How big is Aditya Birla Group?
It’s huge! There is not a single day where I have not used an ABG product. From shopping for the numerous ABG brands like Louis Phillippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and the like to finding a plethora of other brands in a Pantaloons store to calling our loved ones on the Vodafone Idea network, this is the just the tip of the mammoth iceberg that is the Aditya Birla Group. In fact, I am going to Pantaloons today to get some clothes! ABG is also indirectly a part of our daily lives in many ways. The houses we live in, the roads we walk on, the tires of our cars, the pens we use to write and the trains we travel in are all indirectly enhanced by ABG products under the umbrella of Ultratech Cement, Birla Carbon, Grasim, Hindalco and so on. In fact, the Bandra Worli Sea Link that decorates the city of dreams used cement from Ultratech.
The diverse businesses of ABG span 42 nationalities and 34 countries. Businesses like Novelis are pushing for innovation in the sector of aluminium recycling and now have become the world leader in aluminium recycling. This is just one of many businesses of ABG trying to change the landscape in terms of breaking new grounds in their respective fields.
ABG’s mission is to deliver superior value to its customers and it has proved it time and time again by not compromising on the quality for profits. This is the reason why so many of the manufacturers trust Ultratech cement and no other. If this is not authenticity at its best, then I don’t know what is!
We might know about the huge businesses under ABG’s umbrella. What we don’t know is how ABG constantly evolves with the market to stay aligned with employee needs. The WASH initiative is a prime example of this. They not only invested heavily to make sure the WASH standards were met, they also went a step further to ensure that there is no workplace discrimination. Only a dynamic conglomerate like ABG would go this far.
Not only that, but ABG is socially sensitive too. According to Mrs. Rajashree Birla, the philosophy of caring and giving is embedded in the Birla family. The Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development works in 5000 villages and focuses on education, healthcare and sustainable livelihood, three basic necessities of the modern world. ABG leaders are constantly trying to change the lives of underprivileged sections of our society by various welfare programs. Mrs. Birla also expressed that these experiences are gratifying and soul uplifting. These programs show that humility and being grounded are rooted in the ABG ethos.
You can’t measure how big something is just by the number of companies it has. You should also measure it by how big a place it has in your everyday life, how it aims to change the lives of people around us and lastly, how strongly its values resonate with yours. And in that aspect, the Aditya Birla Group is an enormous conglomerate.
The challenge I overcame at work
In my first year as Technology Analyst at Credit Suisse, I was given a project by my super manager to automate user access to a trading application. For the automation part, there was an in house application which I was supposed to use. The biggest challenge here was that no one from my team as well as sister teams had any idea about the application and the technology used behind it. Basically, there was absolutely no knowledge provided to me. To make matters worse, I was supposed to deliver the project in 2 months! Imagine such a project being given to a fresher straight out of college!
I saw the project as a learning opportunity. I committed to my manager stating that I would deliver the best product. There was no time to waste here. Speed was of the essence. We needed to be up on the new system as soon as possible because it would reduce operational costs. And so it began. Slowly, I tried to piece together all the information I had gathered from multiple people. Once I had all the pieces of the puzzle, I started development.
However, my super manager was laid off a couple of months after I got the project. He was the one handling the business end of things like coordinating with other teams involved. Apparently, he had not transferred his knowledge to anyone. I was the only one who had attended all the meets. So this responsibility fell on my shoulders and I was now involved in coordinating with various teams on top of development.
Now with more things to do, I had even less time to waste. I logged in on weekends and saw through the development of the project. I wanted the traders to have a seamless experience without feeling that the underlying architecture had changed. As a result, I made extra sure that this was achieved by making database changes. This change would not have affected my project requirements as database was not my responsibility. But I did it anyway because it was part of my promise to deliver a complete solution. I wanted to maintain my integrity with which I carry out my deliverables even at the cost of the deadline.
As expected, it got delayed by a couple months. However, I managed to successfully deliver a complete product just like I had promised. This project resulted in reducing a lot of dependency on our support teams. My team was impressed at the quality of fresh graduates and they decided to open new roles in Machine Learning for college students to spur their innovative thought process for adding value to the organisation. This was the biggest challenge I had faced in my corporate life and it wouldn’t have been possible without my passion for solving problems.
