Why Aditya Birla Group is big in my life
As I sit to write this article wearing my Allen Solly shirt I realize how big of a company Aditya Birla Group has become today. Founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857 as a small trading company it has now become India’s third largest private sector conglomerate. The horizon of the company has expanded to cement, carbon, copper, aluminum, fashion and retail, financial services and cellular network.
Being a civil engineer’s son I have grown to see the use of Ultra Tech cement in all of my father’s construction sites. It truly is the engineer’s choice and is still used by him today even after 15 years. The brand has established trust and reliability with its users and has proven to be sustainable. Ultra Tech is used in building small homes to major projects across India including the Mumbai’s Bandra-Worli Sealink. Today the company stands to be the largest manufacturer of cement in India and 3rd largest in the world.
ABG stepped into textiles during the Indian independence era and founded Grasim which has diversified into a large number of products such as Viscose Staple Fiber, sponge iron, chemicals. International clothing brands such as Allen Solly, Van Heusen, Louis Philippe, Ralph Lauren by Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL). My wardrobe today broadly comprises of clothing from ABFRL. It is extremely common now to find the crest of Louis Philippe on every other man’s shirt. I still remember my cousin from US being dumbstruck upon seeing the American flagship store forever 21 here in India.
Idea cellular network is another big presence of the company in our lives and happens to be the first that I ever used. Incorporated as Birla communications limited ABG has been in the field of telecommunications from the past 24 years. With its merger with Vodafone, the group is not the largest mobile operator in the country.
It would be ignorant to say that ABG is not a part and parcel of our daily lives. The company has touched the most important sectors and provided products that used in our everyday activities.
How I overcame a challenge to fulfill my ambition in life
My parents always raised me with the thought process of learning from your own mistakes. This really gave me the opportunity to face challenges alone and understand how to handle situations. One such challenge I faced was on the job. I had been transferred to a different team on account of consistent improvement and was given a team of 25 associates to lead. The downside being that I had to work along with other team leads with a much greater understanding of the job. With no prior experience of leading a team I was put to work right from day 1 and I had to perform. The standard set on the previous job role had to be met. Gaining acceptance as a team with very little understanding of the team or the job role was tough. I put in extra hours in my work and took help from different managers to understand how a team can be lead. One important thing needed as a team leader was to build trust in your team. Me being a person who likes to get involved in his own work meant this was not going to be easy. I had to change my style of working. So I ensured I interacted with each member during the starting and ending of the day. This made them to trust me and befriend in a short span of time. Next up was to perform. I regularly sat and analyzed each individual’s performance and gave them a feedback on a weekly basis to ensure they improved themselves. With the team’s performance improving on a regular basis, the leadership had taken note of how I had adapted to this new role and gave tough competition to other team lead with much more experience. A believe this role of a team lead and the among of work done by me was more than helpful. It was a huge factor in me impressing the panel at my current MBA college to select me in the institute. All this was done in less than a year and I credit this to my parents teaching and upbringing.
