Aditya Birla Group working with a mission to deliver superior values to the customers, shareholders, employees and society at large, has touched upon the lives of every Indian, in whichever domain you look around. With over seven decades of responsible work, their business has grown into various sectors. In textile, brands such as Allen Solly and Van Heusen have huge customer bases, similar is the case with the Cement Industry, where Ultratech is considered as a synonym for cement. They have also made a mark in sectors such as telecom, Aluminium etc.
Like every other Indian, ABG has been of great importance in my life too. I am from a city named Jharsuguda in Orissa, where Ultratech Cement has one of its grinding units. My dad was associated with Ultratech Cement as a distributor at that time, and I have fond memories of the rare occasions when as a kid I used to visit the plant along with him. His engagement with Ultratech provided us with lots of free gifts from the company during festivals. I can recollect the moments I have spent with my family, shopping for Diwali in the various ABG stores such as Allen Solly, Peter England, Pantaloons. Pantaloons especially was a one-stop destination for our family.
Later, I secured admission in NIT Raipur and had an opportunity to pursue my summer training at Ultratech Cement, Jharsuguda. Apart from gaining the technical expertise, I was touched by the working culture of the company, it provides its employees with great opportunities, in an environment that is nurturing and empowering. After college, I got associated with L&T Construction and as Ultratech Cement has been ensuring the strength of the structures for most of the L&T projects, my case was no exception. I was involved in a barrage construction project, where we had consumed around 90000 MT of Ultratech cement.
ABG’s CSR initiatives towards Education and development of Society has been remarkable. ABG has immensely contributed to the development of many small towns and the same was the case for my home town, Jharsuguda. ABG was the front runner of the Industrialization process in Jharsuguda. Apart from industrialization its effort to create employment, improve education and basic infrastructure in the city led to immense growth. ABG with its involvement and valuable services has made my city a better place to live in and this is the biggest way it has impacted my life. Aditya Birla Group through its various products, welfare initiatives and commitment have fulfilled dreams of not only me but of millions of people across the country and will always continue to do so.
The Impact I have made in Life.
“Do not sit on your dreams whining and pitying yourself. Use the resources you have to live the life that is happening right now and keep trying, your day will surely come”.
We all have plans for our futures that we cherish and nurture, we often hold these plans close to our heart, an interior blueprint which we can refer back to and try to build our life around it. But we don’t always get our way. What we want is not always handed over to us, regardless of how hard we fight for it or how hard we want it. I believe that a person with determination and excellent learning abilities can sail through such a challenge.
Everyone faces a similar situation at least once in a lifetime, and my life was no exception. Life is all about setting up short term goals until one reaches his final goal of life. After my schooling, I managed to get a seat in NIT Raipur. But after a couple of years of engineering, I got inclined towards an MBA and started preparing for my CAT exams. In my first attempt, I had managed to get a 95 percentile. The score seemed good on paper but was not sufficient to fetch me my dream college. So, I decided to give another shot at it next year. In the meanwhile, I started my job at L&T Construction.
At L&T, for my first assignment, I was posted to a site in Jamshedpur. It was a Barrage Construction Project and since I was a trainee, I was not given any individual responsibilities at that time. There was not much work pressure and after completing the work allotted to me, I used to prepare for my MBA entrance exams. Things were going well and I gave CAT exams for the 2nd time. The results were out and things didn’t go as expected and this time despite getting a 98+ percentile, I didn’t receive a call from a single college. So I thought of continuing with my work and decided to give another try at CAT next year. Soon after the results, I was transferred to a new site, in Harpanahalli Taluka, in Karnataka. My responsibilities increased and I was given the charge to handle the entire planning Department.
As it was a new project, things went pretty tough for me, where in the old site I used to spend around 4-5 hours on daily basis, currently, I was working for around 12 hours a day in an extremely rural location. All this was very hectic for me and the dream for pursuing an MBA was fading from my mind. But I never gave up and continued with my preparations for the exams. During my third attempt, I managed to crack MDI, and thus moved a bit closer towards my final goal of life.
Now I would like to draw a few points from the abstract mentioned above- Life gave me failures a couple of time, but at the same time it also gave me a couple of opportunities to develop myself. The opportunities which I never would have received had I cracked CAT the first time or the Second time. When I didn’t get admission into my dream college the first time, I accepted the offer from L&T with open arms and in the background continued working towards my goal and waited for the right time, without losing any hope.
After my second failure, I got an opportunity of my lifetime, where I got to handle a project of worth Rs 200 Crs. As it was a rural project, I got an opportunity to deal with the local people, and I also got a chance to finalize vendors for raw materials and execution agencies which improved my negotiating skills as well. Despite the conditions not being easy, I held on my nerves and sincerely discharged my duties, carefully using my available resources.
At last, I would like to conclude that despite failure in the 1st two attempts, my ability to accept the unexpected and my learning-oriented approach towards life helped me to make an impact in my professional career and my patience and determination helped me in achieving my goal. As already stated life is all about setting up short term goal and keep moving towards the final goal, my next short term goal is already set, and I’m ready to face the unexpected, as again it will provide me with an opportunity to grow.