Indispensable, omnipresent and reaching unimaginable horizons, the sheer impact of Aditya Birla Group in our lifetimes is second to none. And the best part is you may not even know it. Be it Planet Fashion, Ultratech Cement, Vodafone Idea Limited, Birla Sunlife Insurance, Pantaloons and a vast array of top clothing brands like Louis Phillipe and Peter England, there's no area where the Aditya Birla group hasn't created value in our lives. There's a proverbial saying '
A company starts to taste real success when its brand becomes bigger than itself.' It's almost surreal how different brands blossomed under this Indian conglomerate and changed so many lives. My life is no exception! Let me give account into some wonderful anecdotes of my experiences with ABG.
The year was 2005. The Telecom industry was beginning to gain a stronghold in the Indian market. While many Telecom companies were present in the Tricity area of Chandigarh, they were still grappling with network connectivity issues in the semi-urban areas of Punjab. And all my relatives were residing in those areas, which still hadn't seen the seeds of development. And my mother's quench to talk to her mother and siblings was marred with multifarious connectivity issues. Herein comes
Idea. They say an idea can change your life. It actually did. The residence of my maternal relatives is near village Rai, in Khamano Punjab. The Idea operators couldn't find land to place their tower. My uncle offered them our piece of land near our farm fields at a reasonable rate. And, from therein the whole vicinity bore fruits of an uninterrupted connection for years to come. This kind of mutual cooperation wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the commitment, customer centricity and mutual cooperation shown by ABG. In one such remote place near Ludhiana, where my father was working in a construction project for Indian Railways, only Idea Cellular worked. It was such a relief.
Fast forward 10 years, I couldn't be more enamored by fashion brands like Louis Phillipe. And when I started earning, I wanted to buy LP (as we call it in Punjab) shirt for myself. But, that shirt and the resonance with it was so deep that I couldn't get it for myself. I gifted my father that shirt from my first salary. The happiness on his face can't be described in words. It's the same money I earned by becoming a Civil Site Engineer, the money earned from making buildings of Ultratech Cement, the one I trusted the most
While doing my MBA, I interned in Mumbai, I was left in awe by Mumbai Worli Sea Link. Here, I stumbled on a fact that 0.1 million mt of Ultratech cement went into the construction. Such magnanimity, such wide-reaching avenues, no wonder this genius giant Aditya Birla Group has made life simpler for mere mortals like us.
#ABGLPWooMe #GIM #ABGLPWooMeSeason2 #GoaInstituteofManagement
PART B: Overcoming challenges to achieve your ambitions
Life, as we know, is never constant. It is a sinusoidal curve of crests and troughs. And if there is one mantra that has aided me throughout my journey is that never lose your humility during the highs and don't give up on the hope during the lows.
I hail from a small family who was nurtured by working parents, Most of my childhood has been spent in boarding schools, where I've had to wait for my parents till the end of late evening. In such an environment of busy schedules, I had to make all ends meet by myself. I aided my working mother wherever possible in all household chores like cooking and washing utensils. While this may seem like menial jobs for some, these are "essential life skills" one must learn from childhood. And I believe, if a person knows how to make his/her bed and cook food for himself, he can do anything.
When I started doing my Engineering, I had to travel 2.5 hours regularly single way via local Punjab Roadways bus. While this may have been a struggle for some, I used to utilize this time to study. There was a time when there was a huge financial crunch in my family. Therein, I took lots of small jobs. I worked as a Life Insurance Agent for Kotak. I sold newspapers during the morning and had home tuitions during the evening.
"It's the time of turmoil when you realize the value of money". As someone who realized this well before, these small little things have kept me grounded.
After graduation, I was deployed as a Site Engineer in multiple projects in the North. My desire for more work let me to also crack certain sales for the company. Therein, my focus on getting a post-graduation led me to prepare for entrance exams and to concentrate on Sales and Marketing as a specialized career. Thus MBA was not a walk in the herd choice but a well-thought-out decision to pursue my future goal. After appearing for CAT twice, I landed in GIM in 2018. All my learnings throughout my career have shaped me into an individual I am now- Competitive, Focused and someone who'll keep on adapting and learning.