Aditya Birla Group (ABG), Reliance, Tata Sons (TAS) and Mahindra Rise share career prospects of the General Management Profiles for B-Schoolers

Amongst numerous specializations on the palette, General Management often piques the interest of many young MBA aspirants as they commence their B-School journey. But it is often only after their first year at college when a wave of realization hits; making it to a prestigious college is just the beginning. To put your inhibitions to rest, Dare2Compete IGNITE – The Spark to Your Dreams, Season 2 is back with its second episode. Sit back and join in to see what industry stalwarts have to say, as we reel through the crucial insights of the session on the career prospects of the General Management domain.

To grace the panel with their valuable insights, we had Vishwachetan Nadamani - AVP and Business Head for South India at Pantaloons, Aditya Birla Group (alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad); Venkatraman Prabhu - AVP & Head- IT Strategy, Planning & UX Design CoE, Jio Platforms Ltd., Reliance Industries Limited (alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad); Amit Chawla - Deputy General Manager - Group Strategy Office, Mahindra Rise (alumnus of IIFT Delhi); Jishnu Surendran - Business Development Manager, Intelligent Automation, Tata Consultancy Services (alumnus of IIM Bangalore). It was for the very first time in the history of B-Schools that four major conglomerates joined a panel discussion on Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)to discuss the career prospects of the General Management domain.

As we take you on an expedition to make you familiar with the General Management domain, you will get a fair idea of the following:

Characteristics of Big Diversified Indian Groups and their legacy
What each company does and what industries they are in
How the scenario has changed due to COVID-19
Career growth journey/trajectory of an ideal candidate in each company
What companies look for in a candidate during an interview process
How a student should choose what profile is best for him/her

The legacy of Big Diversified Indian Groups

Historically, most of the big groups went through a period where entrepreneurship was under strict government control. Despite those situations, some of the bigger groups like Mahindra, TATA, Reliance and ABG have emerged as multi-faceted conglomerates with multiple lines of business and multiple products and services that they offer. These conglomerates are not just limited to the legacy companies; their portfolio now spans from very agile start-ups to emerging companies to market leaders. So as mentioned by Amit, a crucial trait of such conglomerates is their appetite for experimentation which offers several opportunities.

The four groups represented by the panel have had their roots since the Indian independence movement. They have carried the Indian economy on their shoulders. Where ABG started with metals, Reliance had Petrochemicals, Mahindra was associated with automotive and TATA was into hospitality, automotive and steel; the four conglomerates have grown in parallel with the Indian economy.

For a diversified business, in other words, a conglomerate, to grow, communication serves as the grease between the wheels. The communication between leaders as well as the ones amongst teams is absolutely crucial for the growth of an organization. Another essential characteristic as mentioned by Venkatraman is the vision of the company, one that evolves quickly and is big enough to enthuse the workforce.

How well you take care of your workforce is a key aspect that adds to the countless characteristics possessed by a successful conglomerate. Commitment to society and their employees is another crucial aspect that sets these conglomerates apart.

What you do not know about the four conglomerates

We are well aware of the four major conglomerates and how frequently brands like Reliance, ABG, TATA and Mahindra find their place in our daily lives. But did you know that Reliance started with textiles and later dived into the business of Petrochemicals? Or the fact that 8% of India’s exports are made by Reliance? Here are some lesser-known facts about your favourite brands:

TATA Administrative Services: There are ten business verticals into which all of the TATA group organizations fit. Some of these are well-known brands with TATA Salt in the consumer sector, TCS in the IT domain, Taj in the hospitality industry and TATA Motors and TATA Steel in the automotive sector. Other lesser-known areas where TATA finds itself is the capital market space with TATA Capital as well as the trade and investment division. With the conglomerate having spread across all B2B and B2C segments, TATA also finds a place in the aerospace industry and the defence sector.

Aditya Birla Group: A 48 plus billion-dollar conglomerate, Aditya Birla Group is in the league of the Fortune 500 companies, and has its wings spread across seven major verticals. Hindalco is into metals - aluminium and copper, Ultratech cement is India’s number one cement player, Birla Carbon Black is the world’s number one carbon black company, Grasim is the world leader in the Viscose Staple Fiber, Aditya Birla Capital offers a range of financial services from life insurance, health insurance, private equity, wealth management, etc.; Vodafone-Idea is India’s largest telecom company and Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Limited comprises renowned brands like Lifestyle, Louis Phillippe, Allen Solly, Pantaloons, etc.

Mahindra Group: Began in 1945 as a steel trading company, Mahindra Group has diversified into a big federation with 100+ companies in 12 major sectors. Their traditional business is in automotive as well as farm. Mahindra is the largest tractor company, by volume, in the world and is known to drive mobility across land, air and sea. It boasts of an aerospace company called GippsAero, a company that manufactures luxury yacht called Odyssey, and is the largest rural-focused NBFC in India with a company called Mahindra Finance. Other offerings include Mahindra Logistics, Tech Mahindra and a Group Strategy Office that is modelled like a Consulting organization which works with all the above companies in order to drive various projects.

