BHARAT MEHROTRA - SDA BOCCONI ASIA CENTRE
Aditya Birla Group – You stand for “Trust”, “Future”, “Commitment”, “Innovation” – 4 powerful words that have resonated with my life. The "Power of 5" is your unique way of saluting, celebrating and cheering the inspirational act of integrity, commitment, passion, seamlessness and speed. You as a brand has played a pivotal role in my life, you as brand has created memories that I would be cherishing throughout my life.
Before I was born my father laid a strong foundation of our house with Birla White Cement which built a sense of trust for our future security. Our future got secured when my father bought Birla Sun Life Insurance on my first birthday. I could sense the future of being associated with Aditya Birla Group throughout my life. It was a proud moment for my family when my elder brother got his first job in Hidalgo after completing his engineering from P.E.C Chandigarh. I couldn’t believe when I got selected in Birla Institute of Technology Mesra for pursuing my Bachelors In Business Economics. The Commitment to study and gain excellence was my foremost priority. The commitment carried forward when after college as an event manager I got an opportunity to organize a prestigious K.K Birla Memorial Award which felicitates people who have done pioneer work in the field of literature held in K.K Birla Auditorium in New Delhi. You helped me in transitioning to your brands like Louis Phillip, Allen Solly, Peter England which focused on innovation, superior quality fabric and best in class quality. These brands inspired me to become powerful, possessing right attitude, taught me how to follow latest trends in fashion. Your brand principles are the anchor of my life and I would adhere to them during the test of time.
CHALLENGES AND HOW I OVERCOME THEM
As an event manager I was given a task of handling Ford as a client and to initiate the work on ford media drive. The client gave us the tentative budget of 50 Lakhs. The task was challenging as we had so many event companies competing for the same event brief. The task for handling the entire presentation right from the scratch till the end was assigned to me by my senior manager.
After coming back to office I quickly prepared the minutes of the meeting (M.O.M) and shared it with the concept team, creative team and organized a brainstorming session in next one hour. Adhering to the timelines I shared with them, I received the theme and concept for the event in next few hours. The creative team was also working on the design renders at the same time. I aligned the production team to do the reccee of the venue, share the route map of the drive, and prepare a tentative event cost and co-ordinate with the hotel staff of the ITC to get the layout of the Hotel and other things. In sync with the budget I also asked the artists management agency to share the list of the Musicians, Dancers along with the commercials. While each department were handling their responsibilities I was working on the Ford Media Drive Presentation. We had pushed the design team to submit the renders on time which included collaterals like – Registration Desk, Stage Design, Experiential Zone, Branding Panels, Venue Branding, etc. Entire team was in the office late night working closely with me and assisting me where ever I needed their help. I completed the presentation late at night which had concept, designs, artists along with the event cost etc and mailed it to my senior for approval. Next day when we went to the meeting, gave the presentation since we had only two companies ready with their presentation. The client liked our thought process The client liked our concepts, designs and we were asked to do certain design changes and cost changes as to fit their budget and post the meeting we got the FORD Media Drive Event.
So I followed the cradle to grave approach where I thought about the task from the scratch till the end. – I took on the task with perseverance and diligence making the end objective my focal point and also never compromising on quality and ensuring high standard.
