Managing Strategy, Operations and Partnerships

MANAGING STRATEGY, OPERATIONS AND
PARTNERSHIPS

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Competitive advantage....................................................................................................................3
Strategic proposal............................................................................................................................5
Stakeholder analysis........................................................................................................................8
Requirement of each stage of analysis.............................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

Introduction
Thermax Ltd (Thermax) is an engineering company. It provides sustainable solutions in energy
and environment. The company’s systems, products and services assist customers in achieving
better resource productivity and improving cost efficiency, besides maintaining a cleaner
environment. Thermax offers a portfolio of products for heating, cooling, water and waste
management, and specialty chemicals. The company also designs, builds and commissions large
boilers for steam and power generation, turnkey power plants, waste heat recovery systems,
industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants, and air pollution control projects. It has
operations in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, CIS, North America and South
America; and manufacturing facilities in Poland, India, Denmark, China, Germany and
Indonesia. Thermax is headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, India.
Competitive advantage
A competitive advantage is an attribute that enables a company to outperform its competitors.
This allows a company to achieve superior margins compared to its competition and generates
value for the company and its shareholders. A competitive advantage must be difficult, if not
impossible, to duplicate. If it is easily copied or imitated, it is not considered a competitive
advantage.
Some of the products manufactured by the company's Boilers and Heaters division include steam
boilers, thermic fluid heaters, process integrated boilers, exhaust gas boilers and Fired Heaters.
The company's Energy Systems division offers captive power systems, while the Absorption
Cooling division manufactures Steam driven single and double effect chillers, hot water driven
chillers and direct fuel fired chillers. Cogeneration division offers Cogeneration systems on EPC
basis.
The company's Water and Waste Solutions division makes clarification & filtration, deionisers,
demineralisers and dealkalisers, membrane separation & reverse osmosis and waste recycling.
Air Pollution and Purification division's products include Standard Air pollution control
products, Engineered Air Pollution Control Systems,Air Purification Systems and the Chemicals

division manufactures Boiler and Cooling Water Chemicals, Ion Exchange Resins,
Polyelectrolytes, Oil Field Chemicals and Fireside Chemicals.
The company entered Europe through a wholly owned subsidiary, ME Engineering Limited,
U.K, which is in the business of energy-related systems and standardized products. During the
past few years, the company has taken new initiatives to explore and develop the Western
European market for packaged boilers. These initiatives together with related product support
and service business lay the foundation for the company's foray in packaged boilers, both in the
UK and EU markets. It has another subsidiary Thermax Europe, which serves as the front-end
for the absorption chiller business of the company in Europe.
The company has been continuously reviewing and upgrading its products to gain competitive
advantage for both the domestic and international markets. The company has in the past
successfully introduced several new products that have gained acceptance from diverse market
segments.
Alliances for market access and technology
The company has formed several subsidiaries, alliances and joint ventures in many countries to
access key markets and technology for its products. It has in the past sourced cutting-edge
technologies from world technology majors, like Babcock & Wilcox USA, Kawasaki Thermal
Engineering Company, Japan; Eco Tech, Canada; Honeywell, USA; Bloom Engineering,
Germany; Struthers Wells and Ozone Systems, USA to increase its own competitiveness.
Customer concentration risk
The company recognizes the risk associated with over dependence on any single customer or any
single project. Its businesses are well spread amongst numerous customers and geographies.
Additionally, it has a well-documented credit policy for evaluation and authorization of all large
credit exposures.
Global Competition in India
The Indian market for the company’s products is increasingly getting competitive with the fall in
tariff rates and entry of many overseas companies in the domestic market. This has acted as a
catalyst for the company to increase its focus on the international markets especially in Europe
and US.