Aditya Birla Group of companies, one of India’s oldest business groups, to me is an icon of Indian heritage business houses. Its continued legacy of over 150 years is a testament to its continuous adoption of new market conditions, requirements and constant innovation. From humble roots in cotton trading back in 1857, it has now expanded to touch almost every Indian’s life in a variety of ways.
It begins with connecting Indians to their loved ones through the Vodafone-Idea telecom network, the second largest in the world in terms of the subscriber base. Then the clothing line with offerings across segments and demographics through India’s largest fashion retail company, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd comprises of the extremely popular Peter England, Van Huesen among others, providing variety and diversity. Financially, it has empowered Indians through the Aditya Birla Capital’s broad range of financial services, with the Aditya Birla Sun Life Tax Saver 96 among the most popular ELSS. Industrially, it has been a pioneer with wide ranging industrial products like Hindalco’s metal products, globally the largest Aluminium sheet roller and global export of carbon black contributing to the government policy of ‘Make-IN-India’. Ultratech Cement is the biggest cement maker in India contributing to India’s infrastructure and housing boom.
Innovation is a key part of ABG’s growth with innovations like Novelis’s lighter aluminium to enhance efficiency in vehicles. Its global presence is equally well established with a large number of firms’ setup in South-East Asia producing textiles, viscose staple fibre, of which it’s the largest producer globally and wide range of chemicals. It’s also known for its continuous contribution to Indian society with wide ranging Corporate Social Responsibility activities, even before it was mandated by law, with projects from setting up schools to empowering rural women to setup garment shops through its garment units. However, the greatest quality that I associate with ABG, through my varied interactions with employees from different group companies is the work culture, with employees across the hierarchy empowered to make decisions with minimal interference; something I believe has been critical to ABG becoming the global conglomerate it has today. How you work is always more important than where you work.
Challenges are something that I not only enjoy facing but I also believe are the key to shaping people’s lives. Also, I believe challenges are the true test to separate the great from the good. One of the greatest challenges that I faced is the one at my workplace, involving an organisational intra-site level contest. A project on water conservation and minimising effluent generation was what we planned to pitch at the event. However, I was informed of the same only a day before the deadline and told that if I wanted to participate, I would have minimum support from the other seniors due to their audit commitments. In that time, I had to make a team, come up with a document explaining it and also prepare the presentation. I managed to not only build a great cross discipline team, but also create one of the best project documents. Thus, when the first-round result was announced, we cleared it with flying colors, receiving a chance to present to the various site heads. We also readied the presentation overnight with specific details from all the different departments involved, coordinating to get all operational and financial details in place. We managed to win the 1st prize at site level with the project forwarded as a model to other similar units across the organisation. These among the other challenges have taught me the importance of being calm during such situations. They have also shown me the value of not missing out on nitty-gritties to ensure quality work. A great help during these testing times has also been yoga. Just 10 minutes spent every day on the basic asanas has provided me with the necessary relaxation and freshness to deal with the difficult situations better. Challenges have thus shaped me in a variety of ways, enabling me to discover more about myself along the way.