ABG- Aditya Birla Group, is India’s third largest conglomerate, a group that touches all our lives in many subtle ways, sometimes even unknowingly. Headquartered in Mumbai, this conglomerate is going strong in its 162nd year, in a world where any business group lasting more than a few decades is considered to be a miracle or a rarity. The multitude of sectors ABG is involved in is itself quite a long list, with such a diverse product and service portfolio.
It would not be wrong to say that ABG has played a huge role in introducing several industrial complexes and processes to India. Starting from the jute mill established by Mr. Ghanshyam Das Birla circa 1919, ABG has positioned itself as a market leader and key player in several sectors ranging from textiles to metallurgy to cement manufacture.
ABG’s Hindalco, founded in 1958, has become one of the world’s largest aluminium rolling companies and one of the biggest producers of primary aluminium in Asia. The popularity of Hindalco’s products can be seen in the fact that almost every household in India has at least one pressure cooker made out of Hindalco products. Certain sections of shopkeepers and users simply refer to an aluminium pressure cooker as made of ‘Hindalco’, thus establishing how cemented the brand and its product has become in the minds of the customer.
The 1960s and the 1970s saw the expansion of the group towards foreign markets, with the acquiring of south east Asian businesses as a part of ABG’s growth. 1977 also saw the addition of palm oil as part of the product portfolio of the group when the group set up the Pan Century Edible Oils in Malaysia. The following year saw the establishing of Thai Carbon Black, again adding to ABG’s already diverse product portfolio. Throughout the 1980s, ABG added synthetic fibres, fertilisers and even the Birla Growth Fund, the latter of which was the group’s entry into the finance market. The late 1980s also saw the group enter the petroleum sector with HPCL, once the sector was liberalised. The period also saw the introduction of the concept of ‘Power Dressing’ in India, thanks to ‘Van Heusen’ introduced in India in 1990 by ABG. The arrival of ‘Allen Solly’ in 1993 again pioneered by ABG also revolutionized the clothing trends in India by introducing ‘smart casuals’ to the average Indian’s wardrobe.
1995 saw the introduction of the mobile phone to India, and ABG played a huge role in getting Indians to own and experience the amazing technology of communicating while on the move by entering into a joint venture with AT&T. October 1995 saw a huge change in the group, with a complete overhauling of the group and a man of 28 coming to the leadership position, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla. The group also adopted a new logo in 1996, honouring the late Aditya Birla. Further on, with the introduction of ‘Peter England’ brand of clothing, ABG’s dominance of the average Indian’s wardrobe was complete. The late 1990s also saw one of India’s biggest corporate restructuring events when the cement business of Grasim and Indian Rayon was consolidated into a division of Grasim.
ABG, the vast group that has decided India’s wardrobes since the past few decades, was also deeply involved in getting the stuff we need in our day to day lives to our homes via the More supermarket chain, which was founded by Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla in 2007, and made its presence felt in close to 600 locations before being sold off.
Chances are, if you live in the modern world, you are directly or indirectly being touched by ABG and its products, one way or another. This corporation has surely turned into an all-encompassing giant in the business world.
Chaired by the young and charming Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, ABG today finds itself in the League of Fortune 500, being a $44.3 billion corporation. ABG also provides direct employment to more than 120,000 professionals all over the world. Although originally from India, currently, more than 50% of the group revenue comes from the international market. The dynamic nature of the group and its youthful chairman also provides an inspiration to any aspiring manager in India’s b-schools.