“Peter England”. 7 year old me read from the cover of the new shirt brought by my dad. If I remember correctly, it was a check blue shirt. “Is this from England?”The curious little me asked. The silly logic of having England in the name made me think that it was from England. “No, it is from India only”. That was a surprise for me. I asked him “How come?”. That’s when I first heard the name-‘Birla’. A name that I have been hearing for years from then. There was this general knowledge weekly magazine I used to read when I was a kid. Once, the topic was the Birla group. That’s when I first heard about the Aditya Birla Group. I understood how vast and deep Birla group is. My first surprise while reading it was Ultratech cement. I was aware of that brand. I have seen it many times which was used during the construction of my home. But never knew it was from ABG. Since I was unaware of ABG, I never noticed the ABG symbol in those packs. Ignorance of a kid! After that, I started to notice the symbol of the ABG group in the corner of every ad and in the packs of Ultratech. Moreover, whenever I see a Billboard or any ads it became a habit to immediately look upon the left top corner. To check whether it is an ABG product or not.
When it comes to the pre-independence period one can’t neglect the contributions of G.D Birla, who was close with Gandhiji. During the period of British rule, ABG’s business in the textile industry was a help regarding the boycott of foreign clothes. Looking into the textile industry of India now, it is easily recognizable how much it has grown. A major share of textile industries is owned by ABG. As I mentioned in the starting their brands have been made its way into a middle-class family like mine.
Post-independence ABG ran some of the biggest mines in India. Even after the nationalization of some of them, they are still in very much into mining under the company name ESSEL MINING And INDUSTRIES LIMITED. It is India’s first truly global mining corporation. With ISO certification 9001 and 14001 they ensure quality management and environmental management system.
ABG was always keen into adapting according to the new trends in the market. This is what led to the formation of idea. In 1996 it was established Birla AT&T communications limited, which was a big step in the telecommunication field of India. In 2002 it was changed into “!dea”. Within one year with proper marketing and strategies, it crossed the mark of one million subscribers. Just within another year, it crossed 2 million. The tagline “an idea can change your life” itself was a hit and still considered to be one of the best marketing techniques. I can vouch for that, those promotional techniques and that tagline was one among the many reasons why my first choice for taking a new sim card was idea in 2010. The merger with Vodafone and Idea are expected to take the telecommunications field in India to new heights.
The role of Ultratech cement in the construction industry is dominating. From small scale constructions to large concrete structures it is used. In 2017 Ultratech became the largest cement company in India. In 2018 they crossed another milestone of becoming of 3rd largest cement company in the world with a consolidated capacity of 102.5 MTPA. The reach of the company is in every length and breadth of the country. It is not limited to India. Their operations span across the Middle East, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Probably the first cement company I knew must be Ultratech. I still remember going back to my home, which was under construction and checking the rising sun symbol of ABG in one of the packets after reading about it.
If it comes to social responsibilities and developments there won’t be any match for ABG. I am even happier that their social entrepreneurs in healthcare cover people from my state, Kerala, which is helpful for a lot of people. They create model villages, infrastructure, schools, quality education, scholarships, etc.
To understand what is Aditya Birla Group for India, we can take the words of its own chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla.” The name Aditya Birla exemplifies integrity, quality, performance, perfection and above all character.” Since from the starting in 1857, ABG is a part of the Indian economy. Now an unavoidable force in the Indian market. It touches almost each and every part of life. There won’t be anyone in India, who hasn’t crossed their path with at least a single ABG product or service. The trust that consumers given to their brands are because they know about the character of Aditya Birla Group, which will never compromise on their integrity and quality.
Talking about performance, quality, and character I remember one of my recent hard experience. It was my interview for IIM Nagpur. I was under tremendous pain because of my surgery. I was not able to attend 2 or 3 other interviews because of this. The most important part was it took a great effort for me to talk under that pain. Because the surgery was inside my mouth. This was like my last chance to make it into an IIM and I didn’t want to lose that. So I decided to go for it. So finally my turn for the interview came. The first question was to introduce myself with something that is not in my CV. I started talking. But I couldn’t complete my sentences at one go. I took pauses, searched for synonyms in my mind those hurt my mouth less. My sentences were fragmented. “This is going in a bad direction,” I thought. “This is a do or die situation. I have to do whatever it takes.” So even under that pain, I started to give my answers. When I look back I don’t know how I did that. But, I remember that it took a lot of physical and mental efforts to answer those questions. When I finished I was feeling good about myself. That I was able to do my best, under a tough situation. Guess where I am sitting writing this? Yes, IIM Nagpur, enjoying my new wonderful phase of life. One thing was proven to me again, never compromise on your performance, always give the best quality version of you, believe in your hard work, they will pay you back.