President & CEO
Zentech, Inc.
Vistage member since 2015
In his 45 years of running a business, Zentech CEO Ramesh Maini has never hired a consultant for strategic planning.
Indeed, the approach has worked. Since its founding in 1978, Houston-based Zentech has grown into a $32 million company with offices in Asia, North America, South America and the Middle East. Its client roster includes NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Maritime Administration and several private companies.
Zentech designs, engineers and constructs semi-submersibles, drilling rigs, drill ships and other vessels for the oil and gas and renewable energy industries. It’s a niche industry that Maini understands deeply, which is one reason why he’s always relied on his internal process for strategic planning. His other reason is philosophical: He believes the company’s strategic direction should align with its vision and values — summarized as “people over profits, service over sales, and honor over hustle.”
Maini believes in taking care of his employees, distributing $2 million in bonuses last year alone. He focuses on recruiting and retaining the best salespeople in the world.
“Right now, we’re pursuing projects totaling $800 million,” says Maini, a 2022 Vistage Member Excellence Award winner. “That’s because of our salespeople’s efforts.”
Maini’s people-centric strategy helped Zentech survive a tough period between 2017 and 2021 when much of the business dried up as drilling clients lost major projects. While exploring new business opportunities, Maini ensured he retained key people while retooling Zentech’s business strategy.
Since then, Zentech has diversified outside of drilling, recently acquiring an oil-processing company and working on green hydrogen and methanol production. Maini has also pledged to help with the collection of microplastics in oceans, rivers and lakes — not to make money, but because it’s the right thing to do. He’s also working with his Vistage Chair and peers on his long-term vision: transitioning to an employee stock ownership plan, fulfilling the ultimate act of taking care of people.
“If you take care of people,” Maini says, “profit will come.”
