THE GROWTH CAPTAIN

With localisation, service and technology at the core, Sanjeev Sharma is positioning ABB to capitalise on India's next industrial capex wave

- PALAK AGARWAL

AT A TIME when India's industrial capex cycle is gaining momentum, Sanjeev Sharma has steered ABB India, the local arm of the Swiss engineering major, through a period of steady expansion and profitability. The company closed 2025 with its highest orders in five years, with inflows rising 52% to ₹14,115 crore, while gross sales stood at ₹13,065 crore. The consistent growth across orders, revenues, and profitability is one of the key reasons Sharma finds a place on the BT-PwC Best CEOs list this year.

On a quiet Wednesday afternoon in his office in Peenya, Bengaluru—about 32 km from the city centre—Sharma reflects on his four decades with the company. “It's been fantastic,” he says. The engineer-turned-executive has spent his career largely within the organisation, taking on roles across geographies, including Germany and Southeast Asia, experiences that shaped both his professional outlook and leadership style.

ABB today employs around 10,000 people in India with the listed entity employing 4,500, making the country one of its top five locations.

In the past decade, Sharma has overseen a significant expansion of the company’s footprint. While ABB India operated in just eight market segments around 10 years ago, that number has now grown to 23. The company is widely recognised for manufacturing high-performance electric motors, robotics, and power technologies that support sectors ranging from manufacturing and infrastructure to emerging areas such as data centres.

“I won’t be surprised if new market segments open up, existing emerging segments become larger, and the core industries—which have not invested for a period of time—will invest heavily in the coming years,” says Sharma.