The CEO Magazine EMEA – April 2018

Knürr was retained as a product brand and

a new line of business, Integrated Rack

Systems, was created. Appal was then

appointed as the Vice-President and General

Manager for this business. “The first task was

to get the economics of the business right,”

Appal explains. “Having done that, we also

felt it was important to transform the

company to become part of one, global Vertiv

idea. So essentially, we rebranded from Knürr

to Vertiv. Knürr gave us only the rack/metal

side of things, but as Vertiv, with Knürr as

a product line, we have added multiple

businesses to the portfolio.”

The company’s range includes power

distribution systems, heat dissipation systems

and KVMs (kernel-based virtual machines),

and its growth is something Appal is proud

to be part of.

Taking a brand from just a rack company

to one that provides critical power, cooling

and IT infrastructure at the rack level, is a

transformation Appal says is still underway,

but one that he and the Vertiv team have

made significant strides in. “I’ve been here two and

a half years and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention

the new energy we’ve infused into the product

development,” he adds.

When the brand change was underway, Appal

knew it was important to strengthen the company’s

structure. “Every culture goes through phases, and

openness and honesty are what I value and strive

for; just general candour about the good and bad,”

he says.

“A few main things that we focus on – not only

to instil in new people but also what we demand of

our experienced people – are exuding positive intent,

being optimistic about the future, being candid and

realistic about opportunities, and respecting others.”

Now, with a more diversified business in place,

the next step for Appal is to increase Vertiv’s foothold

in the market. “We serve the customers but they can

be static,” he says. “We have to continuously innovate,

be competitive and drive non-traditional dimensions

of innovation to bring us into the modern age.”

An integral part of the business is understanding

what customers need and the future direction they

may be going in. “We get a lot of that as we evolve

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