On most days, Ratul Puri is at work by 10 a.m. and the last to leave the office. The 37-year-old can be often seen puffing away on his Marlboro Lights in the space reserved for smokers in the Okhla headquarters in New Delhi. But if that conjures up an image of a hard-charging, aggressive workaholic, nothing would be further from the truth. Ratul Puri is impeccably dressed, courteous and approachable, always making everyone around him feel at ease. Older employees say that the son takes after his father and founder of the company, Deepak Puri.
The reason? The global euphoria for solar panels has evaporated. A gigawatt worth of solar panels, almost a fifth of the world’s production in 2008, is lying in factories all over the world with no takers. Solar module prices have nosedived. Solar panel makers across the globe have reduced their growth forecasts and slashed workforces. Subsidies in Spain, which made it the largest market in 2008, have been withdrawn. The credit crisis has brought solar installations around the globe to a standstill. Evidently, the solar industry is at its shaky worst.
“In the last five years, completely supply side capacities were being created and nobody bothered about how sustainable demand would need to be,” says Ravi Khanna, president & CEO at Scatec Solar, a project management firm in the solar industry based in Norway. Khanna, in his last assignment, was the CEO of Moser Baer’s photovoltaic business. The oversupply and the slowdown have driven the customers away, he says.
(This story appears in the 17 July, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
The junior Puri has taken a very right call, I have no doubt that he will take the company to new heights for good reasons, few are:- firstly the solar energy is the business of future, a huge scope for innovations, as its application may threaten the rest of the fuel industry, secondly his foray into related light industry like LED bulps etc, are also important. Both these areas are the need of the hour, looking at india\'s requirements and company\'s vision then you will be helpless but to give credit to this young leader.
on Feb 24, 2015