Aditya Birla Group (ABG) has its presence in 34 countries and employees people of 42 different nationalities. The group is involved in a wide spectrum of industries, from introducing Birla Carbon nanoparticles in our tyres to providing 0.1 million mt of UltraTech Cement in the construction of the Bandra-Worli Sealink. ABG’s success and expanse motivates me as an individual to think and act “BIG” and put my best foot forward while affecting as many lives as I can.
I got my first ever corporate exposure back in 2013 when I got an opportunity to intern with UltraTech Cement at Awarpur Cement Works, Chandrapur, Maharashtra. As a part of my internship during my under graduation from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani – Hyderabad Campus, I got exposure to how projects in the Mining Department of the plant are managed, which included efficient sequencing of mining tasks along with knowledge of the legal, regulatory and technical aspects of it. These experiences are invaluable to me, as they were the reason behind the birth of the idea to eventually pursue a degree in MBA.
Under the chancellorship of Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, I spent the foundation years of my life at BITS-Pilani. The college has given me an indispensable environment, where I could bounce ideas with some of the brightest engineers of the country which has led to my growth and development at a rapid pace.
These skills that I have acquired over the years have played an instrumental role in my life. I have learnt how to tackle problems effectively and keep moving towards my goals. I would like to discuss this approach with an example of a challenge that I recently faced.
As a part of my summer internship after the first year of my MBA, I worked with Private Equity (PE) firms as a Summer Associate with TresVista Financial Services, Mumbai. An Associate is responsible for interacting with clients, receiving requests and managing the execution of the task along with managing the Analysts in the team. One day, we got a request of a large volume of work from one of our client PE firms, which had to be delivered within 24 hours. Although the client did not regularly send requests, but when they did, the work was expected to be a lot. This situation was challenging as it involved dealing with a huge amount of work while delivering it under time constraints along with maintaining its quality.
I handled it by breaking the task down into smaller tasks with the help of my mentor and asking the analysts of not only my team but of others too to take up some work so that the deliverable could be completed on time. Help from others ensured the reduction of pressure on a few. This also involved keeping those tasks on hold for some time on which other team’s analysts were working. By looking at the task in an objective manner, by having good relationships with other team’s analysts and by being determined to deliver, no matter the time constraints, I was successfully able to handle this execution without affecting the work which was already going on for the other clients of the team.
Every challenging situation that I have faced in life has taught me to look at big problems from different perspectives, which has enabled me to break them down into smaller and actionable components. I lay equal emphasis on maintaining healthy relationships with colleagues and friends, inside and outside the office. I believe strong bonds amongst team members are the key to solving obstacles and challenges. Lastly, I work with an attitude to finish my job or execute on my responsibilities despite tough conditions and time constraints. I have developed all of this over the years, and Aditya Birla Group has been a part of my journey towards learning, development and success. Aditya Birla Group has indeed been big in my life, by not only affecting me on a daily basis but also by being there while providing me with my first ever professional exposure.
