Why the Aditya Birla group is big in your life?
When I look back and reflect on how much ABG has impacted my life, I come across a plethora of nostalgic memories. Right from my first Idea sim to my first visit to a Pantaloon store, it brings back many memorable experiences from the past. The year was 2009, the telecom industry was yet to undergo the drastic boom that happened in recent years. Most of us either had a landline or a single mobile handset that was used by the whole family and having a personal phone was a luxury, that not many could afford at our age.
As the boards approached, I was promised a phone of my own, conditional to a good performance in the same. The sheer importance of 10th boards is no new concept for an Indian family. Eventually, the results were declared and I finally earned myself a new phone with an Idea sim. Now, when I look back and think, probably the only reason I opted for an Idea sim was the creative commercials that used to come during intervals. With a new sim came new offers, an SMS pack was all that was required during those days. I still remember searching for songs and downloading them even at a meagre 2g speed. Since then Idea (now Vodafone) has come a long way and has emerged to be the largest telecom operator of the country. The network coverage and customer friendly offers provided by them are exceptional.
The second experience that I can clearly recall is visiting the first Pantaloon store that had opened up in my city. Being a small kid, shopping always used to be a fun part of life and a store like Pantaloon, in a small city had its own charm and attraction for the dwellers. It added a new dimension of convenience as prior to that shopping involved visiting multiple stores to get different clothing items but a place that sold multiple brands and items completely changed the shopping experience for the masses and probably was the stepping stone towards the more prevalent and widespread mall culture that we have nowadays. With over 86 stores countrywide now, clearly, it has become one the leading shopping destinations.
How you overcame challenges to achieve your ambitions in life so far?
Right from my engineering days I always had an affinity towards decision making roles. Whether it was organising events in college or hosting technical festivals for our branch I was readily involved, be it as a volunteer or Co-Ordinator. Eventually, years passed and I never actually paid attention to what I actually wanted to do in my life. I joined an IT firm just like any other engineer would and got the opportunity to actually work in a very diverse and new project that brought back the thought of pursuing a managerial or decision-making role in future. After a few months, I realised it was the time to act and I decided to appear for CAT. I performed really bad and scored a subpar percentile. It turned out to be a humbling experience as I took the exam for granted, coming from an engineering background. But I was determined to give it another shot. Only this time I did not want to take any chances and end up giving CAT every other year with no definite results. So, I decided to quit and prepare. Obviously, no one was in favor of my decision as it seemed risky to quit a job for an uncertain exam like CAT. As the exam date approached closer, I knew what was at stake and I had to perform and score well as I had no backup. Eventually, all the hard work paid off and I scored a decent percentile and joined one of the best B Schools of the country. #abglwoome #XIMB-XAHR #ABGL WOO ME-SEASON 2 #ABGL WOO ME SEASON2