“Our values provides us with our roots and they provide us with our wings “.
This success mantra of the chairman and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla embodies the values of the Indian multinational conglomerate- Aditya Birla Group. Its roots date back to the 19th century in the picturesque town of Pilani set amidst the Rajasthan desert. It was here that Seth Shiv Narayan Birla started trading in cotton, laying the foundation for the House of Birla. Now, with operations in over 34 countries with 120,000+ employee base worldwide, it is still rooted in Indian values and yet global in vision. Over the years, it has cemented its position in the league of fortune 500 because of its diversification strategy and a turnover of around 44.3 billion dollar. It has emerged as the most trusted business houses in India and is well known for its corporate governance and financial management. The Aditya Birla Group also enjoys a leadership position in all the sectors in which it operates such as metals, cement, carbon black, specialty chemicals, viscose staple fibre, viscose filament yarn, acrylic fibre, textiles, telecom, financial services, retail, branded apparel, natural resources, agri-solutions, power and trading. It’s known for touching each and every person’s life uniquely through its diversified portfolio of goods and services.
My first known endeavor with the brand of Aditya Birla Group was when I first got acquainted what fashion means. Justifying its tag line that “fashion is for everyone”, Forever 21 has kept me vogue and confident. Serving as the nucleus of the future fashion industry, it has occupied my wardrobe since my adolescence and as a girl who belongs to the middle class family, I never knew that fashion could be so affordable and comfortable.
Aditya Birla Group is also the India’s leading telecom service provider with a subscriber base of over 408 million. Its subsidiary Vodafone Idea limited contributes towards creating a truly ‘Digital India’ by enabling millions of citizens to connect and build a better tomorrow. Other than those millions of people, it also encouraged me to venture into the new chapter of my life at Indian Institute of foreign trade in Kolkata by providing great connectivity even 1500 km far away from home.
Believing in the teachings of the Buddha that thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and yet the life of that candle will not be shortened, the Aditya Birla Group practices compassionate capitalism. To embed CSR as a way of life in organisations, they have even set up the FICCI - Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence, in Delhi.
It has also tried to defy all conventional boundaries of business by engaging with government to work on schemes such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, MGNREGA, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and many others. The Group endeavors to find prosthetics for amputated souls, show them a future that they never believed existed for them. Serving as an example for other corporates, it has worked in 5,000 villages, reaching out to 7 million people across geographies through the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, spearheaded by Mrs. Rajashree Birla.
And as the Group voyages into a sensational future, they have taken up social responsibilities beyond the boundaries of its home country and worked on improving the welfare of people living all around the world. It has taken up various projects of education, healthcare and sustainable livelihood in countries such as Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, Korea and Brazil, and lifted thousands of people out of poverty.
In 2014, to celebrate a decade of their values, they opened up a platform called "Power of 5" which was their unique way of saluting, celebrating and cheering the inspirational act of integrity, commitment, passion, seamlessness and speed by their people, over the last decade .It brought 25 inspiring stories of people who have exemplified living the values, which whilst selected at random tell a powerful story of their voyage with values.
Learning from the values of Aditya Birla Group of adopting a bold outlook toward failures and being straightforward and open in all that we do, I overcame my challenges and became a better version of myself which I never thought existed. One such challenge was when my fear of my public speaking which made me leaves out on great opportunities that came my way. I had been a very introvert person who was always cautious about what others might say or think about her. Once during my under graduation, I took up the initiative of opening a marketing society in my college to provide students with the much-needed exposure and empower them with the experience and skills about everything that is in the scope of the marketing domain. But for the successful implementation of this idea, I had to present the idea at the seminar, infront of around 100 students .I was not able to communicate the idea the way I wanted to be to other students and senior faculty in my college. Due to this, my proposal of the idea got rejected and that became the greatest learning lesson in my life. I then started to evaluate all my weaknesses and how I could turn them into my strengths. I even took up personality development and public speaking classes which helped me in overcoming my fear of public speaking. Due to this, I was able to participate in debates and symposiums, and with the help from some of the friends and mentors, took up another initiative of introducing entrepreneurship course from the Ministry of Skill and Development in my college. I am now a much more confident person than I was before and have started taking even more initiatives. I now firmly believe that “
Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”