Aditya Birla Financial Services - The hand holder

Mahesh Nayak
Business Today
13 March 2016

The best companies to work for - Companies that made it to the top 25 for the first time (Debutants) have been focusing on inclusive growth and nurturing future leaders.

A Balasubramanian, CEO, Birla SunLife Asset Management, was not keen to join the Birlas when, in 1995, he was offered the job of a trader and fixed income fund manager. One reason was that he did not want to leave GIC Mutual Fund as it was government owned. But his parents convinced him otherwise.

After that, he says, the company has not given him any reason to complain. "Most of the time I got responsibilities before I could ask for them. This has kept me motivated," he says. It is this ability to invest in people that makes Aditya Birla Financial Services Ltd, or ABFSL, the financial services arm of the Aditya Birla Group, one of the best places to work.

For instance, when Bala, as he is fondly called, was nominated as the CEO, he was assigned a coach for help in time management and communication with employees. After that, he got another coach on strategic thinking and building the business. In fact, Bala, who had no clue about marketing and sales, also got help from Pankaj Razdan, Deputy CEO, ABFSL.

It's not just Bala. Nurturing talent across all levels is ABFSL's USP. Rahul Parikh, Head, Aditya Birla Money MyUniverse, an online money management business, says faith shown in individuals is one reason why he has been with the company for the past eight years."

Boosting Morale
Most of the credit goes to Ajay Srinivasan. When he took over as the group CEO of ABFSL in 2007, it wasn't easy for him. The entity had five businesses - mutual fund, life insurance, insurance advisory, non-banking finance and financial distribution - which were making a loss of Rs 100 crore a year. Since then, he has been able to diversify into 12 businesses. The company posted a profit of Rs 850 crore last year.

"I had a clear mandate from Mr. (Kumar Mangalam) Birla to build a significant leadership business in line with the group's DNA," says Srinivasan. "When I came, what I found was that we had good employees, but there was lack of self-belief. It was a question of building confidence than anything else."

Among the first things he did was to choose four people in areas of risk &compliance, HR, marketing and operations &IT. "The aim was to follow best practices across functions and businesses so that every business we set up benefited from the standards we follow," he says.

While integration allowed ABFSL to grow much faster, it also helped it manage talent. "In the financial services space, people look for growth on a continuous basis both in terms of roles and knowledge. So, any company that provides such opportunities is a great place to work from the employee's perspective. It is simple," says Chief Human Resource Officer Subhro Bhaduri.

Therefore, the company has c;reated a talent council that looks after talent at the senior management level across verticals. "This has opened a new horizon of growth for people not only in terms of hierarchy but also in terms of exposure to the different lines of businesses," says Bhaduri. Last year, the group shifted around 950 people from their roles. While some were assigned a role within their existing area, many were transferred to a different business, a few were even shifted to the group (Aditya Birla Group). "We are definitely ahead of the curve in providing opportunities across our platform to employees," says Srinivasan.