Aditya Birla Group has marked its presence globally spanning 34 countries and emerged as an Indian multinational conglomerate. They have a diversified business portfolio by investing in multiple sectors like Banking, Financial Services, Carbon Black, Telecom, Textiles, Metals, Cement, Chemicals etc. to name a few, holding 36 companies and several popular brands and products like Epotec, Pantaloons, People, Planet Fashion, Van Heusen, Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Peter England, Ted Baker, Simon Carter, Rayon Pulp, Birla Carbon, Viscose Staple Fibre, Alumina, Birla Cellulose, Linen Club, Liva, Hindalco Everlast, Oxywhite, UltraTech Cement, Vodafone-Idea and the list goes on and on.
For the first time, I delved about this conglomerate was when one of my dad's friend suggested investing in Aditya Birla Sun Life Small Cap and Mid Cap Fund - Regular - Growth mutual fund (now called as Aditya Birla Sun Life Small Cap Fund - Regular - Growth). Even though I was not into finance at that time, I was fascinated by investing especially in equities and mutual funds. I read all that possible about the returns of the fund, consistency, fund managers etc but did not stop there. I got to know about the Aditya Birla Group from many sources and finally realized the enormous presence of Aditya Birla Group's products and brands all over modern India, and even in each Indian's daily life. This was my stepping stone for entering business management, fundamental research for investing and benchmarking with other conglomerates. For many decades the extremely successful in India are associated with the "Birla" word as a part of word pair "Tata-Birla". Aditya Birla Group was able to sustain themselves as among the most prominent industrialists in India while others have declined.
The roots fo Aditya Birla Group go back to almost a century before independence and the foundation was laid by Mr. Shiv Narayan Birla, who started cotton trading in Pilani, Rajasthan in 1857. The business in critical sectors like cement, chemicals, aluminium etc established by his grandson Mr. Ghanshyamdas Birla, who is a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and accompanies him to London twice to attend historic conferences. In 1948 Mahatma was shot dead in Birla House in Delhi and Grasim Industries, a global leader in viscose staple fibre, which is public listed was incorporated on 25th August 1947. Subsequently, after Ghanshyamdas Birla, Mr. Aditya Vikram Birla who was a farsighted and enterprising businessman was appointed as chairman for Birla Group of companies. He started Indo-Thai Synthetics Co. Ltd, the Birla family’s first overseas venture. He went on to set up 19 companies outside India—in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Egypt. In 1996, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla consolidated all group companies under the umbrella of the Aditya Birla Group. Under Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, the conglomerate entered the businesses of copper, insurance, telecommunications, retail and software services. He consolidated, expanded and went on an aggressive acquisition drive.
Life puts one into test first and then teaches - after graduation, I was tested on many challenges and issues. Life was easy for me till my first job and I had quit the job in less than a year due to a family business problem where I need to take it over which is declining at a rapid pace. To make that business profitable and to lessen the family gaps and differences, I kept my heart in it and strived a lot. At the same time, the industry and similar businesses were also declining which made me keep the sentiments on the business aside and sell it for a good valuation. Even the selling part was pretty difficult for a fresher like me but finally, I sold that business off, and also it also laid a path and interest to pursue an MBA. I joined NMIMS Bangalore for pursuing an MBA for entering further sustainable businesses like Aditya Birla Group.