From Birth to Maturity and Beyond, I have grown alongside Aditya Birla Group. One day in late 1995, a 28-year-old inexperienced son took over the reins of a $3.3 Billion conglomerate from his father, Aditya Vikram Birla, a man cherished as the individual who created India’s first Multi-National corporation. No one expected the scion, Kumar Mangalam Birla, to break all barriers, records and limitations in the next 20 years. Today, the Aditya Birla Group is a world-renowned conglomerate with over 120,000 employees and a net value of $45 Billion Dollars. The new Aditya Birla group logo – the rising sun was a fitting symbol of the brand it had become.
In the same year 1995, a little girl was born in a city in South India. Her parents overcame hardships, challenged stereotypes and fought deep-rooted patriarchy to get her educated in one of the best schools in the city. Every step of the way Aditya Birla products had been with her. The first house her father built, made of Ultratech cement. It kept them safe through the devastating Tsunami of 2004. When she stepped out of her home to study in another state, her savior, Idea Cellular kept them close to each other. She came out as an engineer just like her parents wanted her to. She said all the right things, she did all the right things, she was the pride of her parents’ eyes until she decided to do something else.
She wanted to help people who have illnesses, but she did not want to be a medical doctor. She decided to treat illnesses that affect more people than cancer does. She wanted to be a psychologist. And she did. She started working at the tender age of 15 to pay for her education. She saw the depths of misery that a person with depression could go through. She saw the pain and agony that the mother of an autistic child went through. She saw the unwavering resolve of a 12 year old child with end stage cancer to see the bright side of life. She saw the dark and brightest sides of life at a tender age. She fought for the man she loved and against societal norms, violent opposition and unyielding resistance, she planned, paid for and executed her dream wedding. She finally got the man of her life; the one who showed her true potential. That she was meant to change the world and that was not about to happen-one session at a time. She was a leader, a motivator and a winner. She then decided she would enter the corporate. And she did. The day she donned that Van Heusen Black Suit for the first time as she entered the walls of her dream B-School, she knew that was where she belonged.
Since that day, Allen Solly and Van Heusen became her best friends. Donning that perfectly tailored suit with a crisp shirt and fitted trousers, I was ready to take on the world.