Part A
My first morning at IIT BHU and my first time staying away from home. It was a cold, rainy sunday, the last day before we embark on our B.Tech journey, and my new friends (for life) decided it's time for us to buy SIM cards for our phones. After hours and hours of research, head-to-head comparisons and cost-benefit analyses by
that tech guy in the group, we decided that we'll all go for Idea, as they had the best coverage and offered the best internet packages. So we went ahead right away and got ourselves Idea SIM cards in the same series. Even now, all my friends’ contact numbers start with the same 7 digits.
Those were still the 1GB per month days and the college didn't have WIFI access. So we had to use data like it was gold. It was also around this time that WhatsApp and Quora were beginning to pick up steam. Having lived all my childhood in Andhra, I wasn’t very comfortable with Hindi and the “Banarasi” way of life. Having access to the internet on my mobile opened up many avenues of support and helped me adjust to life in hindi. All translations were only a click away, I didn’t need to worry about addresses and locations anymore, and most importantly, I could now order food whenever I felt like eating something reminiscent of home. All of this was made possible by Idea and so it always holds a special place in my heart. But my journey with Aditya Birla Group isn’t limited to only a SIM card. The fist suit I ever bought for myself with my own earnings was a Van Heusen. It’s funny how when you’re a student you think formal wear is lame, but once you stand on your own two feet, nothing feels better. All the formal wear that I bought once I started on my career path was from Louis Philippe.
Whether it be through Idea, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Ultratech cement, Hindalco or any of the many, many brands, Aditya Birla Group has been with me (and almost every Indian) through each chapter of my story, and has made it all the more exciting and memorable. For this, I (and I’m sure, India) will always be thankful to Aditya Birla Group.
Part B
I am a Mechanical engineer who decided mechanical engineering shall not be in my future right in the beginning of my B.Tech 3
rd year. During placements, I wanted to get into analytics and just as planned I was hired as a business analyst by Novartis. My job was to assist the Brand team in making critical business strategy decisions by backing them up with data and insights. While the role was primarily based on data analytics, it also demanded a deep knowledge of the US pharmaceutical industry and strong business sense to be able to make the right suggestions at the right time. Both of these were a challenge to me at the time, as I had no prior knowledge of the pharma industry and this being my very first job, had no real experience in business strategy. However, with the help of my mentor and manager, I successfully got to grips with my roles and responsibilities in a short period of time.
I was awarded for my quick uptake and was put in a new role as SPOC for all patient data analytics. In this role I was to be the prime contact for the Brand team and Novartis’ Director of Immunology & Dermatology for these analyses. I was worried about managing this level of responsibilities, but decided this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to grow and I cannot back down from it. So, I made a list of my strengths and skills I need to improve to perform this role better and requested my manager to help me learn or polish them. With some help, I was soon on top my game and even though it was a little unnerving to interact with someone so high up the corporate ladder, over a few months I became the most trusted business analyst for the Director. My two years in this role taught me to never back down from a challenge and to stop not till the goal is reached.