Reliance Group: Reliance is a conglomerate that began with textiles and diversified into petrochemicals. It caters to the needs of the entire supply chain with the production of all the raw materials and also takes care of exploration and production, drills for Oil and Gas. Petrochemical has been the heart of Reliance for a very long time.

Reliance offers India’s largest exports with 8% of the total exports being made by it. 5% of the customs duty garnered by the Indian Government is paid by Reliance. More recently, Reliance has been into retail and telecom with Jio. Jio Private Limited is a digital services company that’s now playing in the cloud computing space. Another interesting fact about Reliance is that it recently turned into a zero-debt company with around 10 investors and is now trying to turn into India’s biggest tech giant.

Impact of COVID-19 on various sectors

With a pandemic governing the reigns of numerous organizations across the globe, the four panellists shared how the major conglomerates have been dealing with the issues at hand.

Customer behaviour has changed. So, companies have had to realign their business at breakneck speed. Otherwise, they would have been disrupted by someone else. Mahindra’s group strategy is currently divided into three parts: Walk - Conserve what you have today for tomorrow, Run - Core businesses are the focus and Fly - Take all the businesses into the territories of hyper group.

TCS, on the other hand, has been at the heart of helping customers get used to digital transformation that has accelerated considerably due to the pandemic. With its feet into domains like healthcare, banks and insurance, TATA’s primary focus has been to ensure that there was no disruption of the essential services, which would have otherwise wreaked havoc. Also, TATA has actively been contributing to the disaster relief fund at a nationwide level. In addition, every single employee has been reached out by the HR of the organisation and their mental wellness has been ensured by taking periodic updates and providing the required support as needed.

Career trajectory in the four conglomerates

From an international stint to classroom sessions and an opportunity to connect with senior leaders of the organization, the panellists talked about the various career prospects of the General Management domain at ABG, Reliance, Mahindra and TAS.

New joinees at ABG go through three different stints across different verticals, different functions and geographies in their first year of joining. Four months are allotted for each of the three stints, by the end of which the new employees have a discussion on which role they would want to take and how they would like to move forward.

Following a similar pattern, TAS offers four stints in the first year, all of which are in different segments. Post that, TAS nurtures leadership in three steps: Training enablement - chalking out a 15-year plan for every management individual, Mentorship - aligning candidates with a senior mentor from a different company, and Network - candidates are free to reach out to any other TAS manager from a different group and gather key insights.

On the contrary, Reliance offers two stints in the first year of new employees. Each of these stints runs for a period of six months with a project that the candidates are required to execute in the stipulated time. Mahindra has a one-month induction plan that works in four modules - corporate interaction, classroom training, Mahindra experience and a rural program. Apart from this, they have four stints of three months each.

Do NOT miss out on these skills!

Talking about the career prospects of the General Management domain, endless opportunities came to light. When asked about the key skills the big four conglomerates look at when interviewing candidates, different perspectives came into the picture.

Where Mahindra holds a firm belief in their rise policy and looks for a value fit, ABG focuses on five main characteristics that are in line with the values of the organization - integrity, passion, seamlessness, commitment and speed. A key factor mentioned here was that every candidate must look for an organisation where his/her value systems are in complete sync.

Reliance, on the other hand, values people who have made the best use of their education. It applies the JARL framework: Judgement - how good it is, Achievement - how biased you are to setting goals and achieving them, Relationship building - the ability to work well with others and in teams, and Learning agility - how quickly you are able to pivot. TAS has four stages to shortlist candidates - a descriptive form, chairman’s group discussion, presentation and finally, the interview.

Pieces of advice from the leaders

Often raised by students is the question, “How should I decide what’s best for me?” When panellists were asked the same question, a bizarre reply turned up - “It’s okay to be confused”. Numerous suggestions poured in from the panellists to help students figure out the career prospects of the General Management domain.

Amit asked students to find answers to relevant questions like: “What excites you? What are you passionate about? Is it being in a particular industry or being in an FMCG industry?” The B-School period is marked as one of the most glorious periods of one’s life. And thus, he advises students to make the most of their time, soak a lot of information and build connections. On similar lines, Jishnu said that students must focus and spend the two years of MBA on picking up the right skills instead of getting caught in the rat race.

Vishwachetan suggests that students must essentially look for a very high degree of overlap of their personal value system with that of their prospective organization. They must also try to assess the lifestyle that they would want to lead and look for a role that aligns with that. Venkatraman shared that Reliance believes in “fail early, fail fast”, adding that failure teaches a lot more than any success ever would.

IGNITE - The Spark to your Dreams, was realised through a series of 6 information-packed sessions which saw recruiters and leaders from Reliance, ABG, TAS, Flipkart, Mondelez International, BCG, McKinsey, Bain & Co. and more. In case you missed any session, here are links to catch up on them: