“Business today is nothing short of a battle. And any battle-hardened veteran will tell you, courage is what it takes” – Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla
After reading the above statement by the Chairman, and having a look at the diverse portfolio of businesses that it owns and operates, we can easily understand the reason behind the phenomenal success of Aditya Birla Group – It’s a firm that operates with courage. The journey that began in India back in the glorious year of 1857 has now reached to a scale of 38 companies in 42 countries, providing employment to more than 120,000 people around the globe. Right from Viscose Stable Fibres, Metals, Cement, Carbon Black, Chemicals, Fertilizers, and Insulators to Branded Apparel, Financial Services, Telecom, BPO and IT, you name a business and Aditya Birla Group has it under its roof. If you live in India, there is an almost negligible possibility that you have not used or came in contact with a product or service from the group. But what remarkably differentiates Birla group from other giant conglomerates is the fact that it has never been all about business and profits. Operating in 5000 villages, running 20 hospitals, 5000 medical camps, 56 schools and immunizing 70 million children against polio, the humanitarian values that the group adds to the society are equally astonishing.
As mentioned by Edith Head, the legendary designer, “You can have anything you want to have in life if you dress for it”, and for such personal ambitions, Louis Phillippe comes to my rescue. As an MBA candidate at IIFT, with multiple business events happening almost every week to refine you as a future manager, suits are supposed to be an extension of your skin, and Louis Phillippe never seizes to amaze me with the comfort it provides and the sharpness it adds. My connection with LP happened almost instantly, as the brand makes me feel like myself; comfortable and continuously striving for excellence.
“You don’t become enormously successful without encountering a number of extremely challenging problems.” - Mark Victor Hansen.
Life invariably throws challenges at us every single day, some so small that we forget them over coffee breaks, some so huge that they stick with us for lifetime and change us completely as a person. My biggest challenge had more to do with me as a person than any particular situation. As a person with an extremely sceptical approach towards life, worried always about the next (self-conceived) misfortune that was coming my way, I was unable to enjoy the small joys that life brings with itself every day. It went unnoticed for a long time, but once I noticed it, I realized that it was a pattern - Once I achieved a small goal, I was invariably worried that I will fail in the next. To overcome this fear, I adopted multiple approaches, right from starting to meditate to spending time with the older people and kids - one which has completely experienced life in its totality and one who has almost no idea about it. Being with two such extreme age groups taught me two totally different things - the fleeting nature of life and the immense possibilities that it yet contains. The biggest change through this was finding empathy. As a person or as a leader, it is extremely tough to add your true value to the society or the organization, if you don’t first have empathy for those around you. No organization or society can flourish without such basic human values. I, now, can feel and understand the strengths, weaknesses and miseries of those around me much better, and instead of judging them for it, now I can appreciate, help, guide and support them.
“Love and Compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” – Dalai Lama