ABGLP Woo Me | SCMHRD | A Chat With Ms. Karpagapriya Komathivanan

We took the opportunity to interact with our alumni who are currently working at Aditya Birla Group, to get inspired from their side of the stories. We took interviews of people who are at managerial positions within the organization. This initiative helped us to understand their journey and how they have tackled various situations in their career.

We connected with our alumna, Ms. Karpagapriya Komathivanan, who is from the batch of 2017. She is currently working as a Manager in Employee Relations at Grasim Industries Ltd. She started as a Human Resource Leadership Associate for Talent Management and then moved into Performance Management. The following is the interview of their journey at Aditya Birla Group.

Interviewer- What were the challenges you faced during your time in the program?

Karpagapriya – The ABGLP program and the stints I have worked on so far have been quite interesting and enriching, so I wouldn’t say I faced any specific challenge as such. There are certain challenges in my Industrial relations stint that I really enjoyed such as dealing with unionized workforce and contract workmen, who come with aspirations and workstyles that are completely different from what I have experienced in my other corporate stints.

Interviewer - How did ABGLP help in your learning?

Karpagapriya - The most important part I love about ABGLP journey is the diverse learning experience that it offers to the participants. I got to experience a corporate international stint, immediately moving on to a manufacturing role at a remote location. Therefore, you cover an entire spectrum in a short period. Each day is new, different, and interesting.

Interviewer - So the program teaches you how to be agile and how to adapt to new situations, the different perspectives and new sides of the business.

Karpagapriya - Definitely, it prepares you for the unknown. My first stint was with Birla Carbon, in the US, it was a corporate Talent Management role. The second was with the Group Performance Management Portfolio in Mumbai and the third was with the Retail arm where I had to deal with retailers and store employees. Now, I am dealing with industrial relations in Grasim Harihar, Karnataka. You get to experience diverse cultures and workstyles. Adaptability is the key requirement in ABGLP journey.

Interviewer - How would you say the culture was throughout the program and what is the one thing you liked most about being a part of ABGLP?

Karpagapriya - ABG as a whole has a very energetic and open culture. They will trust you with a lot of important projects. I worked on crucial projects in ABG, so the trust factor that they put on young professionals is what I really liked in this program.

Interviewer - Lately ABG has been using the concept of ‘big in your life’, they have put it across their websites, what are your thoughts about that?

Interviewer - At ABG people often think about tomorrow, so how is this thought put into action in the work that employees do at ABG or the culture of the organization?

Karpagapriya - I have worked in three different businesses during my first year at ABGLP and currently, with the fourth business within the Group. One thing that is constant across businesses is their agility and proactive approach. There is proactive identification of the vulnerabilities and the challenges that may arise in our systems and processes. I think tomorrow, today lies at the core of how ABG works.

Interviewer - Would you like to give any words of wisdom for the current batch of SCMHRDians?