Part A
Aditya Birla Group - Diversifying Lives
Aditya Birla Group, the Indian multinational conglomerate has dominated our lives whether people are aware or not. There is a discernible impact of the wide range it offers which is unlikely to ignore. The group has spread its wings through diversification and has its presence in almost every field. The products it offers are chemicals, e-commerce, financial services, branded apparels, telecommunication, textiles, BPO, IT services, carbon black, cement, etc.
It has impacted my life as well as the people around me in ways unimaginable. My father has been an Idea customer since quite some time now and refuses to change his telecommunication service even after the dominance of Jio in the market. As for me, my family and I have our cupboards filled with clothes from Pantaloons and Peter England. Few of the formals I got for my college are from Allen Solly. They have quite an impressive collection.
Reflecting on the financial services it offers, a few of my colleagues from my previous workplace have invested in Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund and the schemes they offer have proven beneficial to them. Hence, I am planning to do the same soon.
As far as the cement subsidiary is concerned, Ultra Tech Cement has been a name that I’ve heard a lot while watching TV. Even my society was built using the same. It is one of the established and well-reputed cement companies out there.
Overall, I believe that this conglomerate has never failed to capture our attention and has always strived to be a part of our lives. That is what makes it intriguing.
Part B
Rising beyond your Challenges
Since my early days I have always been an academic scholar. Having never gone below 90% ever, I thought life would be easy-going for me. However, when you least expect it, some or the other challenge is thrown your way. And my challenge came in the form of an outbreak in my nuclear family due to some medical as well as some personal reasons.
It always seemed to follow a pattern of subsiding and coming back every 2 years – 8
th, 10
th, 12
th, but the worst one came in the 2
nd year of my engineering degree and sustained throughout. These outbreaks often took a heavy toll on my mental well-being as well which resulted in extremely poor performance in my academics which only added to my frustration. By 4
th year I already had a semester back on my hands. Those who were expecting a lot from me had also started rolling back their expectations. They started patronizing me that everything is fine and I will make do somehow. It was humiliating.
As I was about to complete my engineering degree, I took a decision of going for CAT. I needed a chance to prove everyone wrong. I still had it in me to rise up against all odds. I joined a coaching (IMS) in Indore and started studying hard. In the last month before the exam I used to spend my entire day from 8 am to 8 pm in the coaching itself. And I broke through.
I scored a decent 97.38%ile in the CAT exam. That clamed up a few of the nay-sayers. The others still said that with a graduate degree of 56.1% I won’t be able to crack the interview. And I think my conversions of 5 prominent B-schools is enough to answer them. Being here in IIM Kashipur now, I can confidently say that if you put your mind to something and work for it, no one can ever stop you from achieving your goals. If I can overcome my challenges and rise beyond them, then others can too.