Aditya Birla Group, an Indian conglomerate that started its journey in 1857 from the picturesque town of Pilani in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. Pilani now synonymous for its BITS (Birla Institute of Technology and Science) educational institute. It was Shiv Narayan Birla who laid the foundation of $44.3 Billion dollar corporation, a future Fortune 500 company which will have a workforce of 120,000 employees belonging to 42 nationalities of the world. Aditya Birla Group is India’s third largest private sector conglomerate which touches every facet of the masses. A company that has contributed tremendously to the story of INDIA. It was Ghanshyam Das Birla who ventured the company into an industrial empire by establishing GM Birla Company in 1911 and then with successes in Jute manufacturing, cotton and sugar mills. It was he who founded the legendary companies such as Hindustan Motors, Grasim and Hindalco. Then his grandson, Mr. Aditya Vikram Birla propelled the Indian conglomerate into a global business empire. Now the company had crossed shores and had set its sight on the world to be conquered, long before globalization became a buzzword in India. He set up 19 companies outside India, in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Egypt. His vision and leadership made the company business into a global force. Under his aegis the company rose to became world’s largest viscous staple fibre with Grasim Industries , the largest refiner of palm oil, third largest makers of insulators in the world that are necessary to bring electricity into our lives, one of the largest producer of carbon black in the world which is used in tires across the globe, and the only producer of linen in the Indian textile industry. The list of contributions to the Indian industries by Mr. Aditya Vikram Birla are immense and the lives he has touched and changed for ever with his vision is to be written with golden ink in the history of Indian industries, which is helping our beloved country develop each day.
The company is now lead by the emphatic Kumar Mangalam Birla. The company is a holding company for 72 manufacturing and services subsidiaries throughout India, Indonesia, Egypt, Australia, Philippines etc. The various companies that touch various aspects of our life that belong to Aditya Birla Group are Hindalco, world’s largest Aluminum rolling company and leading producer of Copper in the world. Which is also leading way in sustainability as being world’s largest can recycler. The aluminum around you in phones, cans and foils etc have Hindalco in them. Indo Gulf, one of the largest fertilizers company in India, fertilizer that nourishes the land that brings you food. Idea Cellular, the 2nd largest mobile service provider in the world, which connects millions across the country. The group is also the 8th largest cement producer in the world and the largest in India with its Ultratech cement brand. Which has been an integral part of the infrastructure in the country and has been used in countless homes to build their house of dreams. The company’s Birla Sun life insurance company is the 2nd biggest private insurance company in the country. The company also sells 2 garments every second through its Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL), its outlets are the ones you must have shopped from, they include- Pantaloons, Ralph Lauren, Peter England, Van Heusen and Allen Solly with many others.
The company is true to its tagline, “Always Big in Your Life” and touches every facet of your and my life. Adding value and purposes to our lives to make it more vibrant, productive and comfortable. The list is immense and can fill a book easily through how the company is touching our life daily and making our moments more memorable. Aditya Birla nonetheless remains committed to its structure as a highly diversified conglomerate and it will be great to see a company of such rich history to climb to even greater heights. Which will definitely return to us and make our lives easier and better.
B) Story of my life
What does a 23 year old boy have in his life to tell, to overcome and to achieve. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes people who aren’t expected to change themselves are the ones who get a wakeup call and end up changing themselves and even sometimes the world. This boy too had his fair share of obstacles which he had to overcome.
The boy used to be a fat and chubby kid since he could remember. He always remembered himself being called names in the past. The name calling got so ingrained into his psyche that he didn’t mind being called with different names. Sometimes people didn’t even cared also to know his real name. A thing people forget when they mimic someone or call names someone because of how they look and how they are, is that it affects the other person consciously and subconsciously. It changes the targeted person outlook and behaviour to others in world. We forget that the other person is a world into himself, which is growing at a tender pace and is affected by every input whether positive or negative. For good or for worse. Sometimes it makes them and sometimes it destroys them, mentally, psychologically and even sometimes physically.
We forgot about the boy. The boy got used to being called names such as ‘Haathi mere saathi’, ‘Laddu Gopal’, ‘Humpty Dumpty’ etc. That it affected him mentally and he started thinking that there’s no way out of this. This was reality for him and rest of his life. He learned somethings the hard way is that, change doesn’t happen when you want to change. Change happens when you get tired of whats going on, you realize the call for change, to make things better and not like the way it has been going for a long time.
The boy was now reaching 18. He reached his peak weight of 130 kgs. He was always the biggest guy in his class and looked elder then his pears. He didn’t got the shoes and clothes he wanted because of his size. He got tired very easily. He was discouraged from using public transport. People didn’t wanted to be associated with him. But he accepted all this because he thought this will be it for rest of life. There’s no way out of this. This is where he was wrong. He got used to things.
Then one day, he got a severe back pain. A pain that was immense for him. His results got effected because of which. He was not able to stand for the practicals for too long in his class or able to climb stairs to the class. Then he realised, things have gone out of hand. Things are needed to be changed. Just one day or a moment is enough to change a persons life and our boy had found his. He just said enough is enough. He wanted to feel how the masses live. He started eating healthy, he started exercising, joined gym, ran, walked. Did anything he could to burn off calories. He started reading about nutrition, protein, good and bad fats, carbohydrates and exercising. This was something new for him and exciting. He now had in reality set the wheels of change in motion. He started losing weight. From 130 kgs, he brought down his weight to 75 kgs in 11 months. Averaging 5 kgs a month. He had to sacrifice a lot for it. Sometimes even his friends and family said that he’s over achieving and some even didn’t believed in him in his dream. But he was successful in getting what he wanted. In process, he was able to leave his friends and relatives jaw dropped. A sight he loved watching. He managed all the things he wanted, he multitasked. All these thing made him realised one thing. You can achieve anything you want in this world, if you put your heart and mind to it. Anything is possible provided you’re willing to work hard for it.
A quote from T.E.Lawrence summaries it best, “
All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.”