“Guess which country does the brand, Peter England or Louis Philippe belong to?”

This was a trick question that used to do the rounds among us 90’s kids when internet wasn’t so common, and the only source of knowledge was TV and word of mouth. To be honest, at that age I never realized the astounding vastness of the Aditya Birla Group or the fact that one day I would even think of aspiring to work in such a large organization.

Also, we all remember those witty and humorous TV commercials by Idea Cellular when it had just launched, and the tagline, “What an Idea, Sir ji!” becoming famous among all of us.

Since childhood we have been introduced to such brands which has stuck with us and many of us are still loyal to them. I still remember seeing my father wearing Peter England shirts and imagining myself in them when I grow up. But here I am, all grown up (or so I think), now marveling at the company behind all those famous brands such as Peter England, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Idea and many more.

ABG has 36 companies to its name and boasts of some record achievements like Hindalco being the World’s largest Aluminum Rolling Company, Vodafone-Idea being India’s largest Telecom Network by subscriber base & revenue and Ultratech Cement, which is India’s largest Cement Manufacturer. It has acquired numerous companies all over the world, thereby extending its reach to 34 countries, across 6 continents.

Moving on to me and my life’s challenges, being a quiet, shy and reserved guy from childhood posed a lot of problems starting from my teenage years, extending right into my adult life as well. But the biggest one among them was when I started my job as an Execution engineer at a construction site of a huge structure at India’s leading construction company, Larsen & Toubro. Since both my school and college were in my hometown, I never had to venture out of my comfort zone before my first job. Hence, when I had to start at a place where I had to literally learn everything from scratch and manage people who are at least 10 years elder to me, I was shaken up a bit. All this happening at a city in a different state, with people speaking a language I didn’t understand a word of.

The job at L&T did push me right into the center of my ‘Discomfort’ zone, but I didn’t get bogged down by it, rather, I learnt to gel with people of different cultures and age groups such that I could perform what was expected of me. I learnt the absolute importance of deadlines which is an essential requirement of MBA life. I believe these lessons have shaped me as an individual and allowed me to get into one of the top B-schools of the country, which would have been quite an uphill task for the shy, soft-spoken guy that I was.

#ABGLP Woo me #SJMSOM

Spandan Kundu

Peter England, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen. Yes, these are Indian Brands!

Taking India to the world - ABG | Spandan Kundu, SJMSOM Mumbai