Like millions of Indians, I have grown up using numerous products from ABG right from Peter England and Louis Philippe shirts to Aditya Birla Capital mutual funds and Idea. However, it was Grasim Industries, which made the lasting impact on my life and career.
Aditya Birla Group’s subsidiary, Grasim Industries is a pioneer in viscose staple fibre (a type of man-made fibre) business where it commands 17% global market share. I had the pleasure of doing my final year internship at their Nagda manufacturing unit, which is one of the largest viscose manufacturing sites in the world. The year 2015 was an exciting time for the group with the introduction of Liva, a disrupter in the Indian textiles space. Aditya Birla Group became one of the first fibre manufacturers to introduce concept of fibre to fashion for increasing its reach to the end consumers. The co-branding aspect introduced by Liva stimulated my interest in marketing. Apart from learning about the viscose manufacturing process and working on my internship project, I spent the five and a half months learning more about Liva. I diligently followed the brand and major events like introduction of new variants and latest tie-ups with brands and designers. My mentors were also kind enough to take extra time to discuss on the topics related to Liva although they were not relevant to my project. These discussions taught me how to apply the technical knowledge of the product to marketing. The experience has been one of the most important stepping-stones in my professional life.
Getting placed in a core multi-national company was quite difficult for me due to my poor academic record. However, my internship became a great talking point, which helped me crack my interview at Reliance Industries Limited. I believe that this short stint paved my career path. This stint gave me a better understanding of man-made fibres, which helped me stay a notch above my peers. It also helped me implement my knowledge on viscose in exploring new applications and segments for polyester.
Based on my prior experience at Grasim, I was allotted the role of technical services and product development in the nonwoven polyester staple fibre division. One of my first projects was on a US-based customer who was one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the world. The customer had decided to replace our product with the competition stating that our product was inferior to the competition. Upon request, he sent us a raw data on the quality of our fibres and the competitor for reference. Our business head sent me the raw data and told me to work on it to assess my analytical skills even though he didn’t expect significant results.
Being new to the department, I didn’t have the foggiest idea of the meaning of the data. I stayed late after work with my colleagues that week to understand the basics and the meaning of the parameters in the sheet. I was able to analyze the dataset and point out certain aspects where our product surpassed the competition. Within 2 weeks, I laid out the data in a presentation with my findings, observations and a list of possible action steps for regaining the customer and sent it to the head. The business head was highly impressed with my observations as the senior team comprising of members with more than 15 years of experience had missed on these key points. He greatly appreciated my comprehensive work in front of the entire team and the strategic business unit head. Based on this, he asked me to prepare a presentation on the similar lines for showing our comprehensive analysis to the customer and sway his decision. Through several correspondences in form of presentations and analysis reports, our team could change the customer’s mind and keep him in our fold. To this day, the project remains one of the most challenging tasks I every faced. I also proudly consider it one of my biggest achievements of my professional career.