I avidly remember, when I was out shopping before my undergraduate placements were scheduled to begin the next day. I along with my parents went straight to Louis Philippe showroom, since that was the only brand I was intending to buy, thanks to the Brand status of Aditya Birla Group’s Louis Phillippe. During our first trimester we have, Organizational behaviour as a course. It explains triangular representation- Perceived Self, Real Self, and Ideal Self. The perceived self or how Louis Phillippe is perceived as a brand can be defined as class, elegance and status. Not only it portrays class, but it is a purveyor of fine clothing, it stands precision in craftsmanship, that translates into clothing. Louis Phillippe is just one of the brands of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL), which has a revenue of Rs. 7,181 crores and a retail space of 7 million sq. ft. it is India's first billion-dollar pure-play fashion powerhouse. The recent acquisition of brand Liva for about 4,000 crores, to venture in men’s wear, home textiles; re-affirms the strategy of the ABFRL to have diversified market portfolio. Riding on deep penetrated distribution network our lifestyle brands -Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England continue to be leaders within their respective market segments, through high-quality products and differentiated in-store experience. These brands have created very strong equity amongst our loyal customers through years of a persistent focus on product innovation design development consumer satisfaction and brand building. ABFRL, has a very diversified market portfolio in the apparel industry, with brands for each class of the society. Whether I’m a college going student who needs casual wear (Allen Solly), whether I’m working at a corporate and need formal (Louis Philippe & Van Heusen), to needing an ethnic wear(Pantaloons) ABFRL had a say in every aspect of my life, which is what ABFRL is all about, catering to needs of consumers in all aspects of their life.
Being an engineer, the tendency to procrastinate was ingrained into me during the 4 years of under graduation. There was always a nerdy friend, who would explain all the important concepts just before the exam and help us pass the subject. But unfortunately post under graduation, the reality of the corporate world turned into a nightmare for me, the deadlines were meant to stay and followed strictly as opposed to that of undergrad life. The project assigned to me at my workplace, was highly demanding and on top of that, I was an Electronics engineer working in Software development with no coding experience, to add to this I had planned to prepare for MBA entrance examination. My biggest concern was commute time to the office, I wasted a total of 5 hours of my time in this, thanks to traffic in Mumbai. It was a humungous task, to work up to standards at workplace and prepare for exams simultaneously, which I could not afford procrastinate. I had to strategize smartly, I could not let my preparation affect my deliverables at workplace and vice versa. Time was of the essence here, I had to use it judiciously. To start with I used the commute hours initially to gain the knowledge about the coding basics, get the feel of how software development works, once I was well versed with it, I shifted to hands-on learning during the project which was much more fruitful. Post that I utilized my commute time to start preparing for MBA entrance examinations, read articles read about basics of Quants, try to solve and LR-DI set, I minimized informal breaks in the office, focused on getting things done as early as possible without any compromise in the quality and then travel back home to prepare for exams. I was surprised as to how I managed to achieve both the objectives through effective time management. I converted one most coveted B-schools into the country- IIFT Kolkata, at the same time achieved my deliverables at my workplace for which I received a global recognition from the onsite team.
