Whenever children in the 90s belonging to middle-class families made an exuberant demand of any kind, the most common phrase that parents used to tell was “We are not Tata Birla”. Aditya Birla group and the Birla family as a whole have contributed immensely after independence to not only the economy of India but to the global economy as a whole. There are few companies in the world with such long heritage and name synonymous to trust and success. As mentioned in the round 1 rules, it’s absolutely impossible to find people who have never been touched by ABGLP group in some way in their entire life being in India.
Probably the first brand that comes to my mind from my younger days is watching the TV commercial for Ultratech Cement when its name was changed from L&T cement to Ultratech. The way the visuals were shown, the background music and dramatic one-liner that nothing has changed except for the name still resonate in my memory. Ultratech Cement, in general, had some really inspiring ads, another one of them that comes up in my mind is the one where they show a civil engineer from his childhood where his brother used to always break whatever he builds and then he goes on to build a bridge, it ends with Ultratech cement- ” the engineers choice”. I’m sure most houses and buildings use Ultratech cement including the one where I am sitting and typing this.
“More” is another brand that was a part of my childhood trips with dad for grocery shopping. The bright orange boards with a touch of green were such an iconic symbol of those days when all other so-called hypermarkets and supermarkets were still not present in a town like Mangalore from where I was. The cool AC and the huge number of discount boards used to make me excited for some reason. The brands that are most vivid in my thoughts and really have become a part of my life are the clothing brands Aditya Birla group has…. Allen Solly, Peter England, Van Heusen, Louis Philippe and Ralph Lauren are the first things that come to your mind whenever you think of formal clothing.
This reminds me of the day when my Dad bought me my first Louis Philippe shirt and trousers just before my first job. He kept telling me that these clothes will remain like new for 3-4 years because of their quality. I remember feeling proud and happy to be owning one of them. Finally, now that I am penning all this down is when I realize the numerous times ABGLP as a brand has touched or influenced my life and so many others.
I have personally come a long way from a boy who used to watch cartoons whole day to a boy crying after not being able to cross 80 % in 10
th standard from the teenager trying to figure what he wants to do in life to the mechanical engineer ready to join his first campus job in the IT field instead of doing MS with a huge education loan. Today I have an engineering degree, an experience of working in a large company like Cognizant for 3.75 years and the courage to pursue MBA in Marketing which is a completely different domain as compared to my historical domains. All these achievements were possible because I never gave up nor did I shy away from doing what I wanted to do by keeping all the risks in mind. Living in an outside city far from home in a hostel by myself, doing part-time jobs when required, keeping expenses to the bare minimum were all things that were life lessons during engineering. Work had its own challenges, office politics to drama with girlfriend to spats with best friends, all these moments brought depressing thoughts time and again. A project that made us stay at office more than home, made things worse but now that I look back at all this, these moments made me what I am today by bringing maturity and calmness to my personality. Then came the disappointment of not getting a good percentile in CAT. When I was almost certain of doing an MBA this hit me, but fortunately, NMAT came to my rescue and today I’m pursuing my PGDM from a reputed institute like NMIMS Bangalore and look forward to a bright future ahead.
#NMIMSBangalore #ABGLPWooMe