We can’t imagine our life in India without Aditya Birla Group’s products. It ranges from world-class fashion companies, like Van Heusen, Louise Philippe, Allen Solly, etc., to financial products to Its retail outlets Pantaloons and More. Not to forget it’s cement company Ultratech to its metal company Hindalco and what not, everything. We as Indians should feel proud of having a multinational conglomerate company has started in India. It is one of the first Indian company which expanded outside the country.
I as a retail consumer, have used Aditya Group’s products at every stage of my life. I think this group touched some millions’ if not some billion lives over some time. It’s an obvious fact, considering its humongous size.
I have been using Pantaloons for filling my wardrobe, it’s a one-stop solution for buying various products ranging from casual, party wear and formals, etc., Without Van Heusen/ Louise Philippe I would have found a tough time in getting formal suit and shirt for my B-School Interviews.
The house I live in, the college I studied everything is made of Ultratech Cement. It’s tag line “The Engineer’s Choice” is perfectly apt for a product like that. During demonetization in India, we were constructing a house. It was very difficult to get raw materials like cement for building walls without cash. Whereas Ultratech dealer has provided us against net banking. This explained to me how focussed Aditya Birla group is in selecting its dealers, who can increase overall sales and customer trust. This made us Ultratech remember forever, which supported us in reaching our dream of own house.
The moment I got the job, like many new job holders I contacted a Mutual fund distributor for the tax saving mutual fund, he referred to Aditya Birla’s Tax relief fund with such a conviction which explained to me how well managed Aditya Birla Sun life capital is. Even today after joining my PGDM course I parked most of my savings in a debt fund of Aditya Birla group and I am having a Systematic withdrawal plan to finance my monthly expenditure.
Last but not least, we should forget Aditya Birla’s CSR initiatives. They have reached more than 100 million lives over a period of time. This tells this is not a company which does CSR initiatives for the sake of it, but for the sake of impacting lives and making a difference. This group has also taken Sustainability into account, which is a great deal for future generations.
How you overcame challenges to achieve your ambitions in life so far?
Challenges shape us into a beautiful, meaningful sculpture. They make us strong, powerful and patient enough to face the world. Sometimes we face challenges, whereas sometimes we need to take up challenges. The former one will make us mentally stronger, whereas the second one keeps us moving higher in life.
One of the most challenging things I ever faced was I that I was affected with Dengue on the day of the Wipro campus Interview. But I was so determined to join the company as it was a Day zero company in my college. In spite of all the pain, I had that day, I attended the Wipro Interview and succeeded in that. This is the greatness of will power. This has greatly boosted my confidence. After joining Wipro, I had worked in a project where all seniors co-operated me in learning SAP. But due to extensive cost-cutting which happened across the world, all my seniors left the company or went in search of new opportunities within Wipro. So I had to lead a team of four people, with me having an experience of just 1 year. But my manager has trusted me and supported me. I set my team a target that zero escalations. By the end of two years, all my team members don’t have a single escalation, instead, we all received appreciation from a client in one form or the other. These are two important career challenges I have faced in my life. The former challenge proved my internal strength, whereas the second challenge proved my leadership skills. So I strongly believe challenges are core and crux of life. They either make us reflect strengths which we are not aware of or build something we lack in.