Aditya Birla Group is one of the premier business conglomerates of India. Started in 1857, it has diversified into different segments of market to cater to the needs and wants of various customers. It operates in viscose staple fiber yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, fertilizers, insulators, financial services, telecom, BPO and IT services. It has a legacy of 162 years and is in the league of Fortune 500 companies. My first contact with ABG was through Idea cellular Network. Back in my childhood, for cellular data, we used to pay certain amount of money per megabyte of data. Most of the data plans were slightly on the costlier side. And then Idea introduced a cheap and affordable data pack which I could use very frequently for my internet needs. Buying branded clothes was no easy task especially considering the budget constraints. Peter England which was also owned by ABG, provided branded apparel at affordable cost with high premium finish. And thus, started my association with Peter England. People who work in the private sector do not get any pension and are more vulnerable to financial risks. I remember my father showing documents related to insurance plan he invested from Birla Sun Life Insurance since the plan was affordable. Not only that, but Birla Sun life Insurance had a strong brand perception and a good customer centric approach. ABG has done it right by targeting both high spending and low spending customers. The merging of Idea and Vodafone India is a testament to the strategic competence of ABG.
Failure is a part of life and is a stepping stone to success. We live in a hyper competitive world where it might take time to achieve success. Failure is looked down upon and it is hard to cope up with the feeling. I have envisioned myself to be part of premier B-schools in the country for which I gave my CAT examination. I did manage to get a decent percentile of 95.6 and few calls from premier colleges but I couldn’t convert any of them. As a result, I was depressed for a few days but I did not lose hope and I did not want to give up my dream. I gave my CAT exam again the next year. But, this time even though I got a higher percentile when compared to previous year, I couldn’t clear the sectional cutoffs. As a result, I didn’t get any calls from colleges. The feeling of sadness I felt was far greater than previous year. It took me time to realize that everyone is on their time zone for success and people become successful at different times if they keep trying. I wanted to make my dream a reality and with renewed vigor I gave my CAT exam the next year. I got an even higher percentile this time while clearing all the sectional cutoffs. Fast-forward to the present day, I am currently pursuing my MBA from IIM Raipur and I couldn’t be happier. One must never give up and lose hope. One must always try to put in maximum effort to achieve success. Every person is different and everyone become successful at different times. Therefore, one needs to be patient enough to wait for it.
#IIMRaipur #ABGLPWooMe
