One of the most amazing advertisements I remember from my childhood is ABG's series of videos with Abhishek Bachchan, promoting its telecom company Idea! Abhishek Bachchan presents unique and humorous solutions to social problems which instantly connect with the audience leaving a mark on them. These advertisements were a huge hit, so was the company it aimed to promote but a school going kid back then, I had no clue about the scale of the Aditya Birla Group and its history.
It was only while I was reading a book by Gurcharan Das did I first read about the man who had an 'idea!', a dream and a commitment. When Mr. Aditya Birla returned to India after completing his education from MIT, his grandfather GD Birla was keen that he join the already huge Birla Empire managing one of the family companies. Mr. Aditya Birla politely refused to accept the offer as he wanted to start on his own! Without wasting any time Mr. Birla started working on to create a textile company in India. His path was laden with challenges. With the Indian Government at the time enacting Draconian laws on private investment, Mr. Birla struggled to find a way in the Indian market with all the legal and regulatory hurdles. All doors seemed closed for him, but he was not to be stopped! He had an ingenious idea! He moved his vision to South East Asia where the market was much more conducive for private investment at the time. He set up a textile plant in Thailand, then a rayon plant, followed by a textile plant in Indonesia, a carbon black plant in Thailand, a spinning mill in the Philippines, the world’s largest palm refinery in Malaysia, a viscose rayon fiber plant in Indonesia, a polyphosphate plant in Thailand, another carbon black operation in Egypt. He became the world’s largest producer of viscose staple fiber, palm oil, and insulators, and the world’s sixth-largest maker of carbon black. In India, his group became the largest producer of rayon filament yarn, flax yarn, caustic soda, rayon grade pulp, and aluminum (in the private sector), and among the top three makers of cement. He built his empire from different Southeast Asian countries and exported the products to the world.
Reading about Mr. Aditya Birla made me think how he succeeded on a grand scale without the odds being in his favor, how he did not stand still staring at closed doors but opened many others beyond anyone's expectations. This inspiring story made me develop an emotional connect with the ABG and I became more aware of the brands that were owned and operated by ABG and preferred them over the others, be it in clothing or telecom.
I also tried to utilize this lesson from the life of a great man in my own little way. Working in an IT company, having appeared for CAT twice, rejected from IIMs because of average academics I felt stuck. All doors appeared closed to me. I could not dare to dream to make it to a top IIM because of my past, because of being a General Engineer Male! But I decided to try my best in my third attempt and ended up with a decent score. IIMs were still a distant dream but I applied to a college which people refer to as 'A Gem for GEMs', the 'Mecca of SCM/Ops', NITIE Mumbai. Perhaps, the only top B-School in our country which does not discriminate against engineers, NITIE became my dream college and I put in all effort to get a place in the 'God's own campus'!
Sitting in my room at the 11th floor in this beautiful 16 floor tall Taylor Hall, NITIE Mumbai today, looking at the scenic beauty outside my room, and the energy and passion inside my room, living with some of the best people in India I feel a sense of excitement and hope about the future as I recall the lesson that the story of Mr. Aditya Birla taught me, "Do not stand still staring at the closed doors, move ahead via some other path, there are multiple doors that can open if you are determined enough to make it BIG."
