Aditya Birla Group has a very special place in my life which I always treasure. I will always be thankful to the entire Birla family for setting up this world-class institute BITS Pilani. Being an alumnus of BITS Pilani, I have closely felt the depth of foundation history of BITS Pilani. It was a vision Dr G.D. Birla had to set up a world-class science and engineering institution in India post-independence.
My formal association with the family was from my alma mater. However, my happiness knew no bounds when I realized that ABG is deep-rooted so much in our lives - from clothing (Grasim, ABFRL) to construction (UltraTech cement) to structural integrity of heavy engineering assets (Hindalco) to telecommunications (Vodafone Idea) to finance (Aditya Birla Capital) and the list goes on.
From buying clothes in Lifestyle in my hometown Kalyan to studying in BITS Pilani to using Idea sim-cards to sitting for placements in Hindalco in engineering to investing in Mutual Funds of Aditya Birla Sun Life, it has added value to my life across almost everything I can imagine.
Aditya Birla Group has added so much value to the society and the development of the country post-independence when India was left in a bad state by the Britishers. From education to clothing to heavy metals to finance and telecommunications, it had contributed vastly to all the pillars of this country's development. There is no way at all a sane person cannot know about ABG's presence in our lives.
To mention ABG’s CSR activities, some of them executed by Aditya Birla Centre for Community and Rural development are as follows:
- Works in 5000 villages
- Reaches out to 7.5 million people
- Treated over a million patients
- Runs 5000 medical camps and 20 hospitals
- Operates 56 schools for 46500 school children
- Immunised 70 million children against polio
- Provided solar lamps for 450000 school children
- Midday meals every day for 63000 children in 268 schools
- Skills training for 95000 people
We can see how Omni-present ABG is our lives and we wish ABG keeps on crossing new horizons and uplifting the society in future the way it has done so far.
I would like to share a story about how I drove the change to make an impact, irrespective of what challenges I faced. The grit and determination I imbibed were only because of the value system set by BITS Pilani during my engineering. It was only the fundamentals of engineering I learned at BITS Pilani that I was able to perform very well at the job.
My previous organization, Lloyd’s Register Asia took graduate trainee for the first time in India in Dec 2015. I joined Lloyd’s Register (LR) as a Graduate Trainee Engineer in their Inspection Services business. Before I joined, there was a status quo that only professionals who had more than 10 years of work experience in manufacturing, design and EPCs would be eligible to apply in LR.
Further, there was resistance from experienced professionals working at LR against my induction.
The reason was their mind-set that if it took them minimum 10 years of work experience to be a surveyor, it has to take 10 years at least. A graduate trainee being trained to become a surveyor was an injustice to them as per their belief. I was often discouraged by my senior colleagues from studying while under training and told to quit since it is not my cup of tea. I was constantly told that I don’t have enough experience at job and I will fail miserably no matter what. I was often under some doubt since I was new to the job.
Once I was asked to learn about Port Cranes. I was even further discouraged that I can’t work in such environments, with people who have spent their entire lives on ports. They told to me that I would be a needle in a haystack when I will be working with them since I was a starter. However, I believed in 3 things – accept no limit, alternative thinking and drive positive change. I took up the project of Port Cranes Commissioning at JNPT. But I failed miserably in its first phase as they predicted.
It was only after when I asked for another project at Adani Port that I got my hands dirty with the grease of the port. I worked for 2 months at Adani Port, Mundra where I led a team of port engineers for commissioning of 18 Port Cranes. With learned wisdom of commissioning, I came back to JNPT with new enthusiasm. I got to work with all confidence I had, got compliments again and again from JNPT Port authorities involved in the project. I was complimented by JNPT Port Manager in writing. The project got completed ahead of its schedule. I also got complimented by our COO Mr Pascal Coudeville of Inspection Services and was awarded Power of Us!
It was this moment of mine when I drove the change to make an impact, irrespective of what challenges I faced.
