Aditya Birla Group stands for Integrity, Commitment, Passion, Seamless, Speed. As a whimsical consumer, the values a brand embodies are important to me. And of all these, passion, is the most important one.
I have always been taught that whatever I am doing, be it for myself or for someone else, it must be given 100% of my abilities. And to give something your 100%, you need to be passionate about its purpose.
For ABG, being the gargantuan corporate it is, it can be very easy to put up some values on the webpage and not adhere to them. But the ABG has shown that they are genuinely and passionately connected to the consumer. They not only understand their customer’s needs, but also the customers, the various aspects of their lives, their hopes and aspirations. For instance, check out the “Style your change” ad campaign run by Pantaloons, a subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group. The brand understands you, the consumer. It understands the changes in your life, and promises to be with you through each one of them. “Drop the Tags” by Liva is another campaign that urges you to shed the labels and tags others put on you. With Aditya Birla Capital’s campaign #DearMoney, they are addressing a common man with uncanny and blank ability in understanding finance and providing him/her with a one-stop solution. Their sustainability initiatives such as using hybrid power to operate Vodafone Idea’s telecom towers and making use of cellulose for Liva’s new clothing line Livaeco, brings home the point that the company is passionate about its purpose.
ABG is big in my life. Not just because of the products its makes that I use on a daily basis, but also because they tell the world, that if a big conglomerate like ABG, with its 1,20,000 employees spread across 35 nations can imbibe these values, so can you.
Passion has been a driving force in my life. Since childhood, I have been passionate about drawing and sketching. My childhood penchant for doodling has carried on well into adulthood and I began working as a freelancing graphic designer. I had struggled for a year trying to make it. The job required long working hours and completely wrecked my schedule trying to accommodate clients from other time zones. Talent and skill play a very important role in this line of work, but not as much as discipline and commitment. The guy who hits a sixer gets the crowd’s attention at first, but only the one who works most diligently and accurately stays the longest in the field. Since I had trouble embracing the uncertainty that came with the job, I took up any work that came my way. My refusal to say no to a job cost me my reputation in the freelancing community. I took up work I was not passionate about and I could not give it my best. The gigs that came my way were usually from small businesses that want a visiting card, logo or a menu card designed. Without associating with the business on a personal level, and not understanding the purpose and vision of the business, you will never be able to deliver a satisfactory design. Because what you design is a representation of something the customer holds very dear.
So, I decided take some time off, realize my limitations and work on defining what I want to work on. I learnt to prioritize my inclinations, and now I take up work, only that I connect to. I haven’t looked back since.