Aditya Birla Group (ABG) being one of the largest conglomerates in our country, in some way or the other, has ended up being a part of everyone’s life. With an ever-increasing reach, through the schools and hospitals built, sustainable livelihood programmes conducted and transformative projects across rural India in 300 villages, ABG has become an indispensable part of millions of lives. And one particular brand has had a significant impact in my life.
As a kid from a middle-class family, “branded” items were not commonplace. We were used to buying goods from the local market and clothes from small retailers. The very first clothing brand that I remember hearing is Louis Philippe (LP) when my uncle had bought a shirt for some official purposes. The way everyone was talking about how good Louis Philippe is and how it is a high-end brand made me think that one day, I should also own a Louis Philippe shirt.
The years went by and the next time LP came into my life was when my father bought my brother a LP shirt for his very first interview. From then on, it was as though owning a LP shirt became an achievement that one must strive to attain.
And then it was finally my turn. On the day before my B-school interviews started, my father decided to take me shopping and bought me my first Louis Philippe shirt and wearing the shirt to my interview gave me a boost of confidence. Eventually, I ended up converting IIFT Delhi and have had an enriching experience since. For me, Louis Philippe is equivalent to a symbol of excellence and I hope whatever the future holds for me allows me to own many more LP shirts.
What can you learn from a challenge?
Every single person has faced their own challenge in their life and this is one particular challenge I had overcome over the course of my work.
I joined work in 2017 and I spent the first couple of months learning about the details of the product as well as what the role of a product manager entails. When I was handling my first feature to be executed, I found that there were some other enhancements that could be made along with it. So, I took it up with my mentor and manager and I received approval to do both, the feature as well as the enhancements.
With the enthusiasm of it being the first improvement suggested by me, my team and I worked on it meticulously for 6 months. We went through all the hassles of planning and defining the flow of the features, creating mocks and designs and we even started developing it. However, after reaching a stage where 75% of the work involved was completed, there were some deliberations and discussions at apex level and we were asked to discontinue working on some of the major enhancements that I had suggested.
Despite various arguments and meetings over the course of a week with my manager and other team leads, the feature could not be taken up due to technical limitations. This was a hard pill to swallow because it wasn’t easy accepting that the very first improvement I suggested had to be archived.
What this experience taught me was that I had to be resilient and that at times things may not go as planned. It taught me the need to be strong enough to let go and to begin afresh with a good attitude while being patient and persistent towards achieving my goals.
In the end, over the course of 23 months, I ended up being responsible for 7 integrations and I was a member of the team involved in the ideation of 2 products which were to be developed from the scratch.
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish” – John Quincy Adams
