capitalization. Moreover, it had conservatively concentrated on sustainable growth and a debt-free financial model for business growth.
Sougata Ray is a Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship (Practice), Thomas Schmidheiny Chair Professor, and Executive Director of the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise, at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Earlier, he served at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta for over two decades as a Professor of Strategic Management, a member of the Board of Governors, and Dean. He was also a senior-level executive at Infosys Technologies Limited for two years in a strategic role as Head of innovation Lab. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology, Shibpur.
Professor Ray’s research interests have evolved over the years in understanding various facets of strategic management, entrepreneurship, innovation and the governance of firms and business groups in high-growth economies. Given the ubiquity of family firms in India and observing how family owners and leaders play a pivotal role in shaping the future of enterprises, he was gradually drawn into family business research. In recent years, under the aegis of the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise, he has been spearheading a mega programme towards developing a solid research-based understanding of family firms and business groups in India and South Asia. He has also been leading a research programme in the areas of social entrepreneurship, corporate sustainability strategy and practices, bottom-of-the-pyramid initiatives, and involvement of corporations in inclusive and sustainable development.
Professor Ray is one of the most prolific and cited home-grown strategy scholars in India. He has been publishing regularly in reputed scholarly journals and presenting in leading peer-reviewed international conferences. He has received over half a million dollars in research grants, several prestigious research and teaching awards, and numerous award nominations.
He blends over three decades of experiences in diverse roles – as an international-quality academic, research, and institution builder, alongside hands-on corporate managerial and governance roles as an executive, member of the Board of Directors, and co-founder of startups.. He has been an advisor to numerous medium and large corporations, family businesses, and startups, and he has served as Principal Consultant to leading international development agencies. He currently sits on the governing and advisory boards of several listed and unlisted companies, startups, and social enterprises.
Professor Ray has taught in numerous executive education programmes and has designed and conducted many workshops exclusively for owner-managers, entrepreneurs, and C-level executives of companies in India, Asia, Middle East, Nordic and Scandinavian countries. Over the years, he has led over thirty C- level executive delegations to countries on every continent for high-level meetings with the ministers, high-ranking officials, multilateral agencies such as the WTO and ILO, Chambers of Commerce, MNCs, industrial organisations, research labs, and academic institutions.
