Aditya Birla Group

The roots of ADITYA BIRLA GROUP date back to the 19 th century in the picturesque town of pilani , set amidst the Rajasthan desert . It was here that Seth Narayan Birla started trading in Cotton in 1857, laying the foundation for the ‘House of Birlas’. In 20th century Ghanshyamdas Birla set up industries in critical sectors such as Textiles & Fibres , Aluminium , Cement & ChemicalsThe Aditya Birla Group is a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai, India with operations in 25 countries including Thailand, Dubai, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, Egypt, Canada, Australia, China, USA, UK, Germany, Hungary, Brazil, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Vietnam and Korea.

Introduction about Aditya Birla group

About Birlas

Aditya Birla Group started at 1857. Shiv narayan Birla started cotton trading

operation in the small town of pilani in rajasthan.

Ghyanshyamdas Birla(GD birla)-1919-he set the manufacturing company.

Grandson of G.D.Birla is Aditya Vikram Birla(A.V.Birla)-1964-

Son of A.V.Birla is Kumar mangalam Birla(K.M.Birla)-1995.

Aditya Birla Companies and Brands.

COMPANY: HINDALCO Everlast aluminium roofing

sheetsFreshwrapp aluminium foil

Freshpakk semi-rigid containers

Permashield waterproofing Aluminium foil

Aura alloy wheelsHindalco extrusions

COMPANY: HINDALCO

Birla Copper

Birla Gold

Birla Silver

COMPANY: ADITYA BIRLA NUVO

Birla Carbon

COMPANY: GRASIMBirla Super

UltraTech Cement (formerly Birla Plus)

Birla Ready MixBirla White

COMPANY: ULTRATECH UltraTech cement

COMPANY: GRASIM

Birla Cellulose

COMPANY: INDO GULF

Birla Shaktiman Urea

COMPANY: HINDALCO

Birla Balwan

COMPANY: ADITYA BIRLA NUVOLinen ClubPyroguardRay One Kolorone

COMPANY: GRASIMIce Touch

UncrushablesPurista

Clean FabCOMPANY: THAI ACRYLIC FIBRE

Texlan

COMPANY: ADITYA BIRLA NUVO

Louis Philippe

Van Heusen

Allen Solly

Peter England

Esprit

COMPANY: BIRLA NGK INSULATORS PVT. LTD.

Aditya Birla Insulators

COMPANY: ADITYA BIRLA CHEMICALS (THAILAND) LTD.

Polyphos® Epotec

Birlasulf-SSBirlasulf-SM Birlasulf 35

COMPANY: THAI PEROXIDE CO. LTD. Ecare

EncareAqua XOCAREBirlox

Herlisil

key products and brands

capacities

country

PSI Data Systems Ltd. (subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd.)

IT solutions (banking, finance and insurance)

India

key products and brands

capacities

country

Aditya Birla Minacs Worldwide Limited (subsidiary of

Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd.)BPO / ITES 9,089

seatsIndia

COMPANY: IDEA CELLULAR LTD.

Idea

COMPANY: ADITYA BIRLA RETAIL LIMITED

more.

About k.M.Birla

Kumar Mangalam Birla is a chaiman

of aditya birla who is son of A.V.Birla. K.M.Birla done C.A and MBA from

london business school, at the age

of 28 taken responsibility towards

business having total revenue of

INR 15,000 crores with assets of INR

16,000 crores.It had a strength of

75,000employees and 6,00,000 shareholders.

K.M.Birla

After taking up the change,K.M.Birla decided to consolidate entire entire group’s companies under one umbrella of the “Adithya’s birla group”.

Many critics were opinion that “K.M.Birla would unable to manage the group successfully”

When k.M.Birla handovered business from his father in 1995,his critics dismissed him as a soft and shy person. who lacked the business expertise and assertiveness of his father A.V.Birla.

An unapproachable management style and misplaced priorities the result was the investors started selling off their shares .In 1996 the market value of group’s four largest companies grasim ,indian rayon ,hindalco & indo gulf fertilizer suddenly decreased by $1billion or 37%.

So K.M.Birla took several initiatives to prove his critics wrong.

Key People

Mr. Sanjeev Aga

Mr. D. Bhattacharya

Managing Director, Idea Cellular Limited and Director, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Private Limited

Managing Director, Hindalco Industries Limited, Vice Chairman, Novelis Inc. and Director, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Private Limited

Mr. Shailendra K. Jain

Dr. Santrupt Misra

Director, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Private Limited

Whole-time Director and President, Grasim Industries Ltd.

Dr. Bharat K. Singh

Mr. K. K. Maheshwari

Director, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Private Limited

Head, Global Chemical Business, Global Trading Business and Management Services DivisionAditya Birla Group

Mr. Vikram Rao

Director, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Private Limited

Changes taken by K.M.Birla to prove that the critics are wrong…..

1.Retirement policy

He introduced a retirement policy in 1995,on the basis of which around 325 senior emplayees,who were there early 60s,had quit the organization in the next five years .subsequently about 400 young employees replaced them.

Meanwhile ,answering the critics he said, "people in the group about twice my age when I took over as chairman. I had great respect for them personally, but I also feel the need for change”.

2.Corporate logo

In 1996,he launched for the first time a corporate identity that would serve a corporate logo. The group selected the rising sun as the logo, which signified optimism and served as a unification symbol for the group.

K.M.Birla said, “The new corporate logo helped in bringing various companies of the group together. This helped the organization to reenergize and get started to the path of change”.

3.Recruitment process

K.M.Birla also changed the group’s policy in house recruitment. In 1996,he also made changes in group’s HR system. He hired professionals from other companies into his management team

4.Change in decision making The partha system of daily financial reporting which

focused mainly on production was replaced with an “Economic value added model”. This model focuses on the aspects of profitability, asset productivity and growth.

K.M.Birla also established aditya birla management corporation limited, the strategic decision making for ensuring the best practices across the group companies.

K.M.Birla decided to reduce the group’s dependence on fiber based business where its market share was low. Instead he decided to concentrate on non-ferrous metals as there was less competition and hindalco already had a big presence in the aluminum sector

5.Scholarships to students and Awards to employees In 1999 K.M.Birla launched the aditya birla

scholarship to promote excellence among students community to cultivate the leaders of tomorrow.

He said, "cultivating a new generation of managers and cultivating a participative culture are keys to the increasingly energetic, people centered, and performance focused culture we aspire for”.

He also launched Aditya Birla awards in 1999 where team achievements recognized every year .

6.Happiness at work

Birla had also implemented the organizational health survey by the late 1990s, which measured the “Happiness at work” index. This was carried out to track the employees satisfaction.

7.Hierarchy based on performance of employees K.M.Birla also brought in some managerial

changes in the group. Before K.M.Birla took the chairmanship, the hierarchy in the group was determined by seniority instead of merit. He instituted a performance appraisal system. He decided to implement performance management systems,reviwed compensations and accentuated on training to bring meritocracy.

He personally led the recruitment program from business schools.

8.Changes in reporting

He also brought about changes in reporting system being followed at the group. The top 20 executives of the group, who had greater responsibilities in the group, could report directly to K.M.Birla, thereby giving them complete freedom to run their businesses and same holding the more accountable for their performance.

Analysts opinion

Several analysts also praised KM Birla’s style of functioning.

Analysts believed that K.M.Birla has began to think big in recent times. He usually used to focus more on extracting rather than betting big on growth.

Despite remaining profitable the company’s growth has been slower as compared to its peers in the recent past. It has been reflected in the stock market. where its market capitalization of INR30,000 crores is less than its total turnover.

By V.Lakshmi, P.Pravallika