Monday Blues or Friday Dressings. Aditya Birla Group has been part of my life in both extremes. I still remember waking up every Monday morning and watching my mother pack my Monday lunch (we had a pact and the menu was fixed) neatly in Freshwrapp and then heading off to school and then waiting for that lunch bell to go off. That was the beginning of my journey with ABG. Up until the 6th or 7th standard, I didn’t know the meaning of the words, foil paper. The word Freshwrapp is what I associated with right from my childhood. The connect was strong and the brand was ingrained at that ripe age itself.
Further down the line, during the placements season in engineering, it was time for the first one to one interaction with corporates. And also, it was time to buy my first Formals! My father, being a working professional with 30+ years of experience in the corporate world and also, very brand conscious when it comes to clothing, took me to his go-to stores: Allen Solly, Van Heusen, and Louis Philippe! I was awed by the air that these stores served. The first pair I bought were from Van Heusen. Donning those clothes develop an instant connection and liking for the brand. It provided a level of confidence which I never thought could be experienced by the means of what I wear. The connect was created, the brand image had been formed.
During my stint as a professional in the corporate world, I soon came across the trend of Friday dressing. Relaxed formals with a chic look was the need of the day and the brand synonymous with this was, Allen Solly. Allen Solly redefined fashion in the corporate world and brought in the concept of Friday Dressing. And now, it was going to shape my sense of style and become a significant part of my life. These ABG brands have created a sense of brand loyalty through the sense of style and product quality which they serve, thus creating a bond which would be difficult to break. Following their queue, a lot of other brands popped up selling similar products under different names but ABG has been the trendsetters in this industry and it’s very difficult to uproot the trendsetters.
Coming to my life story, I have definitely had some ups and some downs in my career. The first major roadblock that came in front of me was right after completing my 12th class board exams. I was about to go fully armored for my battle against the engineering entrance exams and I had a full one month after my boards. But the day the boards got over, I tore my knee ligament and was barely able to walk. The excruciating pain and the inability to move was really frustrating. I was not allowed to move around and would sit in one spot for the whole day. I gave the entrance exams battling through the pain, hobbling around test centres with my walker and my bag. And I was finally able to achieve admission in one of the top NITs, NIT Surat, thus coming out at the top in this sticky situation. It was self-belief that helped overcome this situation and since that day, I have never doubted my abilities.
But the story does not end there. In my professional career as a project in-charge at a manufacturing plant, I was given the responsibility of handling 50 blue collared professionals. It had barely been a year since I had been out of the college and I was given a big responsibility to handle a major project. This project also involved a complete production shutdown. Now, these blue collared workers were all elder to me and had much more experience in the work which I was supposed to supervise. Just laying the law would never work with them. So, I chose the route of communication. Understanding them, their thought process and building a trust, so that they would understand where I was coming from and believe in my philosophy of executing work. In the end, what I saw as a hurdle and a challenge became my strength and we were able to successfully deliver the project without any major hiccups. This made me confident in my ability to find a way out for myself when a challenge is thrown my way and find my way out.
