My Summer Internship Experience At Aditya Birla Group's Leadership Program (ABFRL- Van Heusen Innerwear)

That’s a one-line summary of my summer internship experience with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited, Bangalore.

I am Ronak Savla, an MBA student at the BITS School of Management, Mumbai. I belong to a Gujarati Jain family with its roots in Kutch, Gujarat. Most families in my community have their own retail businesses, ranging from grocery to apparel to footwear, and my dad has been working in a retail garment store for most of his life.As a 15-year-old, I had decided I would never get into the retail business. Yet, here I am today. After 5 years of architecture, 2 years of teaching at the Academy of Architecture, Mumbai and 1 year of my MBA, I did my internship in the retail sector with the Van Heusen Innerwear business unit of ABFRL. The biggest coincidence? My dad has always been in charge of the innerwear section!  

The 8 weeks of summer internship made me fall in love with retail businesses. In hindsight, I’m amazed by my entire internship experience. But the journey to get this internship wasn’t an easy one. In September 2021, we were just two months into B-school, and everyone had started preparing for summer internships. Coming from a design and academic background, I wasn’t sure what role would be the best fit for me. None of the offered roles were directly linked to my academic and professional experience. It was a tough decision to make. But eventually, after numerous discussions with friends, colleagues and mentors, I was able to narrow down my options to a general management role.

Aditya Birla Group’s Leadership Associate Program (LEAP) was one of the first general management roles introduced to us. The design of the program, which gave every individual an opportunity to explore multiple industries and multiple domains, excited me the most. Immediately, I started preparing for the same with utmost sincerity.

Through a three-step process—a gamified assessment, group discussion and personal interview—the ABGLP team evaluated multiple facets of our personality and skillsets. The online gamified assessment tested deductive and inductive reasoning, complex problem-solving, and working memory through interactive tasks. The group discussion revolved around a short business case study, which we were given time to read at the start of the GD.

Finally, through the interview process, the panellists tried to understand my journey from architecture to academia to business school. They were keen to know about my motivation to join the Aditya Birla Group. But more than that, it felt like they were trying to evaluate my willingness to learn and contribute to the business. Having completed multiple Winning at the Work (WAW) courses at BITSoM and the Personal Development Plan (PDP) developed under the guidance of Prof. Leena Chatterjee, I was well prepared to tackle all the questions and satisfy the curiosity of interview panellists.

During the SIP process in October, I had given retail as one of my preferred options for the internship domain. My project with ABFRL’s Van Heusen Innerwear business unit was to increase the sale of retail outlets falling under the trade section of the business.

My SIP journey started with a new city, a new role and a new industry… and a truckload of sales data with a variety of metrics. There were numbers all around me. Yet, the story went beyond numbers very soon. Within 10 days I was in Delhi for my store visits. I visited a range of stores, from Pacific and Vegas Mall to the local markets. Observing the store layouts and the planogram awakened the architect within me, and my excitement was at its peak.

Store visits were exciting and challenging at the same time. I soon realized that I need to have an in-depth knowledge of all the products to be better equipped for the store visits. Thus, I enrolled myself for the product training sessions. And I was mesmerised! I would have never imagined so much thought goes into making just 1 product. I was working on developing an end-to-end product training plan for the CCAs (Customer Care Associates) and it required support and cooperation from various stakeholders. Interacting with store owners, ASMs (Area Sales Manager) and TSMs (Territory Sales Manager) was insightful. But working with the CCAs and being in their shoes gave me a totally different perspective on the business.

From Delhi to Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, each store, each place had a new story to tell. The learnings often extended beyond the office and stores. The company outbound in Goa and weekend cricket plans were a great opportunity to connect and learn from the seniors.

8 weeks of SIP flew by very quickly. But the learnings and memories are engraved in both my heart and mind. My dad often said that ‘Making customers feel special is the key to a successful retail business.’ And now after working with ABFRL, I know exactly what he meant.