Aditya Birla Group, An Inspiration To Over A Billion Indians - Anindya Mukherjee, SPJIMR Mumbai

Banking and financial services:

We are all standing at the doorsteps of Industry 4.0 and very much aware of the modern technologies that are helping us build a sustainable smarter world where accessibility and ease of usage will be of utmost importance. In this regard, Aditya Birla Group has already steered its ship towards the goal of digitalization with their new Online Payment Bank portal by Aditya Birla Idea Payment Bank Limited. It has incorporated a great feature of using mobile number as bank account number making its usage more user friendly and accessible to the mass market. Plus, it has its own interactive payment wallet feature with ‘ONE Bank PIN’ across all the transaction gateways like mobile banking, UPI, IVR. This whole initiative perfectly aligns with the RBI's vision for making India a Cashless Economy by 2021. Being an engineer having worked in IT industry myself and being future management personnel, I would love to be a part of Aditya Birla Payments Bank team wherein I would be able to add value through my prior technical knowledge added with the management skills I am going to learn at SPJIMR, Mumbai.

Fashion and Retail:

I was working in Sector 5, Salt Lake City in Kolkata and there was one outlet of Pantaloons just opposite of our office building which proved to be my saviour for innumerable times during my 2.5 years stint at my office. I got to visit Pantaloons for an array of various occasions be it for buying ethnics during cultural celebrations at office, to buying gifts for our colleagues on their birthdays or farewells. The best thing about Pantaloons is that it has something for every everyone for occasion at an affordable range. Adding onto that, branded apparels like Allen Solly and Peter England have been my top preferences, be it for corporate formals or simple casuals, thanks to Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail for providing us with awesome quality at reasonable prices. Also the restart of the ecommerce website Abof in 2018 clearly displays its intent and steady contribution towards ‘Digital India’.

Cements:

Our ancestral home was in a bad condition and my father, having many fond memories associated with it, was hell bent on repairing it. It was in 2014, that he decided to start its renovation. After consulting a few friends who were experts in civil engineering, he chalked out the plan for the whole operation with their help. For cement, he went for Ultratech cement, the very best available since he strictly wanted no compromise in this regard. Everything went well and now defying all odds, our home stands strong, at least for the next 10 years.

I have immense respect and admiration as to what Aditya Birla Group has done towards businesses in India. It has changed the dynamics of Indian businesses by being the first to put Indian business onto a global level in 1969, even before globalization became popular, even 22 years prior to Indian economic liberalisation reforms in 1991. Adding on to that the numerous philanthropic and social contributions have helped shaping India and the lives of the billion Indians.

Challenges I Overcame To Achieve My Ambitions In Life So Far

Life is a journey involving a wide range of experiences and the associated learnings. There are moments of highs and lows and it is this unexpectedness that makes our journey so challenging. It is through these challenging situations that one gets to learn the most and discover one's true potential. The results might not go our way always, but it can serve as a life lesson and learning from our mistakes will help us in becoming a better individual.

“The Ultimate Measure Of A Man Is Not Where He Stands In Moments Of Comfort And Convenience, But Where He Stands At Times Of Challenge And Controversy. “
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

My journey hasn’t been smooth either. To start with, when I was in Class 10, my father had to quit his job because the company had become a sick concern with more than six months of pending employee salaries. This was a disaster for our family and more so because my board exams were coming and my sister was also in Class 8. So I had to shoulder a bit of financial responsibility at a young age by starting giving private tuition. Ultimately my father got a job back, but this phase in between taught me a lot of hardships about life and taught me to deal with things in a much practical manner, by being more responsible and mature.

As I grew up, I realized one of my strengths is in working in teams and leading them from the front. That’s when I decided pursue a career in management sometime in future. After my graduation, I joined a job to get some exposure into the corporate world and notice from a close space how the management operates. At the same time, I had my eyes fixed towards the CAT examination and I used to utilize whatever the little time I used to get for preparation. As days went by my responsibilities in office increased manifolds, so I had serious problems maintaining balance between work and study. Hence I had joined an institute to help me out with my preparation and it helped to a great extent. As the D-day approached, I used to have sleepless nights, giving mock exams and analyzing mistakes. My determination and MBA dream kept me going.

Flash forward 7 months, everything ultimately paid off in June, 2019. I secured an admission into my dream institute SPJIMR, Mumbai; my MBA dream reached Stage 2.0. I was ecstatic. Yet this is just the start, there will be exciting times to come, a lot to learn and experience in a short span of time. This is what I wanted, I dreamt of. So my journey continues.

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