Part A
Why is Aditya Birla Group big in my life?
Aditya Birla Group is an Indian Multinational conglomerate that has seeped deep into the crevices of the Indian society through the legion of industries that it is a leader of. It is one of the largest Indian private conglomerates and is a name that is impossible to ignore as at any point of time, almost all of the Indian population has been a consumer of Aditya Birla Group due to its presence in each and every facet of a consumer’s life.
"Makaan", which is considered synonymous to success in the minds of the mediocre Indian is bolstered through UltraTech cement, India’s largest cement company and has helped lay out a chunk of the Indian infrastructure. Internet and Telecommunication are one of the largest industries in the world and are as important as air in today’s connected world.Idea and Vodafone were the two largest players in the market in that aspect, but have recently merged into one and have thereby become largest telecom company in terms of subscribers and revenue in the country.
The statistics above show how the group has been playing a huge role in the common man’s life on a daily basis. Apart from being part of my life in similar ways, ABG has touched my life on a more personal level. It has played a role in helping me reach where I am right now: Hostel No. 2, IIM Bodh Gaya, and I am honored to be a part of this journey. It all began on the 3rd of September last year when I was coming back from work late at night. I had always planned to pursue an MBA from an institute of repute, but had never put in the efforts that were required to crack the entrance examinations and was more busy with work. That night, I met with an accident while trying to save a dog. My bike skid, and I crashed into a pole. The next few hours went by in a blur and when I woke up the next morning, I was on a hospital bed at Aditya Birla Memorial hospital in Pune with eight sutures on my eyebrow and a fractured rib and leg. I was instructed to be on bed rest for at least a month. I was admitted there for five days and it was during that time that I developed a clarity for pursuing the path to be associated with an IIM. I put in my resignation as soon as I got home and after two months of dedication, I was finally able to "bell the CAT". All that remained between me and an IIM was the final interview. I went to my closet, dusted my Van Heusen suit that I had first worn at my +2 farewell and enthusiastically tried it on. It still fit perfectly. I looked at myself in the mirror and I looked confident. I had had this feeling after a long time.
Part B
How I overcame challenges to achieve my ambitions in life so far?
One of my strong suits in the past several years has been my knack for public speaking, be it as a regular member of debate clubs or hosting fests and cultural programs in my college. I have grown to enjoy them a lot and actively participate whenever I get a chance. But this has not always been the case. I had an immense stammering problem right from when I was very young. This had resulted in repeated humiliations and had turned me into a very reserved kid growing up. I was in 4th grade when I shifted to Pune and the problem continued. I had a severe case of stage fright instilled within me. But shifting to Pune from a small town in Kolkata also meant an increase in the number of opportunities to better myself and I did not intend to let that slide. The moment I started school in Pune, I had made up my mind to stop restraining myself and I started participating in every competition I could lay my hands on. I failed miserably at first and had become a laughing stock in front of my entire school. I vowed to change that. I did not give up and worked on my oration everyday. I won my first ever award for declamation in my 5th grade and everything went uphill from there. I represented my school in various inter-school debates and declamations and have won several of them. I was honored to represent my school during the republic and independence days during my +2 years. Those were some of my proudest moments ever.
My first responsibility in a professional environment was that of an Area Manager, responsible for Business Acquisition at NestAway, a property management firm . I went for a walk-in drive only to find out that their job description expected an MBA in sales in marketing and I was a mere engineer fresher at that time. As I was already there, I decided to go through with the interview. I was repeatedly grilled on that exact detail and although my interview went great, the managers there were skeptical on hiring an engineer for a sales job. I was able to convince them on hiring me through my experience in sales as a sponsorship head for my college fest. They decided to hire me as an intern for three months, which could successfully be converted to the position of Area Manager, if I performed at par with my MBA graduate collegues. The area managers at NestAway are each assigned an area and leads are provided to them based on customer requests and marketing campaigns. As I was the last hire of that season, all the existing areas where NestAway already had its presence, had already been assigned. I was thus given the immense responsibility of expanding the Western polygraph of NestAway’s Pune division. This meant that I had to explore areas where NestAway had not ventured before and thus had no leads to pursue. Instead of groveling over the situation, I decided to tackle it head on and saw this as an opportunity to prove myself in the organisation. I generated my own leads through public listings and through local brokers and had acquired three properties within my first month itself, a feat that new MBA hires could not do with access to leads and pre-existing markets. I was promoted to the position of Area Manager-Business Acquisition within a month of joining and I expanded the Western polygraph, adding eighteen properties under NestAway’s wing within a span of four months.
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