Why Aditya Birla Group is big in your life?
When it comes to an inception of an idea to motivate us to “Walk n Talk”, none did it better than Idea cellular. The fall in dominance of wired network had just begun when Aditya Birla group’s Birla Sun life Insurance and Idea Cellular announced a strategic alliance in 2006. Earlier, there were some networks with skyrocketing tariff rates, like gunslingers in the valley of deserters. But you cannot bring a sword to a gun fight, so Idea cellular revolutionised the topup market with its pay-less-get-more tariff rates. Like a rebel with a cause, idea cellular introduced its economical topups with more talktime than its competitors. Aditya Birla group’s Idea network was an instant hit. For me, then 16 year old, with pocket money worth for peanuts, it was 1 minute more of talktime with my love-interest. Since 2009, as a loyal and satisfied customer, idea has been integral part of my life with better than best network coverage and lucrative postpaid offers, connecting me with the realm. In the world of “XYZ” and “XYZ JIO” in contacts, I am a proud user of idea cellular with “Tushar Saroya” the only. A quote from the movie “Shane” explains what Idea cellular did to the market of mobile networks:
Shane: Joey, there's no living with, with a killing. There's no going back from it. Right or wrong, it's a brand, a brand that sticks. There's no going back. Now you run on home to your mother and tell her, tell her everything's alright and there aren't any more guns in the valley.
ABG’s Idea is a brand that sticks. I am branded for life. What an idea, Paaji!
How you overcame challenges to achieve your ambition in life so far?
I came onto crossroads when I had to juggle between my personal aspirations and professional responsibilities. On one side I had my studies for my competitive exams and on the other, I had an intense project with fluctuating requirements and stringent timelines with no wiggle space. The most challenging situation was to stay motivated during the tough times. When my team and I were asked to work on weekends to fix the defects, test the code changes and deploy on the go, I felt there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Though my several requests of clarification for code changes went unanswered, I didn’t step away from my responsibility. My studies got impacted and after a couple of weeks, the exam tension started to build up on me. So I decided to call a meeting with my team including the manager to discuss the work situation and asked for a plan to be put in place to freeze the code and initiate DEV exit strategy. Although I had no authority to ask for these measures but I took it upon me to suggest that a stop has to be put on the endless code changes that were being done on the go, and instead modify the design and get it re-approved by governance team. After a few more meetings with the management, a plan was put in place to accept changes only from a Change Request approved by the governance team. At last, my team and I were able to find a breather.
Lessons learnt:
- In professional or personal life, never blindly follow anyone without a map. Make sure that you do your part of due-diligence because at the end, you will be equally responsible for being lost.
- One cannot just master the art of work-life balance overnight. It sounds easier than done. You need to put a plan in place when a change is expected to disrupt that balance.
- Understand the need for change and how it will affect the bigger picture.
- Prioritise and conquer
- Have a mitigation plan
ABGLP WOO ME - SEASON 2, ABGLP WOO ME SEASON 2 - NMIMS BENGALURU, NMIMS BENGALURU