Stepping out of Comfort Zones - Sai Shruthi - SIBM Pune

From chemicals or telecommunications, name any sector, AB group has marked its presence and taken the industry by storm. A google search on the Subsidiaries of Aditya Birla group would give us overwhelming results of the subsidiaries owned by the conglomerate. We would be awestruck having a glance at the diversity of its products. It is highly unlikely that anyone would have gone without using any ABG product in their life, there can’t be a more proven fact than this. Directly or indirectly, the AB group has had played a role in everyone’s life. Just twenty-one years into this industry, yet looking at their products and expertise seem like they have been ruling this industry for like a century now. It’s not just within the country that they have established their presence, they have some companies in foreign nations as well. One of the examples are, Thai Peroxide Company Limited, a pioneer in the manufacture of hydrogen peroxide in Thailand. The company began operations in 1989 and it is one of the best-benchmarked companies amongst FMC plants. There have been many more successful foreign ventures that can be added to their list. 

 The world has become smaller due to the advancements in technology, the communication industry playing a major role in this. There are many network providers competing to become the largest network provider but cherry on top, the largest mobile telecommunications network in India and Third largest mobile telecommunications network in the world, Vodafone Idea Limited, is also one of AB group’s businesses. It has a market share of 31 percent in India with 394.8 million subscribers. Another product that pops into our head as soon as we hear Aditya Birla is ‘Ultratech cement’. Being the largest manufacturer of cement in India and ranked amongst the world’s leading cement makers, UltraTech is one of the most popular products. As soon as we enter a shopping mall, the store that grabs our attention with its melange of assorted collections, nominal prices, astounding discounts, is Pantaloons. This is again one of AB group’s ventures, it is India's first billion-dollar pure-play fashion powerhouse with an elegant bouquet of leading fashion brands and retail formats. Just reading about these products itself instigates a sense of motivation in us and leaves us awestruck. 

Similarly, one of the incidents in my life that made me step out of my comfort zone and taught me a lot, is here as follows. Since the first year of my under graduation, I was always passionate about joining a student run forum of my university called the CEG Tech Forum. The selection process for the same wasn’t easy at all. It involved a lot of tasks, stress interviews etc that required a lot of commitment. Once the selection process started, I had put in a lot of effort, sacrificed hours of sleep to complete the tasks. And after month long selection process, I did get into the forum for the portfolio I had applied to. After getting into as well, we had to put in massive amounts of hard work to organize a grand techfest called Kurukshetra, attended by many students across the country. I was an introvert before stepping into CTF. This had transformed me into someone who could adapt to any environment, made a team player and most importantly honed my leadership skills. 

Stepping out of my comfort zone required lots of hard work and determination. Similarly, a conglomerate of such magnitude like Aditya Birla group would have put in multitude amounts of hard work to step out of their comfort zone (India) and expand their business successfully, worldwide. Their success story is definitely an inspiration to all of us.