Our Starting Point

Thermal Co had doubled its business between 2020 and 2025, a rare feat by any standard. Facilities expanded. Headcount grew. New markets opened.

But success had a downside: it bred confidence in the status quo. While some leaders pushed for bold reinvention, others questioned the need for change.

Meanwhile, the thermal management industry was buyoed on all side by increased demand from data centers, electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing, and green energy production.

The company’s goal was to double again by 2030 and again by 2035. But without alignment on what that future demanded, complacency had stalled momentum.

Thermal Co didn’t need more goals. It needed a wake-up call—and a clear path forward.

Our Journey

Using the Resilient Strategy methodology, MileZero helped Thermal Co move from “which future is right?” to “how do we prepare for multiple futures and know when to commit?”

We worked together to:

• Explore four plausible futures for the thermal management industry, each requiring fundamentally different strategic bets
• Stress-test strategic pillars (People, Sustainability, Innovation, Digital Excellence, Operational Excellence) against each scenario to identify which capabilities create value across multiple futures and which are future-specific bets
• Identify early warning signals for each scenario so leadership would know which future is emerging and when to accelerate or pivot investments
• Build an adaptive strategic roadmap that sequences decisions based on what can be committed now (multi-future capabilities) vs. what requires waiting for market signals (future-specific investments).

Our Impact

The Resilient Strategy workshop broke the strategic logjam. Thermal Co’s leadership team left with three critical capabilities:

• Adaptive Strategic Roadmap
  Decisions explicitly sequenced based on what can be committed now (multi-scenario capabilities like operational excellence and digital infrastructure) vs. what requires waiting for market signals (future-specific bets on specialized vs. integrated offerings)
• Early Warning System
  Specific signals identified for each scenario so leadership knows when to accelerate or pivot investments as the future becomes clear
• Repeatable Decision Framework
  A shared methodology for evaluating strategic choices across multiple futures—turning uncertainty from a barrier into a competitive advantage

Most importantly, Thermal Co now makes bold strategic commitments without gambling on unpredictable outcomes—the core capability required to achieve their ambitious 2035 growth goals.

Our Starting Point

Thermal Co had doubled its business between 2020 and 2025—a rare feat by any standard. Facilities expanded. Headcount grew. New markets opened.

But success had a downside: it bred confidence in the status quo. While some leaders pushed for bold reinvention, others questioned the need for change.

Meanwhile, the thermal management industry faced mounting pressures from emerging applications, including data centers, electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing, and green energy production.

The company’s goal was to double again by 2030 and again by 2035. But without alignment on what that future demanded, complacency threatened to stall momentum.

Thermal Co didn’t need more goals. It needed a wake-up call—and a clear path forward.

Our Journey

Using the Resilient Strategy methodology, MileZero helped Thermal Co move from “which future is right?” to “how do we prepare for multiple futures and know when to commit?”

We worked together to:

• Explore four plausible futures for the thermal management industry—Deep Expertise specialization, Mega-Engineering integration, Smart Components democratization, and Digital Platform transformation—each requiring fundamentally different strategic bets
• Stress-test strategic pillars (People, Sustainability, Innovation, Digital Excellence, Operational Excellence) against each scenario to identify which capabilities create value across multiple futures and which are future-specific bets
• Identify early warning signals for each scenario so leadership would know which future is emerging and when to accelerate or pivot investments
• Build an adaptive strategic roadmap that sequences decisions based on what can be committed now (multi-future capabilities) vs. what requires waiting for market signals (future-specific investments)

Our Impact

The Resilient Strategy workshop broke the strategic logjam. Thermal Co’s leadership team left with three critical capabilities:

1. Adaptive Strategic Roadmap
   Decisions explicitly sequenced based on what can be committed now (multi-scenario capabilities like operational excellence and digital infrastructure) vs. what requires waiting for market signals (future-specific bets on specialized vs. integrated offerings)
2. Early Warning System
   Specific signals identified for each scenario so leadership knows when to accelerate or pivot investments as the future becomes clear
3. Repeatable Decision Framework
   A shared methodology for evaluating strategic choices across multiple futures—turning uncertainty from a barrier into a competitive advantage

Most importantly, Thermal Co now makes bold strategic commitments without gambling on unpredictable outcomes—the core capability required to achieve their ambitious 2035 growth goals.