Aditya Birla Group is the third largest Indian Private Sector conglomerate. It has marked a difference right from the British Raj and has always lived up to the values it follows. Spread over various sectors in Cement, Finance, Fashion, Metals, Textiles etc. Having marked India on an International Map, 50% of the Group’s revenues from in from overseas markets. The brand value created for each of its brand is phenomenal, e.g.: when someone says Cement, it always reiterates only to UltraTech Cement. Sitting, writing this article if I look around, at my home itself ABG is everywhere in some form or the other starting with wardrobe filled with Allen Solly, Van Heusen and Forever21. I cannot imagine a day without foil paper and again the brand recall goes to Freshwrapp. We cannot forget the base and strength of the house is built with ABG (UltraTech Cement). Personally, ABG was the first group to open a huge store in a newly built mall in my town. Surat was still developing and people still heavily depended on local brands until Pantaloons was opened in town and it was like the luxury that was introduced to us. Tapping into an untapped potential market was a very risky but risk-assessed decision made by ABG. Later into years, when formals came into picture in my life, ABG group was the saviour again. It provided not only high-end segment but also low and middle end segment with brands like People.
I come from Surat, a city that has recently witnessed growth. However, few years back, it was just a city of textile and diamond industry. Industries where people with little or no educational background were earning a huge chunk of money. Coming from a family with textile business, experience and on-field learning was given more importance than in-class education. However, I was always a very dedicated and hardworking student with a plan of doing my engineering in IT, work for 2 years and do an MBA. What I didn’t realize were the hardships that were going to fall upon the path. I secured admission in MIT, Manipal for IT but it was a real task to convince my family to give me a chance to chase my dreams. Calling it a difficult task would be an understatement, I literally had to fight them to do engineering from a college that was not close to my hometown. When I did get a chance to be there, I worked day and night to never give parents a moment of regret. I got an on-campus job from an MNC, Cerner Healthcare Solutions as a Software Engineer. Again, it was a fight with family to stay independently in Bangalore and earning. I dwelled into my work it was like a moment of victory when as a fresher, I was assigned the task of bringing over a team and it’s functions from headquarters and to handle it single-handedly from India. I made sure there was no question of doubt global center had on us. Handing over my team to my mentee, I moved onto my next big step in my life: MBA. It was a bigger fight that I could imagine, for a girl of certain age, simple expectation is to get married. However, that was never on plan, and hence with all the fights that were needed, I did make it through first year of my MBA. And I am very certain on not stopping and to continue making my plans and sticking to it. Persistence is all that is required.