Twelve Young Engineers and One Bet
In 2008, we made a deliberate decision at Su-Kam. We went to Apeejay College of Engineering in Gurgaon and hired twelve fresh graduates — all at once — as Graduate Engineer Trainees. It was a bet on potential. On young minds who had not yet been shaped by someone else's way of doing things, who could learn the inverter industry from the ground up, who could grow with the company.
Most of those twelve stayed with us for years. The team was good. The energy was right. But even within a strong group, certain people stand apart — not because they push themselves forward, but because something in how they carry themselves, how they handle people, how they absorb pressure, tells you that they are built for more than the role they currently hold.
Sunil Badesra was that person.
Across States, Across Dealer Meets
Sunil had completed his Bachelor's in Electronics and Communication from Apeejay College of Engineering and joined us fresh out of college. He was young, he was new to the industry, and he had everything to learn. What struck me early was how quickly he learned — and how little he complained.
In the inverter business, the real education does not happen in the office. It happens on the road — in dealer meetings in small cities, in distributor conversations, in the moment when a customer is unhappy and you have to find a way through it with nothing but your judgment and your manner. I took Sunil across different states. We did dealer meets together.
From Su-Kam to Sungrow
What Sunil built at Su-Kam gave him the foundation to move into larger and larger roles. He eventually became CEO of Sungrow India — one of the world's largest solar inverter companies, a Chinese manufacturer with serious ambitions in the Indian market.
The boy from Apeejay who walked into Su-Kam as a Graduate Engineer Trainee in 2008 now runs a national operation for a global solar giant. That is not an accident. That is what happens when a company invests in people before they have proven themselves — and when a person rises to meet every opportunity they are given.