ABG – Driving On Values Towards A Sustainable Future – Aditya Kumar Jhunjhunwala, MDI Gurgaon

How Aditya Birla Group is big in your life?

Today Aditya Birla Group has made a mark for itself as one of the premier conglomerates in India and across the world. What started as a small textile industry has now grown into multi-sector cooperation. Its presence can be seen in almost every sector from textiles to carbon black, cement industry to telecommunication, fibre to fashion or be it online banking its presence can be felt across sectors and it's hardly possible for anyone to be not touched upon by the group. My association with Aditya Birla Group can be traced as back as when I used to carry my freshly home-prepared food in Hindalco, which ensured I got the food in the same quality and freshness with which my mother made it every morning pouring her love in it. I first got consciously associated with ABG when my grandfather decided to build a new house. I used to accompany him every time he used to go to the retailer to buy the construction material and every time, he would buy only ABG products, be it Ultratech Cement, Birla White Wall Care Putty, etc. That was the first time I got to know that ABG as a group stands for quality, competitive prices, customer satisfaction, living by values and sustainability. Even now the brand is deeply ingrained in my life be it telecommunication, online banking, etc. But I believe ABG’s fashion brand Louis Philippe is the one I associate with the most. When I got my interview call from all major B-school’s, I was a little nervous, anxious and under-confident about the next process. Belonging to a middle-class family, I thought I don’t have a really good fashion sense and only high branded clothes are needed to make a mark. But when I got myself formal clothing from Louis Philippe it added a new dimension to my personality altogether. I realized that all of these negative thoughts didn’t matter and all you need is confidence and the right clothing. The fabric, appeal of Louis Philippe and comfort was so amazing that it infused new confidence in me and helped me do well in my interviews. Lastly what excites me most about ABG is its welfare activities, the group has been able to reach out to 7.5 million people so far. It also wishes to contribute to the development of weaker sections of the society by various engagements such as mid-day meals, skill training, providing education, etc.   “If living by our values means, perhaps growing at a pace slower than we would otherwise have liked, so be it. For us, leadership lies at the heart of knowing what we stand for.” – Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla

How have you made an impact?

My biggest challenge as a student I consider was not being able to get into a premier engineering college which was a setback for me, both emotionally and mentally. I wasn’t satisfied with the engineering college I got into concerning the efforts being put in. At first, I blamed the circumstances for it and believed that luck had not favoured me in the exam. But eventually I realized that only I am responsible for whatever happened and blaming someone or something else would just be an excuse. I realized my inability to clear my JEE exam wasn’t due to the lack of preparation but because of the way of my preparation.  Today, if given a chance I would want to go back and make the best of that lost precious chance that I had and give my best for the exam without getting distracted from the goal. As it is said “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, so in the hindsight, I believe it worked as a “blessing in disguise” for me as it helped me to understand my shortcomings, mistakes and helped me to prepare more systematically when I decided to pursue M.B.A. In general, it also taught me to foster and inculcate skills like discipline, hard work, time management, and to be regular in your preparations and persist with your goals, even in your low time. Even now I try to improve on these skills. Also, I believe all talent goes waste without hard work as said, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”.